THE opening date for a major new road in Leicestershire has been revealed – along with its curious new name.

The North and East Melton Mowbray Distributor Road (MMDR) will be called Pork Pie Way after it was overwhelmingly voted for by members of the public with around 4,000 votes.

A total of 65 per cent of people voted to name the new road after the town's speciality treat, with other choices including Wolds Way and Lazars Way coming far behind the chosen name.

Road bosses at Leicestershire County Council have confirmed that the 4.5-mile road will open on May 18 and marks the biggest-ever road project in the county.

The £131m road runs from the A606 Nottingham Road near St Bartholomew's Way, around the eastern edge of Melton Mowbray and back to the A606 near Burton Lazars and has been designed to remove through traffic from the town centre, cut congestion, improve journey reliability and support long-term housing.

The new road has been almost a decade in the making, starting in December 2017, with more than 160 construction staff on site every day and a whopping £134m to get it built.

The name of the road was unveiled by county council leaders, including Reform councillor Adam Tilbury and Ann Carruthers, the county council's director of environment and transport.

Leicestershire County Council leader Cllr Dan Harrison also told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the road was "essential" and would highly benefit the people of Melton.

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He added: "It's been an enormous thing both for the people of Melton, the officers at the county council and the Government.

"It's been a huge project – £130m is an enormous amount of money and it was not a walk in the park. It was a huge undertaking".

The event also saw Conservative MP Edward Argar appear at the name unveiling and called the eventual opening of the road "a great day".

He told the LDRS: "It is the culmination of a huge amount of work by a whole range of people to deliver this fantastic new road in the north and east of Melton Mowbray".

He also called the name Pork Pie Way "a great name", adding: "There were lots of good suggestions put forward by a lot of people, but Pork Pie Way captures the link between this new piece of infrastructure and what Melton Mowbray is historically famous for and will play such a big part in its economy."

After being asked about why the cost doubled from its initial £63.5m budget, Mr Argar said projects of this size "take longer than anticipated" and said "different factors" influenced the cost.

He added: "What we've seen during this period, we've seen a whole range of different factors internationally. We've seen conflicts, we've seen a pandemic and a whole range of things that have driven up the price of raw materials and that have driven up the cost of labour.

"The team have found challenges, but for the people of Melton, it will be a really important investment".

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Back in 2023, the Conservative government released nearly £50m of public money to help pay for the new road.

The plan also included rediverting the River Eye back to its natural course, large archaeological digs, and the construction of a new 48-metre-long rail bridge over the Birmingham to Peterborough line at Lag Lane.

The council has said the road will be reopened "in a phased way" and will be open to traffic in the coming days.