THE government has announced today that it will invest £250 million into a solution to the A417 Missing Link.

Gloucestershire County Council launched its A417 Loop campaign in January 2014 and encouraged residents and businesses to back it.

To date, more than 6,560 people have pledged their support to the only workable solution to the 5km stretch of single carriageway on the A417 Geoffrey Clifton-Brown Cotswold MP, said he was delighted that the government have now committed this money for the route which is used by about 34,000 vehicles daily.

He said: “I have campaigned on this issue ever since the Crickley Hill by-pass was opened in the late 1990s. This investment will allow the important work to take place and hopefully resolve the problems we have been facing on the A417 and reduce the number of accidents. I look forward to the work commencing after so many years of campaigning.”

Paul Hodgkinson, leader of the district council Lib Dems who has been campaigning for the funding to be granted said: “After so much campaigning, so many accidents and the blight of pollution, today’s announcement of £250 million funding is music to my ears and to the many people who’ve been wanting this. All the hard work has paid off.

“I put motions to both the County Council and District Council calling for action from Government and both of these were unanimously approved – these strong messages clearly helped influence ministers to act at last.”

Cllr Mark Hawthorne, leader of Gloucestershire County Council, said he was  really pleased that the government has approved the application and will be giving the highways agency funding for the A417 Loop.

“Gloucestershire really pulled together on this campaign and I felt overwhelmed by the amount of sign-ups we had to the petition. Without this support from residents and businesses I’m not sure the funding would have been granted, so I think today is a day we should all be celebrating.”

The A417 joins the M4 at Swindon, Junction 15, and the M5 at Gloucester, Junction 11A. The road is entirely dualled with the exception of a short, single carriageway, two to three mile section in the middle, and the difficult to navigate so called Air Balloon roundabout at the northern end.

The funding comes from government's £15 billion pot of money set aside for road improvements across the country.