Open motorway hard shoulder to traffic, say chiefs

Hold-ups on the roads are currently costing business £2.2 billion per year in higher costs, lost business and reduced productivity, and evidence from West Midlands supplier delivery times shows the area is suffering, according to the Local Enterprise Partnerships across the region.

The six LEPs have now agreed a joint statement setting out areas of improvement in transport necessary to drive economic growth. Among them is the proposal for the Managed Motorways scheme, which has already been created along large sections of the M6, to be introduced on parts of the M5 as well, to bust congestion.

The M5 cuts from West Bromwich to Oldbury, Halesowen and Lydiate Ash, near Bromsgrove and the group now wants the hard shoulder of the M5 to be opened from where it meets junction eight of the M6 for Great Barr to junction 4a for Lydiate Ash.

They also want the M42's hard shoulder to be opened from Lydiate Ash to junction 3a in Warwickshire, as well as from junction 15-16 of the M6 by Stoke-on-Trent.

The move would benefit the 171,000 businesses in the area.

This is including some world-renowned companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, GKN, BMW, Bosch and Alstom, the LEPs say.

The six LEPs which have signed the statement are the Black Country, Greater Birmingham & Solihull, Coventry & Warwickshire, the Marches, Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire and Worcestershire.

The joint statement, signed by Wolverhampton Councillor Peter Bilson, chair of the Black Country Strategic Transport Board, said: "The West Midlands leads the nation in advanced manufacturing and export industries, and the ability to support that growth in our key enterprise and strategic employment centres is critical to the health of the UK economy as a whole."

Business leaders meanwhile suggest the M6 Toll should be better used for freight and ask that the £10 million annual land purchase payment paid to the Department for Transport by its owners, Midland Expressway Limited, be used to fund requested transport projects.

In the Black Country, those priority projects include remodelling junction 10 of the M6 for Walsall, as well a revamp of Wolverhampton Railway Station and improvements to the Wolverhampton to Birmingham Snow Hill railway line.

The third element of the statement is improving regional and local links to the £50 billion HS2 rail line.

Stewart Towe, chairman of the Black Country LEP, added: "We're positive about the opportunities HS2 is bringing to the area.

"We need to make sure however that the links are in place to it.

"Some of the work we're doing is around the Wolverhampton Interchange and part of that is improving links between there and HS2."