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Possible Worcester ring road routes revealed (From Worcester News)
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Possible Worcester ring road routes revealed
7:10am Wednesday 10th February 2010
TODAY your Worcester News can reveal in detail the two possible routes the controversial north-west link road around Worcester could take.
Until now, Worcestershire County Council has never revealed where it intends to build the final section of the city’s ring road.
One man has already vowed to fight the bulldozers after learning – from your Worcester News – that his historic home would have to be demolished to make way for the road. The road would:
• Link the Claines and Crown East roundabouts
• Include a new river bridge l Bypass Hallow, near Worcester, either to the west or east of the village
• Mean the demolition of a landmark listed
farmhouse on the outskirts of Worcester
• Run through the site near Lower Broadheath where builder JS Bloor has submitted an application to develop up to 4,000 new homes
• Cut through listed buildings, conservation areas, waterways and landmarks.
The road forms part of a £300 million transport strategy that could change the way people move in and around Worcester over the course of the next 20 years.
The Worcester Transport Strategy, which is currently out for consultation, includes new park and ride sites, improved railway facilities, including a new Norton Parkway station, improved road junctions and foot and cycle links in and around the city.
According to a report by Halcrow – completed in April last year but only recently published online following a Freedom of Information request – the link road would be designed for speeds of up to 60mph and would include a cycle lane/footway along one side of the length of the route.
Halcrow indicates both would have a varying degree of negative impact on homes, the environment, landscape and sites of historical importance.
Councillor Derek Prodger, cabinet member for transport and safe environment, denied Worcestershire County Council had deliberately witheld information from the public.
In a statement he said: “We are committed to being open and transparent throughout this process and have started consulting the public at the earliest possible stage, and as part of this we have put a large number of the technical reports on our website which have been available over the last couple of weeks.
“This is an ongoing commitment which will see us make available further technical reports as they are published.”
We previously reported how the transport strategy would be delivered in two phases. Work on the north-west ring road would not start until at least 2016, and only if the council could attract the necessary funding.
Worcestershire County Council has suddenly shifted its attention from dualling the southern link road to completing the ring road around the city.
District councillors and officers have since pleaded with the council to explain its thinking, particularly as it could affect the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy – to build up to 25,500 new homes in and around Worcester by 2026, which was drawn up on the basis the southern link road would be dualled.
Interested residents had also demanded to see evidence and it was only because a Freedom of Information request was submitted to the council that the Halcrow report has been published – a month after public consultation began on the strategy.
Meanwhile, a notice of motion from the Liberal Democrats calling for the dualling of the southern link road to be included in the consultation, even at this late stage, was thrown out by the Conservative cabinet on Monday.
Transport chiefs said that scheme has not been completely abandoned but believe completing the north-west link road at this moment in time would deliver the most benefits for Worcester.
• Please read our story about the two proposed routes here then vote in our poll below to indicate your preference.
22%
33%
3%
34%
8%
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Your Say Your Worcester
skychip, Worcester says...
8:45am Wed 10 Feb 10
Paul Griffiths, Worcester-in-Spirit says...
9:14am Wed 10 Feb 10
Open and transparent? Last couple of weeks? The Halcrow report is dated April 2009.
Powyke, Worcetser says...
12:21pm Wed 10 Feb 10
MrStJohns, St Johns Worcester says...
12:32pm Wed 10 Feb 10
pudniw_gib, Malvern says...
1:19pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Get the bus or ride a bike you lazy so and so's. It is only the amount of people driving private cars that causes the hold ups in town, if more people used the alternatives then there would be less need to blight the landscape and ruin other folks lives.
keeneye, Worcester says...
1:32pm Wed 10 Feb 10
No wonder they wanted to keep this one quiet. And still he insists its only a concept for the future, come on!!you can do better than that counceller!! or do you play the usual game, keep quiet, keep out of the public debate and it will go away....again.
waste, St Johns says...
4:43pm Wed 10 Feb 10
cmot, Worcester says...
5:45pm Wed 10 Feb 10
How long were council officers going to keep this under wraps before springing the plans on us moments before committing to going ahead? Their attitude and approach towards this major scheme has been disgraceful, particularly as the owner of the house planned for demolishing only found out from the Worcester News. These officers should hold their heads in disgrace and be named and shamed for their behaviour.
Paul Griffiths, Worcester-in-Spirit says...
7:06pm Wed 10 Feb 10
rgdudley, Worcester says...
7:14pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Paul Griffiths wrote:Have you ever watched "Yes Minister"?
Council officers, cmot? The buck stops with the Conservative councillors who make up the Cabinet. Or is that who you mean?
.
It's definitely not the politicians who are in charge. They may think they are, but then they don't live in the real world.
WorcsPhil, Worcester says...
7:55pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Four words should be enough to scupper ANY road building on this scale:
"peak oil"
"climate change"
cmot, Worcester says...
10:16pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Paul Griffiths wrote:Definitely mean council officers. Although councillors do all the spin and manage budgets, this scheme would have been investigated and delivered by officers with councillors merely giving their approval.
Council officers, cmot? The buck stops with the Conservative councillors who make up the Cabinet. Or is that who you mean?
flappy, claines says...
7:57am Thu 11 Feb 10
Paul Griffiths, Worcester-in-Spirit says...
8:36am Thu 11 Feb 10
psmite, worcester says...
10:03am Thu 11 Feb 10
flappy, claines says...
