New doubt on bypass scheme
A £75 million new bypass to help cut congestion between Stourport and Kidderminster could be axed from future transport plans because of a funding crisis, it is feared.
A £75 million new bypass to help cut congestion between Stourport and Kidderminster could be axed from future transport plans because of a funding crisis, it is feared.
Warnings were sounded today that funds for the Stourport Relief Road may be lost due to the credit crunch.
Conservative spokesman Mark Garnier, who has been pressing for more than five years for a relief road claimed that "a lack of Government cash meant the scheme was likely to be pushed onto the back-burner".
His comments come after Councillor Nigel Knowles, Labour spokesman for the Wyre Forest, backed calls for the road to be built.
He has asked Ian Austin MP, Minister for the West Midlands, to revive new hope for the long-awaited project which has been in the pipeline for more than a decade. It is envisaged the relief road would run from the A451 Kidderminster to Stourport road, north of the town and around the back of Manor Farm.
The road would then cross the Hartlebury and Worcester roads before making use of the old railway line and cross the River Severn, near the breakwater, before rejoining the A451 in Areley Kings.
Hopes that the route would become a reality were dashed in 2006 when the Government told Worcestershire County Council funds were not available.
But there were hopes that the project would be included in the next round of road schemes. Mr Garnier said the Conservatives were committed to find vital funding for the scheme.
And he said he was "delighted" more weight had been thrown behind work to bring the relief road to Stourport. He said he feared that the current state of the nation's finances would see the scheme shelved.