A1 Morpeth to Ellingham dualling

The A1 is one of the country's longest roads, connecting London and Edinburgh. The route currently consists of motorway and dual carriageways, with some sections of single carriageway between Morpeth and Ellingham.

Start date TBC

End date TBC

Cost TBC

Following the Government’s budget announcement on the 30 October 2024, the A1 Morpeth to Ellingham scheme has been cancelled. The scheme was identified as having poor value for money and limited economic benefits for the region.

It is essential that the schemes we deliver not only offer provide strong returns on public investment but also have valuable and lasting benefits for our customers.

We remain committed to operating and maintaining a safe and reliable road network and will continue to deliver schemes across the region. We will provide further details on the next steps for the projects in due course.

Latest updates

24 May 2024

Development Consent Order approved

On Friday 24 May 2024, the Secretary of State for Transport approved the Development Consent Order (DCO) for the A1 Morpeth to Ellingham scheme.

To find out more about the decision and the DCO, please go to the Planning Inspectorate’s website.
05 September 2023

Secretary of State extends deadline for Development Consent Order decision

On 5 September 2023, the Secretary of State for Transport confirmed that the deadline for Development Consent Order (DCO) decision on the proposal to upgrade the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham in Northumberland has been extended to 5 June 2024.

Read the written ministerial statement

We remain confident in our proposals, and we stand ready to deliver these improvements, subject to receiving a positive decision on the DCO and authorisation to proceed to construction.
06 June 2022

Secretary of State asks for more time to consider proposals

The Secretary of State has asked for more time to consider our proposals for upgrading the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham in Northumberland.
25 August 2020

Development Consent Order accepted

The DCO has now been accepted by the Planning Inspectorate for examination which means it has now entered the pre-examination stage. There will be an opportunity for people to further comment about the scheme known as the “relevant representation period”. This is due to commence on 17 September and close 30 October 2020. More information is available on the Planning Inspectorate’s website.
30 April 2020

Combining two schemes

We made the preferred route announcement in September 2017 and following that consulted on the proposed improvements for Morpeth to Felton in 2018 and Alnwick to Ellingham in 2019.

We had originally planned to submit two separate Development Consent Orders (DCOs) - a special type of planning application which is needed for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. One for the Morpeth to Felton section and one for the Alnwick to Ellingham section. This was because there was going to be a significant time difference between the construction of the two sections. Due to delays with our work on the Morpeth to Felton section, we have taken the opportunity to combine the DCOs and will now submit just one DCO application for the A1 Morpeth to Ellingham. Combining the two DCOs into one has a number of benefits and means that if you wish to make a comment on the proposals, you only need to comment on one application.

If you had previously subscribed to our A1 Morpeth to Felton webpage you will have received a notification that the information about this scheme is moving to this page. If you type in the website address for the A1 Morpeth to Felton scheme it will automatically redirect you to this page.

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Project information

In Northumberland, the A1 takes motorists through rural countryside and close to the coastline. This section of the A1 is used by a wide variety of people for many different reasons. This includes people travelling long-distance between Newcastle and Edinburgh for work, local traffic accessing rural areas and tourists who come to visit the coastline and the area’s many historic attractions.

The scheme will involve upgrading eight miles of the A1 to a dual carriageway between Morpeth and Felton, including construction of a new dual carriageway bypassing the existing A1 between Priests Bridge and Burgham Park. The old section of the A1 carriageway will be de-trunked and become a local road – meaning this section of road will be owned and maintained by Northumberland County Council.

Between Alnwick and Ellingham a further five miles of the existing A1 will be upgraded to dual carriageway. This will be done along the existing single carriageway road.