Four months of road closures as next stage of £1.6m Wolverhampton road revamp begins

Princess Street, Garrick Street and Market Street will be torn up and revamped in a bid to make the city more attractive.

Wolverhampton City Council wants to attract more visitors and boost investment by making the city centre more pedestrian-friendly.

The two-year project has caused big disruption in the past with businesses complaining of loss of trade.

The latest work will see a section of Princess Street closed for about four months from March 2, with out-of-hours road closures for Market Street and Garrick Street.

While Princess Street is closed the direction of one-way traffic will be temporarily reversed along the pedestrianised section of Queen Street, King Street and part of Dudley Street.

Work to upgrade traffic lights at the junction of Market Street and Bilston Street, and the junction of Garrick Street and Snow Hill, will be carried out before September.

While bosses hope to finish the work as quickly as possible it is expected the whole project will be completed by September.

Councillor Peter Bilson, the council's regeneration chief, said: "We have to acknowledge to get those improvements there has to be a degree of disruption.

"We are trying to contain that as much as we can and minimise it so that life goes on and we are still open for business.

"The city centre improvements play an important part the wider multi-million pound regeneration of Wolverhampton.

"We want to ensure that this city continues to be an attractive place to live, visit and work.

"Enhancing the city centre means we can attract more investment, retain the businesses we have and create more jobs."

He said he believed with Benson Elliot buying the Mander Centre more big names would be attracted to the city.

The scheme will see the number of cars driving around the city's main shopping areas cut.

Councillor Bilson said the aim was to make Wolverhampton an 'all form of transport accessible city', ensuring it is safe and easy to get around from the perspective of pedestrians, motorists, the disabled, and public transport users.

When asked about comments that shoppers were utilising bigger shopping centres with available car parking, rather than the city centre, Councillor Bilson said: "We have to recognise we are a city centre.

"What we are not is an out-of-town shopping centre, we are not a Merry Hill.

"We have Bentley Bridge within our boundary contributing to the overall wellbeing of Wolverhampton, and we are delighted they are doing so well. There is room for both."

Gwyn James, transportation manager, said access into the city centre was important: "To the car parks, not to the central core shopping area. We want to make it as car-free as possible so it is a pleasant environment to go shopping in.

"What we don't want is a lot of rat-running through the city centre."

Princess Street was pedestrianised last year and is only open to delivery vehicles, so the council says most drivers will be unaffected by the closure.

The revamp will see 'clear zones' in front of shops for the vision impaired, with the 'clutter zones' featuring seating and trees to make the streets more attractive and encourage people to spend more time in the centre.

Project manager Steve Randall said they have done a lot of consultation with disabled groups about the design of the revamp, and he has met with business owners who may be affected by the Princess Street closure.

He is is working closely with them to ensure there is minimal disruption to their business, and this week about 300 letters had been delivered to stores and residents in the CBD clearly outlining the works.

The first stage of the revamp started last year, causing confusion and traffic chaos in the city.

As part of the work Princess Street was pedestrianised between Queen Street and Berry Street, traffic flow on Queen Street was reversed, and Market Street became one way.

Taxi drivers have also voiced concerns in the past that the changes could hit their trade.

Last year's work took part as the same time as a £4.5m project to overhaul the city's metro line got underway.

The scheme is still ongoing but is due to finish by March.

Traders including historic jewellers TA Henn, as well as Home & Office Stationers, also in Princess Street, said trade was badly hit with the latter reporting profits down by up to 30 per cent.