5,000 sign petition against Wednesbury railway sleeper factory plans
More than 5,000 people have now signed a petition protesting against plans to build a railway sleeper factory in the middle of a neighbourhood.
The news comes as Network Rail amended plans for the factory at Bescot Sidings in the Friar Park area of Wednesbury by moving the proposed factory 500m further down the sidings.
But an action group set up to protest against the development has branded the new plan 'still totally unacceptable'.
The group has been campaigning against the development for nearly a year and they have said it is on the grounds of pollution and up to an additional 70,000 vehicle movements on the 'already heavily congested' roads.
Network Rail has said that all of the materials for the manufacture of the sleepers will be delivered to the factory by road, according to the group.
And the factory will be producing 600,000 concrete sleepers per year.
A petition was started which now has more than 5,000 signatures.
A spokesman for the group said: "This is still totally unacceptable as not only are the environment aspects the same, their planned route to bring in core materials would cause chaos to the roads through residential areas and passing a number of local schools.
"The routes planned for the HGVs to take are exiting at J1 West Bromwich which would entail vehicles coming through Stone Cross which is already a black-spot and at a standstill during rush hours.
"The other route named is exiting at Junction 9 and vehicles travelling down the Broadway through the Delves in Walsall a residential area to the A4031 Walsall Road where access will be gained to the factory via the entrance to Tame Valley Railway Station.
"The A4031 Walsall Road is also virtually gridlocked during rush hour."
