Wolverhampton City centre faces two years of roadworks
Two years of roadworks in Wolverhampton city centre will get under way in the summer after plans were backed by senior councillors.
A £5 million scheme to revamp the city centre, creating more pedestrianised areas and one-way systems for taxis and buses, was given the go-ahead by the cabinet of Wolverhampton City Council following a consultation.
Council bosses have promised to do all they can to keep traffic flowing but said they would be setting up exhibitions to show people how they will be affected. The council believes it can attract new shops, high-quality offices and 1,300 homes by pumping money into improving the look of the city centre and the flow of traffic.
Today it emerged that bus company National Express asked the council to change its plans to restrict traffic in Garrick Street, switching the direction buses could go from southbound to northbound, and asked that traffic in Queen Street be allowed to go eastbound only, which the council has agreed to.
But the council has thrown out a request for more bus stops on Market Street and Queen Street.
Councillor Peter Bilson, deputy leader of the council, said: “We will be having some form of exhibition so that these plans can be seen by members of the public. The work is anticipated to start in the summer.”
The biggest change will be in Princess Street, which will be pedestrianised from 9.30am to 4pm Monday to Saturday. Lichfield Street and Queen Square, currently used by buses and taxis, would become one-way, as would Victoria Street, but Lichfield Street will also get a cycle lane to allow bicycles to go against the flow of traffic.
The taxi rank, in Victoria Street, would be extended by three spaces. Under the plans, disabled people would be allowed to park for free on council-run car parks to make up for the loss of spaces on the street. There would also be resurfacing work and more seating.
Queen Square will be widened to allow it to be used for outdoor events. Exchange Street, which runs between the Natwest bank and Costa Coffee, would also be pedestrianised with parking spaces removed.
Lich Gates, by Barclays Bank, will be used only for funerals and church business with general car access removed. Parking spaces in Bilston Street, near Primark, will be scrapped. Traffic in and out of the Mander Centre will use Cleveland Street as the direction of traffic in Bell Street is reversed and the tunnel into Bell Street becomes two-way.
Comments for: "Wolverhampton City centre faces two years of roadworks"
Dan
Well prepared for a torrent of naysayers moaning about the roadworks, but these are a brilliant idea if you study the maps. It's going to be great - access right from the railway station to the city crossing only Piper's Row. Queen Street will be buzzing again, TA Henn will be connected to the main high streets, and traffic will make a lot more sense around the city centre. It will also look far better than the current street stock - and be a lot more wheelchair friendly than the current trip hazards - wider pavements, too, and much less street furniture (better organised) will mean a much better shopping environment. This will pave the way (pun intended) for better quality shops, more visitors, and open areas of the city people don't currently venture into as part of their day to day shopping. Fantastic development and I look forward to it.
Les
I wonder whether Dan works for the council or the developer ?
bobwolf101
What new high quality shops???? No names? Didn't think so....and where is this £5million coming from?
sister dora
Yeah right! Do even more to keep the motorist out and let them park so far away from the shops that elderlies and disabled find difficulties with walking the distance and mums with young and fractious kids find it easier to go to TELFORD or MERRY HILL or BiIRMINGHAM ON THE TRAIN - all places where you park your car or get off the train and are in the shops in less than 3 minutes.
"There are none so blind as those who will not see" - attributed to John Heywood (1546)
Bus Driver
There are plenty of parking areas in Wolverhampton and only a few minutes walk from the shops. People with cars are plain ignorant and bone idle. They already clog up streets like Broad Street parking in the bus stops just so they can 'pop in for a bag of chips' this shows no consideration for buses making it difficult to load passengers who may be disabled or elderly they then have to load in the Street causing an obstuction to other traffic
how often do you see cars driving or parked in areas already pedestrianised or parked in bus stops and disabled parking areas....every day!!!
Even in Merry Hill you cannot 'pull up outside a shop' and you have a fair walk from the car park into the centre, this doesn't seam to cause much of a problem!!
sister dora
Let me highlight an obvious fact which seems to be overlooked by successive planners:
What do you do when you go shopping? Yes, you buy things. When one buys things they come in carrier bags and/or parcels. Some bags and parcels are heavy, some are light - all, taken together, are bulky. As a shopper goes to each required shop it is often necessary to place the carrier/bags and parcels on the floor, whereupon they all fall over - that and the bulkiness/heaviness turn shopping from a pleasure into a chore. In order to prevent this and allow one to carry on shopping, what does one do? Correct! one dumps the load in the boot of one's car and then goes back to the shops to repeat the process.
Of course, if one's car is, of necessity, parked an inconvenient distance from the shops, one either terminates the shopping after the first trawl, or one doesn't bother to go at all but instead goes to a different town/city where they understand the link between increasing the attractiveness of shopping by providing an appropriate car/shop interface and thereby gain a reputation for being more shopper/car friendly.
Do I know this purely because I am female?
You're quite right. The solution is obvious - people should be allowed to drive straight into the Mander Centre and park directly outside each shop they decide to visit. Oh, and my heart bleeds for those who have such a massive disposable income that they can blindly and blithely buy items to the point where they can't carry them. First world problems eh?
Pan
Excellent ideas there, especially the widening of Queen Square. Here's hoping the council will go one step further and put our outdoor market in Dudley Street and Queen Square, and the indoor market in the empty Woolworths. Not only would it be used more, but it would attract more shoppers to the centre of the town. Whoever heard of a market on the very outskirts of a city?????
Martin Golden
All sounds good, but could be further improved by knocking down all the buildings between Barclays & Natwest banks making Queens Square even bigger and creating a great space for outdoor events
arrrrgh!
Only two years? I think not, the very very very expensively imported (China) and very very very expensively laid paving, that was started in 2003, with work lasting seven years, including the two notorious fountains that don't work, (one costing £750,000 and one £500,000 all-in), is already in an appalling state of repair and will need re-doing within that 2 year time frame; So expect at least 7 more years of harrassle; It's like painting the forth bridge in the old days, once you finished, it was time to start again! Incompetence at the worst council in the country, has no boundaries;
mark
Can we have a roof over the whole of the town and some animals to round off this circus
YEAH, YEAH, YEAH
Everything will be better. Nice
No cars will still go through the lights by police station towards Wilkinsons and Library ( Only buses and taxis are supposed to NOW).
The police could/will have a field day booking drivers for driving without due care and attention!
No they will not, too easy to do the simple jobs right.
Start with small things not big projects
The wholetown ( city???) will be empty of people too brassed off with the transport delays.
Good on you Wolverhampton! Spend when you could be saving!
Make Wolves a place for drunkards, yobs, private hire drivers and party goers. Nice
Any paving will be awful and be driven over by lorries etc that will crack them.
End = messy overspend and more repairs = Wolverhampton going backwards and into the Dark ages with mud tracks and vomit. Nice
Lets spend rather than save in our bugeting difficulties. Nice one Councillors and Directorate
Last one out dig yourself out of the mud quagmire
Lets also spend millions doing up the Civic Centre that would be a nice idea to spend more
jason
Don't expect this to look like the pictures the council put out,after all they drag their feet over tesco/sainsburys,lost the summer row development.This is 1 idea which could of waited till the recession was over!