A LOCAL councillor is calling on district chiefs to "finish the job" and complete a spine road at Cinderford’s Northern Quarter to allow heavy traffic to bypass residential areas.

Cllr Graham Morgan, who represents Cinderford at county level, says the town desperately needs the road to reduce HGV traffic which runs through Steam Mills.

The district council is looking to change its planning permission for the Cinderford Northern Quarter (CNQ) to allow it to develop the site before the proposed spine road, which would connect to the A4136, is completed.

The £100m regeneration project, which has been decades in the making, has faced delays over planning and legal challenges.

The first phase of the spine road and a new campus for Gloucestershire College were completed in 2018, but construction work for the second phase has not yet begun.

Cllr Morgan is calling on the district council to commit to building the spine road so that HGVs can bypass residential areas.

"All we are asking for is for them to finish the job that they started," Cllr Morgan said.

"I don’t care where they take the road to but it needs to be finished.

"Currently the HGV traffic has to go through Steam Mills and it’s horrendous for people who live along there. We aren’t asking for much, all we want is for them to sweep the road back towards the A4151 by the bowling green and call it a day.

"We were left with a road to nowhere in the 1980s and we don’t want to be left with a road to nowhere again."

He said he never asked for the road to go around Northern United Colliery.

"That was the Homes and Communities Agency and the Regional Development Agency before them," he said. "All we asked them to do is get to the A4136 by the quickest route possible or if they can’t do that go to the A4151 opposite the bowling green.

"Lorries can then come down there and peel off towards the industrial areas instead of trundling through Steam Mills."

A council spokesperson said the current review into the CNQ development will be hearing from a wide range of interested parties with different views on what will be best for the future of the area.

"The comments and suggestions of organisations and individuals taking part will be considered and assessed as part of the review before any decisions are taken or recommendations put forward by the Council’s Cabinet," the spokesperson said.