Black Country

When the Deputy Prime Minister rejected the Western Bypasses of Stourbridge and Wolverhampton because they would not help regenerate the Black Country and would wreck the environment he instigated a broader study of the problems of the Black Country, including image, town centres, housing and economic development as well as transport.

CPRE supported this as a sensible approach and welcomed the adoption of five key study elements - Housing, Environment, Town Centres, Access to Regeneration Sites and Employment Land - into a new broad study of the needs of the Black Country.

We sat on the steering group for that study and took a keen interest in its development and then in the Phase 1 element of the Regional Spatial Strategy which concentrated on that sub-region.

We argued that regeneration of the sub-region is essential if we are to stop the migration of the better off into the countryside. That means providing good quality housing while ensuring we use land efficiently, developing the towns and centres of the sub-region, particularly Walsall, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich, investing in Public Transport which will reduce congestion and improving the environment. We also believe that the heritage of the Black Country is vitally important and want to see it more actively preserved.

However, we also strongly opposed some of the options. For example we are against increased building in the Green Belt, particularly new housing, office developments and large logistics sites. We do not believe building large new roads will help regeneration and in particular we would oppose new proposals in the Green Belt, especially any return of the Western Bypasses.

You can read more about the Phase 1 Review and subsequent Black Country Core Strategy on that page of our website.

WESTERN BYPASSES

CPRE strongly supported the removal of the proposed Western Bypasses of Wolverhampton and Stourbridge from Regional Planning Guidance 11 and remains committed to opposing such a proposal in future strategies if it re-emerges. The Independent RPG Panel agreed with us (and our environmental and community allies) on almost every point and the Government has now accepted their conclusions that the bypasses:

• Would not regenerate the Black Country
• Would not lead to overall timesavings for travellers into the Black Country
• Would lead to pressure for unsustainable Green Belt development

They also said the introduction of arguments that they would relieve traffic on the M5/M6 were an attempt to reintroduce the Western Orbital Motorway with all the environmental devastation that would cause.

The History of a countryside catastrophe

When the West Midlands Area Multi Modal recommended controversial proposals for three bypasses to the West of the conurbation, the Wolverhampton and Stourbridge bypasses, along with the M6 Toll-M54 link road, they followed the corridor of the Western Orbital Motorway, (see map included with briefing to MPs) a thirty mile motorway which was dropped in the nineteen nineties because of its huge environmental impact and its weak traffic justification.

The Western Orbital would have cut a huge swathe through some of the most beautiful Green Belt in the region and would have encouraged development to move out of the conurbation into the countryside, as well as encouraging dramatic increases in traffic as people use it to live further from where they work and shop.

The West Midlands Multi-Modal Study recommended modest bypasses, much resulting from upgrading existing roads, without huge overpasses and roundabouts. Consultants claimed this would help regenerate the Black Country, despite a long list of academic evidence that new roads only lead to development in their local corridor and won't encourage economic development more generally. They did not advocate the bypasses being built before 2011.

Because of local opposition and strong theoretical challenges to this logic from environmental groups, a Regeneration Study was undertaken by Advantage West Midlands and the Highway Agency with the aims of bolstering arguments for the roads at the RPG Examination (see evidence on Western Bypasses). Unfortunately the Regeneration Study, despite a positive gloss, has demonstrated that the roads would not regenerate the Black Country, because any timesavings from the route would quickly be undermined by congestion (sometimes worse because of the bypasses) on local roads in areas like Stourbridge and Wolverhampton. It has also showed that the roads would be more likely to lead to investment leaving the Black Country for the Green Belt and also into more attractive areas along the M42. At the same time the Study has underlined the huge environmental impacts of the bypasses.

Despite this the Study recommended much larger, more damaging bypasses with large, highly visible junctions and new dual carriageway link roads into Wolverhampton and Stourbridge through their leafy suburbs. Although the Regional Planning Body has accepted that the study didn't prove the case, instead of dropping the schemes it proposed a new study which would try to prove the bypasses can reduce traffic on the M5/M6, even though there was strong evidence put forward at the M6 Toll Public Inquiry that any relief on the motorways through Birmingham will quickly be undermined by rerouting and new traffic.

CPRE West Midlands was extremely critical of the Regeneration Study and did not believe regional bodies should continue spending tax payers' money to justify the technically unjustifiable.
We believe the real transport solutions to the Black Country can only be found within the conurbation itself and would like to see a more thorough exploration of public transport options, congestion charging and modest road improvements and management schemes.

Further reading:

Further reading -

press release of 10/5/01 (Acrobat 52 KB)
briefing to MP(s) (Acrobat 112 KB)
response to AWM/HA (Word 121 KB)

15.01.09