It is great to see that our hard work is paying off. When the A14 plans were cancelled earlier in the year it was a disaster. It meant that all the formal work carried out to date had no status.

With lots of work, behind closed doors (yes closed doors), with ministers the agreement is now in place to do a two part study.The first, to be finished this year, is to find out what immediate adjustments to the road can be made right now. The second part is to determine the plan for the solution – which means more tarmac. The first part of the study is not a substitute for the second but a way of buying us some time.

Without these plans nothing moves forward so this is a big step to getting things moving again. This time we wil be looking for a fix without gold plating and probably in managable chunks rather than the £1.2b previous plan.

It is likely to involve private money (none left at government since Labour spent it all) which will mean a toll road of some sort. I am keen that local traffic will have a no toll alternative but too early to see what that might mean.