Here's to 2015! Fifteen reasons to be positive about the West Midlands this year

1. Completion of M6 Smart Motorway Project. For years our roads have been neglected, but now they are due to be brought forward into the 21st century.

Turning the M6 into a smart motorway will bring benefits including smoother flow of traffic, more reliable journey times and fewer road traffic collisions.

The project aims to extend the existing use of the hard shoulder as an extra lane to reduce congestion on the M6 and adjoining routes.

Once completed the £102m smart motorway scheme will also enable officials to use variable speed limits.

2. Unveiling of the Three Degrees statue. Laurie Cunningham, Brendon Batson and Cyrille Regis inspired a generation of black professional footballers and helped bring down racism on the terraces during their playing days for West Bromwich Albion.

A bronze statue, costing £220,000, will be erected in West Bromwich town centre, near New Square shopping centre, portraying the legendary trio celebrating a goal.

The statue, originally set to be unveiled earlier this year, has suffered with delays but remains on track to be revealed in July.

3. Black Country Day Festival. Organisers of the event designed to celebrate all that is great about the Black Country have said they intend to build on the success of last years festival in 2015.

People responded positively to being given an opportunity to be vocally proud of the area, its historical achievements and loveable quirks.

Dozens of events pulled in huge crowds over this years weekend long festival as local celebrities helped celebrate what makes our towns great.

The official day to mark down in your calender is July 14, chosen as it is the anniversary of the invention of the world's first steam engine, the Newcomen Engine, which was first built in the Black Country in 1712.

4. New A&E Wolverhampton. A new £30 million emergency centre at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital is expected to be one of the finest of its kind in the country.

Its accident and emergency department will be three times the size of the one currently in use.

The centre will provide crucial extra capacity for patients when it opens in November 2015.

The first floor will house a Clinical Decisions Unit – where patients who need to be monitored will stay – and an outpatients' clinic.

Other areas of the building will include dedicated radiology and x-ray facilities for emergency patients along with consulting space for GPs.

The development aims to bring all emergency services – which are currently spread out across the News Cross site – under one roof.

5. Sir Elton John comes to Banks's Stadium. The legendary singer will be given a warm welcome by what is expected to be a sell-out crowd at Walsall Football Club's ground on June 13.

Since playing Wolverhampton Civic Hall in the 1970s, Elton has been away from the region for a long time.

The man himself has said he is "very much looking forward" to playing his first show in Walsall.

It will be the clubs first outdoor concert in over 20 years, with the ground's normal 11,300 capacity extended to around 17,000.

6. Birmingham New Street refurbishment completion. New parts of New Street station have already opened and the stations has been better equipped to cope with the thousands of people who pass through it daily.

2015 will see the long awaited development completed.

7. Dudley town centre revamp. Residents in Dudley will see the final product of the town centres makeover in 2015, including its historic market place.

The new-look market will have 74 stalls, new paving and feature lighting, while the town centre has benefitted from the laying of new stonework.

The project will also involve the relocation of public toilets to allow the repositioning of the Duncan Edwards statue, while the towns historic fountain will also be fully restored.

When all the work is done, shoppers and traders should be delighted with their new look town centre.

8. Wolverhampton youth zone. Wolves chairman Steve Morgan has said that the £6 million youth zone project, to be called The Way, will be something for Wolverhampton to be proud of.

It will allow youngsters to take part in five-a-side football, amateur dramatics, music, dancing, basketball, netball and a host of other activities under one roof.

Up to 30 youth clubs were axed in the city in the wake of council cuts but the Wolves chairman, who is also chairman of the youth zone project, clearly believes the new facility will be more than capable of filling the hole left by the loss of these clubs.

9. Completion of Midland Metro service between Wolverhampton and Birmingham. The completion of Metro tracks between Wolverhampton and Birmingham will be great news for not just commuters, but the region as a whole.

Not only will people be able to visit Birmingham with relative ease, Centro say their work will play a significant role in supporting some of the major redevelopment work taking place in the city, which will bring about an extra £2 billion for the economy and create up to 40,000 jobs.

10. New West Bromwich Building Society headquarters. Designed to reflect that the bank is a major regional employer and a modern, growing, successful, established organisation and an important part of the community, the new headquarters will be a real statement.

The 70,000 sq ft new landmark site will host 700 staff in the five-storey complex, which will be located at the Providence Place development in West Bromwich.

11. Castle Creatures at Dudley Zoo. An interactive medieval experience featuring live animals will tell the story of the Earl of Dudley's family and explain the history of the castle.

The new attraction will set the zoo in its historic location, telling the story from the castle's origins in 1070 through to the present day, focusing on how people in medieval times lived in close proximity with species like rats and bats. Features will include a grill where visitors can inhale authentic smells of the day.

Castle Creatures is due to open around Easter time.

12. Wolverhampton interchange. It is set to become the heart of the city's transport network at the centre of a £111.7 million regeneration in the city.

2015 is set to be another year of solid progress for the Wolverhampton Interchange project, which aims to combine rail, tram and bus services as well as restaurants, office space and shops.

A huge unit by the citys bus station is in the process of being converted to six retail units on the ground level and three floors of office space.

At present, Greene King will be the first tenants in the building when it opens a Hungry Horse pub, but this is just the start.

13. Cannock gets its first Marks & Spencer. Cannock has long aspired to having an M&S store.

In 2012, its name was at the top of the wish list of brands council bosses hoped to attract to a proposed shopping centre.

Plans for the centre never got off the ground but now the retailer is set to bring an upmarket Simply Food store to Cannock's Orbital shopping centre.

Council leader George Adamson said of the company's impending arrival: "You know you've made it when M&S comes to town."

14. £7 million Wednesbury leisure centre. A 25-metre pool, two dance studios and a 100-station fitness suite are just some of the attributes Wednesbury's new multi million pound leisure will have to offer locals.

The site, due to open in April 2015, has been described as "a new dawn for sports and leisure facilities in Wednesbury" by bosses at Sandwell Leisure Trust.

15. £50 million Mailbox redevelopment.

The former Royal Mail sorting office was sold in 2011 but new owners Brockton Capital and Milligan Retail only confirmed last year their plans for a wholesale regeneration, anchored by a revamped, 45,000 sq ft Harvey Nichols store.