Jaguar Land Rover in £1.8m scheme to boost public transport

Jaguar Land Rover is to spend £1.8 million improving public transport in return for permission to build a £355m engine plant on the Wolverhampton-Staffordshire border.

Workers will also be encouraged to use their cycles to travel to the plant, with a mileage claim incentive of 20p per mile, and covered bike parking spaces.

Details have emerged in planning documents going before South Staffordshire Council for the 800,000 sq ft premises. The luxury car giant is creating more than 750 jobs at the i54 site in Wobaston Road, Fordhouses.

While Staffordshire and Wolverhampton councils will share the cost of a £36.7m slip road from the M54 motorway, and Wolverhampton will also pay for a £3m revamp of the Vine traffic island on the A449 Stafford Road, the company is expected to put money into public transport.