THE new leader of Cornwall Council has said that it might be time to consider ‘alternatives’ to the long-mooted and often delayed Camelford Bypass.

It comes amid uncertainty over the future of the project, which the previous government had announced would be funded from money saved from the cancellation of the High Speed 2 rail project’s northern leg.

However, after the election, the then-new Labour government announced it was reviewing spending commitments with near-radio silence since then on if the project will still go ahead.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Post, Cllr Leigh Frost, the Liberal Democrat leader of Cornwall Council, said that it might be time to introduce a weight limit through the town in order to achieve the objectives that a bypass would have led to.

He said that during the Cornwall Council election campaign, when knocking on doors in the ward, he discovered that residents living on the route of the A39, comprising the town’s main road were most keen to see the removal of heavy goods vehicle through the town.

A suggestion that Cllr Frost said was worth considering was one which would involve the introduction of a weight restriction through the town with heavy goods vehicles being diverted from the town via the existing road at Slaughtersbridge.

When asked about the future of the Camelford Bypass and his own take on the situation, Cllr Frost said: “I went out in Camelford and knocked on a lot of doors, especially on the main road and not many of them had much to say about the bypass.

“I think what they actually said was that they would like to see a weight limit through the town centre and perhaps use the Slaughtersbridge road as a way of pushing out the heavier vehicles because they’re the ones that do the most damage, they’re the ones that cause the problem and that is actually what came up on the doorstep over and over again when I was speaking to residents in Camelford.”

Cllr Frost said that the idea might prove to be more cost-effective and feasible than the construction of a new Camelford bypass.

He added that for as long as he can remember, the proposal for a Camelford bypass had been mooted, but it had not been delivered by successive governments or councils and perhaps it was time to think differently.

Cllr Frost continued:“Actually, if that’s an approach, then instead of waiting for a bypass that so far has never come, we could actually as a council do things to make their lives better and to help support them in their ambitions to have a cleaner thoroughfare that may not need to spend all that money on a bypass that would be complicated and difficult.

“We’ve seen it before. We’ve had funding ready to go, we’ve had business plan after business plan and maybe, actually, there’s a cleverer way of doing things to get the benefits that a bypass would have brought.”