Disastrous red route going nowhere

Decision time approaches for Wolverhampton's Labour-controlled Council, to either leave in place or remove the A449 Stafford Road Red Route.

If we need reminding, the council's case when justifying the Red Route was that the A449 Stafford Road was one of, if not the most heavily congested route into our city centre and that its completion would significantly reduce journey times and improve road safety.

I have travelled along this route for more than 40 years and would argue that the Stafford Road is no more congested than any of the other major routes into the city centre. To support this view, I have collected representative journey times taken at key times before and following completion of the Red Route and that data clearly shows no significant improvement.

The council argued that buses pulling out from the lay-bys into moving traffic constituted a serious traffic hazard. It replaced the lay-bys with parking bays along the complete 3.5 miles, effectively reducing the dual carriageways to single lanes, causing moving traffic to pull into the outside lane to avoid parked vehicles.

There are many traders along the route who are planning to sell up and relocate. They say they have seen takings drop on average by around 30 per cent and blame the Red Route. They feel very badly let down by the council because promises from the council or its representatives that the Red Route would have no negative effect on their businesses, have been broken.

This will have a disastrous effect on the local community by robbing the area of much used services, necessitating people travelling greater distances.

Remember the cost of Red Route to the taxpayer – £1.7 million for installing it plus £1.3 million paid to the consultants.

Money well spent – they say.

I recently spoke to a local councillor and asked why, at the time of the Red Route consultation period there was no serious opposition from other political parties.

He stated they were told: "If they did not vote in favour of the Red Route then money for road improvements along the route would be withheld." What road improvements?

Local opinion will form no part of the council's final decision regarding the Red Route, they will just follow the original Westminster implementation directives.

Brian H Bromley, Milldale Crescent, Fordhouses.