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.
Gerald Kells agreed to sit on the steering group for that study and
since then we have taken a keen interest in its development. The Study
has now undertaken a spatial consultation to which we responded in
depth.
We are arguing 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 are also strongly opposing some options. We are against
increased building in the Green Belt, particularly new office developments
and large logistics sites link to megadepots pr. 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.
In the Spring of 2006 the response to that consultation will have
to inform the Regional Assembly suggesting changes to the Regional
Spatial Strategy and we will again have a chance to support and challenge
the approach.
Information on the is available on the Black Country Consortium website
at www.blackcountryconsortium.co.uk
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| WESTERN
BYPASSES |
CPRE strongly supported the removal of the proposed Western Bypasses
of Wolverhampton and Stourbridge from Regional Planning Guidance.
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.
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| 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 continuing 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 -
press release of 10/5/01 (Acrobat
52 KB)
briefing to MP(s) (Acrobat 112 KB)
response to AWM/HA (Word 121 KB)
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| Updated
19 Jan 2006
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