A business-led group is set to research the effects of closures and delays on the A14 following a meeting in Suffolk. 

Suffolk Chamber of Commerce’s Transport & Infrastructure Group (TIG) brought together National Highways, Suffolk County Council, Suffolk MPs and members of the business community to discuss the impact of closures along the busy trunk road - especially on the Orwell Bridge.

The meeting - held on October 9 - approved the setting up of a business-led A14 Improvement Group tasked with researching the impact of the continued delays and diversions over the longer term on growth and employment plans in the vitally important energy, ports, haulage and logistics sectors.

As a result of the meeting, Suffolk Chamber has called on MPs to challenge the Department for Transport on why National Highways do not deploy traffic officers during major incidents along the A14.

This was having an impact on the time taken to reopen the road after incidents, it suggested.

The chamber also wants to see a better exchange of information and longer notice periods to be given between National Highways and Suffolk County Council and police over planned Orwell Bridge maintenance inspections and consequent lane closures.

It is also calling for investigations into the use of a "suicide net" along the bridge.

The Ipswich Transport Taskforce should be relaunched "as a matter of urgency" and its remit to be refocused on the wider Ipswich roads system to include the bridge, it said.

Stephen Britt, chair of the TIG, said: “What became readily apparent was that the different agencies tasked with addressing solutions to dealing with closures over both the short and middle terms aren’t really taking the wider view – to the detriment of businesses and residents caught up in the never-ending series of issues on this vital strategic road network.

"Much better coordination is needed.”

Suffolk Chamber’s head of public affairs Paul Simon said they hoped that the group's findings would provide "a much-needed evidenced wake-up call" to encourage national and local government officials to treat the roads system in and around Ipswich as a key priority.

"We believe that the current policy vacuum in terms of long-term solutions is so damaging that every viable solution should be actively considered as part of a coherent A14/Orwell Bridge strategy,” he said.

The A14 Improvement Group is expected to release its findings in the New Year.