High hopes for £10m Dudley Zoo and museum link

This aerial plan shows for the first time the proposed layout of the multi-million-pound project to link the Black Country Living Museum and Dudley Zoo.

It demonstrates how a road will be built along with a new car park and visitor centre as part of a £10 million revamp of Castle Hill.

Dudley Council has released the image to show the work that will be carried out in the coming year.

And there are also hopes that a tram track on a disused freight line would also run alongside the site through the town centre – though this is not expected to go ahead for the next five years.

Building work on the road, which can only be accessed by traffic on both sites, will start in the next few weeks and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The thick yellow line on the map represents the link road, which will run from alongside the Dudley Canal Trust in Birmingham New Road, around the back of the museum and through to the zoo.

There will be stations along the road for a shuttle bus to take visitors from each site.

In between the two attractions stands the new archives centre, which is being built on the site of the former Royal Brierley Crystal factory.

Alongside that will be a tourism hub featuring information on the attractions, while two car parks will provide up to 1,000 spaces with access from both Tipton Road and Castle Hill.

The four blue circles indicate some of the historic Tecton buildings, which are undergoing refurbishment as part of the project's first phase.

The bear ravine, kiosk, cafe and entrance are all being modernised. Councillor Les Jones, leader of Dudley Council said: "The development of Castle Hill is a key attraction not only for Dudley but for the whole region.

"This scheme has the scope to increase visitor numbers to the site from around 600,000 to one million people a year and the project is a major aspect of our current regeneration programme for the whole of the Dudley borough." The plans became a reality when a bid for £4.5m of European funding was approved last year.

They have been previously held back by a lack of funding and nearby roadworks at the Burnt Tree junction and the new Tesco.

The scheme will also see the creation of a new hotel and shopping precinct on vacant land next to the proposed site of the new Dudley Archives.

The plans for a metro line would see hybrid tram-trains, capable of travelling along both light and heavy rail tracks, running along a defunct freight train route, taking passengers between Stourbridge and Walsall, with stops in Brierley Hill and Dudley town centre – but first funding must be secured for the £100 million project.