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  • "It's all very well having this money, but we simply cannot rely on the highways department to spend this money wisely on schemes that will alleviate the notorious traffic and safety chaos on Worcester's roads and make them safe and motor vehicle-friendly. We'll instead end up with half-baked ideas that will have little or no improvement, will invariably be anti-car and will reduce road safety. And perhaps a few more bus lanes that go to nowhere will be added in to the equation too as will dangerously located zebra crossings.

    Before a penny of this money is spent we need to ensure the highways department is rejigged from top to bottom and is staffed by people who know what they're doing, rather than the incompetent, overpaid and clueless oafs called highway engineers currently residing in County Hall. Or better still, hand the highways service over to the private sector where we will, finally, see massive improvements in the management of Worcester's road network."
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Revealed: £266m transport revamp for Worcestershire

3:51pm Thursday 10th April 2014 in News Evesham Journal: Tom Edwards Exclusive By Tom Edwards , Political Reporter

Evesham Journal: Worcester congestion: plan to tackle it Worcester congestion: plan to tackle it

A £266 million plan to revamp roads and other forms of transport across Worcestershire can today be revealed - in a bid to finally solve the county's congestion headaches.

Business and council leaders have teamed together to draw up a blueprint of 19 major infrastructure revamps aimed for completion by 2021.

It includes bids of £173 million from central Government, and if accepted the likes of Worcestershire County Council and the Highways Agency will put the remaining £93 million into the kitty themselves.

It includes:

- £6 million towards street resurfacing in key shopping centres like Worcester, Malvern and Evesham to increase their appeal

- £17 million to finally build Worcestershire Parkway, a long-awaited railway station planned for Norton

- £56 million on reconfiguring the M5 Junction 6 to ease traffic build-up at peak times and prevent queues stretching back to the A449 in particular

- £4.8 million on building the Pershore Northern Link, including a bridge over the railway line in order to improve access between the A44 and the Keytec Business Park, and changes to Pinvin cross roads

- £11 million to widen roads and reconfigure key junctions to sites where large housing plots are expected to be built, including Newlands in Malvern, the west Worcester urban extension next to Dines Green and the Copcut in Droitwich

- £5 million to create special access to Worcester Technology Park off Junction 6 of the M5, and £1.75 million for better Malvern Hills Science Park access

- £2 million on a new pedestrian river crossing going from Worcester's Gheluvelt Park to old Kepax Country Park site behind Hallow Road, aimed at opening up more of the city to pedestrians and encouraging walking

- £10 million specifically towards road improvements around Evesham, which are expected to focus on the A46

- £5 million on flooding alleviation, which is expected to focus on New Road in Worcester and Upton-upon-Severn

Other projects include £24 million on improving the A38 in Bromsgrove, £5 million to improve Kidderminster railway station and the landscape around Comberton Hill, and £12.8 million on the Hoo Brook Link Road, also in Kidderminster.

It also includes funds towards the planned dualling of the A4440 Southern Link Road in Worcester, including £63 million on Carrington Bridge, as your Worcester News first revealed last week.

The entire package has been put together by Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which is competing for Government handouts worth £2 billion every year between next April and 2020.

As your Worcester News revealed last week the plan, put together with input from all Worcestershire's councils, MPs and more than 150 organisations, totals bids worth £250 million, making transport more than half the total ask.

Peter Pawsey, LEP chairman, said: "This is the first step to securing major changes for the better to Worcestershire's physical infrastructure."

Councillor Simon Geraghty, county council deputy leader, said: "These aren't minor proposals, this is a real step-change for Worcestershire's future transport needs."

A first announcement by the Government on next year's successful bidders is due in July.

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