Leicestershire County Council has announced plans to submit an £18 million bid to the Government's Levelling Up fund to replace an old road bridge.

The improvement work on the A6006 at Zouch is seen as a way of bolstering a key, strategic route to the UK's only inland Freeport around East Midlands Airport, the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station redevelopment site and the East Midlands Intermodal Park near the Derbyshire Toyota plant.

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Amid a backdrop of financial pressures, the council said bidding for funding to replace the bridge is its only feasible option.

Building a replacement bridge limits the impact on the road network and it's the type of project which is at the very heart of levelling up.

If successful with the funding bid the project at Zouch would see the new bridge built to the south of the existing bridge. Traffic would then be diverted on to the new bridge as demolition work starts on the old bridge.

Work could start in 2023.

The county council is also supporting a Levelling Up transport bid by Blaby District Council to fund improvements around junction 21 of the M1.

It's also anticipated that a number of district councils – as well as the city council – will submit Levelling Up fund bids.