Supermarket puts forward plans to tackle town centre bottleneck

Currently motorists leaving the Stone Morrisons car park at busy times can face delays when turning left onto Christchurch Way, which is part of the one-way ring road around the town centre.

But now Morrisons has proposed a solution to the long-running problem. A planning application has been submitted to Stafford Borough Council to add an extra lane at the westbound Mill Street exit onto Christchurch Way

A transport statement submitted as part of the application said: “Access to the store for customers is currently provided via a mini-roundabout where the access road from the store meets Mill Street and the petrol filling station access road.

“At peak times there are delays for Morrisons customers exiting the store car park via the existing site access. Morrisons have received complaints from customers regarding the existing egress arrangements as it can often get congested.

“The proposed scheme is to improve the operation of the A520 Christchurch Way / Mill Street junction by increasing its capacity. In addition to improving egress from the store for Morrisons customers there will be a net benefit to the operation of the local highway network.

“The improvement consists of increasing the capacity of the A520 Christchurch Way / Mill Street junction by adding an additional westbound lane on the Mill Street east arm approach and signalising the whole crossroad junction. The purpose of this is to provide additional junction capacity to relieve the pressure on the Mill Street east arm of the A520 Christchurch Way / Mill Street junction. This will reduce the queuing along Mill Street and onto the Morrison store access road.”

Staffordshire County Council has been considering ways to tackle traffic problems in the Christchurch Way area too. The highways team has completed a feasibility study examining traffic volumes and patterns around the town.

But Councillor Jill Hood has said work should also take place to remove the splitter island installed at Christchurch Way’s junction with Lichfield Road in 2011

The “temporary” splitter island aimed to tackle a bottleneck further along Christchurch Way from Morrison’s. Following its installation Morrisons customers complained of queuing for more than an hour to leave the supermarket site.

Councillor Hood, who represents Stone on the town, borough and county authorities, welcomed the latest plans put forward by Morrisons. She said she has received many complaints about the congestion.

She added: “It seems good news for the town. It may go towards reducing some of the congestion we face every day during peak times.

“I’m glad Morrisons have put their heads above the parapet. It’s going to go a long way to help people get onto and off the Morrisons site, particularly on bank holidays when everyone is queuing to get off.

“So many people come from surrounding areas to shop there and that brings them into town and spending money in the High Street.”