A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon roadworks items for auction

A drone, bicycle shelters, traffic cones, road signs and miles of drainage pipes are being sold off after the completion of a £1.5bn road project.

The items, used during the realignment of the A14 between Huntingdon and Cambridge, are going under the hammer at an online auction next week.

Highways England said some equipment had been moved to other projects but the surplus was being sold off.

The money will be offset against the overall cost of the road project.

While you might not have much use for a giant storage container, several sets of traffic lights, a free-standing smoking shelter or portable solar-powered digital road signs, there is plenty of equipment on offer for the home or office.

Digital cameras, televisions, desks, office chairs and coat racks are also among the 1,000 or so items being sold by Peaker Pattinson (Auctioneers) Ltd of Stamford, Lincolnshire, on 15 and 16 October.

Bidding is already open, but selling will not begin until next week.

Julian Lamb, Highways England's construction director for the A14 project, said the auction lots were "mostly temporary materials that we needed to build the job".

"The money will come back into the project and effectively reduce the overall cost of [it], so... it is in the best interest of the tax payer that's funded the A14 project, and it will reduce the final bill for the scheme."

Work on the 21-mile (34km) route between the M11 at Cambridge and the A1 at Huntingdon began in November 2016 and finished in May this year.

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk