Orbital road heading for review

Controversial proposals to create a western orbital route around Wolverhampton to ease congestion could be dusted off once more, the Express & Star can reveal today.

The Government has been asked to take a fresh look at ripping up green belt around the region to create a 42-mile route designed to free up traffic coming into the Black Country off the M5 and M6 motorways. The idea, first raised back in 1991, has been brought up by the opposition Conservative group in Wolverhampton.

It was rejected more than a decade ago following protests from residents living in villages around South Staffordshire, environmental groups and South Staffordshire Tory MP Sir Patrick Cormack.

Thousands of extra cars are expected to flood into the city once the £300 million Summer Row shopping development is complete, but no solution has yet been found for dealing with congestion. Two weeks ago the council along with the leaders of all the other local authorities around the West Midlands rejected the notion of congestion charging.

Councillor Neville Patten, the Wolverhampton Tory group's spokesman for transport, said today: "People have talked about having a western orbital for a long time but we have always agreed that it is a good idea, even though the Government keeps saying it won't do it.

"There is an awful lot of traffic around Wolverhampton and something needs to happen to free it up. It was first raised so long ago, the price of the Western Orbital has probably doubled now."

The group's manifesto for the local elections says it will campaign for it to be built. It is estimated it would cost the £2.5 billion every year.

Campaigners around Dudley and Stourbridge have condemned developing on the green belt, but as recently as 2006 the Labour-controlled city council wrote to the Government to ask for a re-think on it.

Council leader Roger Lawrence said: "We have always argued that the concept of some kind of road on the western side of the conurbation would be a good thing for the economy."