The planned improvements to the A47 - which includes dualling three stretches of the road to improve safety and accessibility - were the focus of the meeting and the package of improvements was welcomed by the business leaders and MPs.
Mr Cameron said: “Improving the A47 will help the local economy and build on the extra 211,000 jobs that have been created since 2010, ensuring more people in the East of England have the financial security of a regular pay packet for them and their family. And it is worth pointing out that spending hundreds of millions of pounds on roads like this is only possible because of the difficult decisions we have taken elsewhere as part of our long term economic plan.”
Minister for Life Sciences and MP for Mid-Norfolk, George Freeman commented: “For too long the A47 – the clogged east to west trade artery linking the Suffolk and Norfolk coast across Norfolk to the Midlands – has been a symptom of our part of the world being treated by Brussels and Whitehall as a “rural backwater”.
“But our area is full of world class businesses and opportunities – in engineering, science, energy, food and agriculture, wildlife, tourism, media and the arts.”
Dr Sally Ann Forsyth, CEO of Norwich Research Park endorsed George Freeman’s positive view: “At Norwich Research Park we are incredibly lucky to be part of an outstanding cluster in food, health, energy and the environment. Government investment has facilitated the development of our unique combination of four world-class institutes, an outstanding hospital and the excellent University of East Anglia and we are incredibly proud of the world leading research and translation of that research that already takes place here. This latest investment in our infrastructure is key to continuing to attract the very best talent to our region.”
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