10:24am Thu 11 Feb 10
shire.gov.uk/cms/tra
nsport-and-streets/t
ransport/plans-and-s
trategies/worcester-
transport-strategy/w
ts-technical-docs.as
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The assessment states that there will be "large adverse " effects on landscape and wildlife from the proposed routes. It also points out the significant noise increases that can be expected for the rural properties.
Energetic, Malvern says...
10:55am Thu 11 Feb 10
Disruption will be much less than that caused by the utterly useless terrestrial wind-farm projects, also on high-grade farmland, which will only benefit their builders and operators through taxpayer subsidies.
keeneye, Worcester says...
11:25am Thu 11 Feb 10
rgdudley, Worcester says...
1:09pm Thu 11 Feb 10
.
What we need to do is make sure that when it comes it doesn’t cause even more problems than it has to. One of the primary aims at the moment is to get traffic out of the City centre. The only way to do this is to build the northern bridge. It has to be built.
.
For those of you who think cars are go to die out when the oil runs out you are a fool to yourselves. We currently have electric cars as a reasonable alternative; the technology of these will only improve with time. Even without electric there is always steam, mock if you wish but in the 30’s and 40’s there were viable steam cars and lorries running around. The later Sentinel lorries were capable of over 70mph. Think what could be build with modern technology and modern materials. People won’t give up cars they are just too convenient. Even countries with decent public transport have cars so there is no chance of us getting rid of them.
.
If you think that the roads will fill up straight away then you just need to design them for greater capacity. The Southern link was a fiasco because the then planners made it a single carriageway. For the Northern Link to work it must be a dual carriage way, the roundabouts and junctions (including M5 J6) will need to be designed to take large volumes i.e. made big enough, not like the mini-roundabouts on the Southern Link.
flappy, claines says...
1:16pm Thu 11 Feb 10
keeneye, Worcester says...
1:36pm Thu 11 Feb 10
flappy, claines says...
1:49pm Thu 11 Feb 10
topspin, Worcester says...
3:55pm Thu 11 Feb 10
t/) is highly relevant.
It concludes that oil shortages, insecurity of supply and price volatility will destabilise economic, political and social activity within five years.
It recommends, amongst other things, investment in public transport and a move away from the traditional car to more fuel/carbon-efficien
t transport.
keeneye, Worcester says...
4:00pm Thu 11 Feb 10
Okay- lets start with base line - traffic in Worcester is not goint to go away - we need housing - things are going to get more congested, whats the answer for Worcester? or do we just do nothing - By the way - I am involved with recovering the earths resources and my job takes me all over the world - less of the coffee and more substance flappy.
BarryB, Worcester says...
8:42pm Thu 11 Feb 10
rgdudley, Worcester says...
9:00pm Thu 11 Feb 10
.
What is relevant is providing a transport system for Worcester that is fit for the future and can carry the increased numbers of people to the places they want to go to. As said before a large amount of traffic through the centre of Worcester is transit traffic, it doesn’t want to go through Worcester; it is forced to because of the road layout.
.
The simplest most direct way to get the traffic off the City Bridge and out of the centre is to give it somewhere else to go. The Southern Link partly succeeded in that but is now choked due to its success and the lack of foresight by its planners.
.
I’m quite happy for there to be extra public transport as well but that is not an answer for everything. They just aren’t the buses, trains and infrastructure available to take people where they need to go. I travel 45 minutes by car to work each morning. To do that by public transport would be two bus rides and three train journeys, and would take 2 ½ hours (each way). It just isn’t going to happen.
.
I could work in Worcester, but that will mean that more jobs need to be created here, to do that requires development. To get development requires good transport. Good transport requires roads. Whatever way you look at this, unless we are all going to revert back to some feudal society scrimping for scraps in the fields then Worcester needs to grow and needs the roads to go with it.
.
If you get the traffic out of the City then you can have all your green space, you can have more pedestrian areas. If you expand the City and get more residents you will get the better stores coming here instead of other towns. That will generate more jobs locally and we can start to cycle to work rather than traipse up and down the M5 each day.
keeneye, Worcester says...
7:20am Fri 12 Feb 10
The councellers we have are right out of there depth with this one.
This is a real issue for Worcester and surrounding areas and does not need the typical window dressing we get from them. This is not just the responsibility of Cllr D Prodger there are others who should be put in the spot light
Ctrl Alt Del, Worcester says...
4:57pm Fri 12 Feb 10
rgdudley, Worcester says...
8:08pm Fri 12 Feb 10
.
The delays in the Parkay station just prove that they have no interest in green or public transport and every word they say on the subject is hot air to be treated with the scorn it deserves.
Common Sense, Pershore says...
10:16pm Fri 12 Feb 10
We are now out of the "horse-drawn era" and the car is the preferred choice of most people, for its flexibility.
Do you suppose they had all this tug-of-war for and against a proposal, when building the railways? Or the canals?
They simply cut right through everything - regardless! Even through Candleford!
CS.
Your sayYour Worcester
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IN THE WAY: This house beside the A449 at Claines will be bulldozed if either of the two proposed routes for Worcester’s northern ring road is approved
keeneye, Worcester says...
8:21am Wed 10 Feb 10
This development will be significant for Worcester, good or not so good all developements have a plus and munus element, I hope it generates the level of interest it deserves. And Worcester folks have their say, I do wonder if it will attract more comments than your recent headline, "Scoop that Poop". I hope so.