Question..Does stafford have a ringroad?

[henryscat]

I'd say you've probably not seen the Weston Rd then...

The Weston Road has some pretty major traffic generators on it - like the hospital and the University, as well as ultimately the town centre. Some kind of outer ring road will not magically remove traffic from Weston Road as most of the traffic is a function of places like the hospital.

It's pretty evident, certainly from living here, that Stafford does indeed need a circular (like the originally planned one which never got finished).

Look at where the traffic/trip generators are -for instance, town centre, the three main supermarkets, college and retail parks all require travelling into and not around the edge of the town.

Stafford portrays itself as being in a good location for business, which it most certainly is, however judging by the number of empty shops around, I'd say that something is most definitely putting people off.

Empty shops are primarily down to the state of the economy and most other towns are in exactly the same situation.

And as for the cash-flow problem, well, if we didn't spend so much pointless cash burning electricity in the how-ever-many thousand traffic lights we have around the town, then we might have some spare cash for decent projects.

If I hadn't have bought that packet of crisps earlier I could have bought a nice shiny new Ferrari instead........

And didn't the CC just have a load of really expensive new offices built?

How much road does circa £30m buy? Not a lot, and nowhere near enough to build the road you're desirous of.....

 

[ddub1984]

Also makes me wonder how much extra response time it adds on to the journey of fire trucks and ambulances too - both within about 1/2 mile of each other, pretty much on the same road.

I commented on another thread that when I used to live on Meadowcroft park, I once fell down the stairs & broke my elbow. The ambulance took me to hospital via the baswich bridges route because the traffic was so bad heading into town. Hardly an ideal situation- those bridges are just not suitable for ambulances or the high volume of traffic currently using them.

Henryscat- the Birmingham situation you refer to is a unique situation, where pedestrian routes around the city centre were closed off. A ringroad around the edge of the town will not have the same effect. In fact it will take routes away from the town centre making it better for pedestrians, if anything.

I know taxi drivers in Cannock who say they would not work in Stafford because it is just such a nightmare for traffic. Completing the outer ringroad past the fire station & all the way around to J13 is way overdue & would benefit emergency services & businesses massively, as well as ordinary residents trying to get around.

 

[henryscat]

Henryscat- the Birmingham situation you refer to is a unique situation, where pedestrian routes around the city centre were closed off.

There were pedestrian routes but they were limited, unpleasant, and prevented you from taking direct routes. The ring road also constrained development of the City Centre for nearly 30 years. It is not a unique situation - the severance effect caused by roads and ring roads can be seen in many places.

A ringroad around the edge of the town will not have the same effect. In fact it will take routes away from the town centre making it better for pedestrians, if anything.

I'll repeat myself.... Look at where the key traffic generators are: the bulk of traffic does not want to avoid town.

I know taxi drivers in Cannock who say they would not work in Stafford because it is just such a nightmare for traffic.

Traffic in Stafford really is not that bad. Anyone who thinks it is a nightmare needs to look at how bad traffic can be in other towns and cities.

Completing the outer ringroad past the fire station & all the way around to J13 is way overdue & would benefit emergency services & businesses massively, as well as ordinary residents trying to get around.

Repeating myself again.... at what cost? Where will the money come from? Is it the right answer?

Typically, when bypasses are built two things happen - any capacity freed up on the bypassed bit of road fills up with new traffic and the new bypass will usually then be built around with new housing/industrial units which then fill the bypass with even more traffic.

 

[Mr X]

But without new roads, there can be very little development. Without development the town will slip backwards as other locations move ahead. Nobody will want to invest in, or move to Stafford. Whilst traffic jams are a pain in the arse, at least a busy road means people are here and using it. I'd rather see new roads built that fill up with new traffic travelling to new homes and new businesses than see Stafford's roads get quieter as a result of people moving away.

I don't have the attitude of those in the 60's/70's who's attitude was to flatten huge areas of land and start again - if you do that you end up with a very unpleasant place most of the time, and it really annoys me when areas are flattened when the buildings and their surroundings could have been put to good use as they are. But sometimes, things need to be done to progress, and at the moment nout is being done!

 

[Gramaisc]

Whilst traffic jams are a pain in the arse, at least a busy road means people are here and using it.

I'm always intrigued by how busy the roads are in Stoke, considering that there's very little left there now. If the place ever picks up again, it will come to a complete stop.

 

[Neon Jay]

I'm always intrigued by how busy the roads are in Stoke, considering that there's very little left there now. If the place ever picks up again, it will come to a complete stop.

Certainly on festival park, there are a good number of call-centres springing up, and a few engineering firms etc... Good for jobs I guess?

With any major build such as this would entail, preservation of natural habitats / beauty should be kept at the forefront of any design; and with modern construction techniques and ethics, this is quite reasonable to achieve. Admittedly all will come at cost, and I appreciate that laying a road at ground level, never mind above or below ground, is phenomenally expensive, but then that's down to us living in a country where we at least have the skilled engineers and workmen capable of properly and thoroughly doing a good job (i know there are exceptions to this btw). I suspect that legal red-tape stops the process being more efficient; Top Gear proved that it IS possible to knuckle down and get the work done in (literally) 20% of the time.

I guess in all fairness, at least if my tax does go up to pay for useful work such as this, I'll be safe in the knowledge that it is, in part, being used to keep British (and a certain number of other nations) workmen in jobs, which in turn stimulates the economy further, etc etc... Can this be such a bad thing?

Just looking at a map of Stafford, and the eye picks up on the gap between the tech park and the south of Stafford, this is especially apparent on google maps - not that THAT should be relied upon for any accurate traffic / road type analysis lol - I'd be interested to see the actual statistics of our road networks to find out what the actual figures are. However, forcing traffic over those ridiculous little bridges is simply daft.

With many existing traffic generators in town, surely diverting around them instead of through the middle of them seems a more logical solution? The argument that traffic doesn't want to avoid town seems thin, as currently it has no other choice but to go through town - for example, anything entering Stafford from an easterly direction wishing to travel to, say, Penkridge, has little choice; likewise, every time there's a pileup between J13 + J14 the whole town centre clogs, which again could be (certainly partially) avoided by a proper bypass. Again though, realistically there's probably valid reason that nothing has been done, it just evades the average motorist such as I. It would be interesting again to see what the actual figure clocks in at; at least that way we could see whether it's worth taxpayer's cash.

And would the term bypass be more accurate for the Queensway?

Edit - missed a bit lol

 

[basil]

Sadly i wunna be around to see the fruition of your plan but indeed it seems to be a goer....

 

[Jonah]

Am I not right in saying that the council, of all people, made a slight cockup with the budget and ran out of money for the Beaconside road? Hence why it stops by our house (kingston hill) by the fire station? (for those not from this end, if you carry on over past the new fire station, the road simply ends abruptly with a fence and field)

The other rumour I heard was that the NIMBY crew got into full swing and VETO'd the bypass, thereby condemning Stafford to utter hell between 8am - 10am. You can forget trying to get into town at that time, it's usually quicker to walk. The traffic's very often spilled out from the top of the Weston road and backed up right the way around to the RAF / MOD base... now, surely the government already creams enough off our fuel tax without needing to force us to burn far more of the already criminally priced fuel than required anyway? And I'm pretty sure the old emissions aren't exactly helped, if you follow that line of thought...?

One final thought - it's perfectly fine to tear up castletown for an utter waste of a through road, but we can't rectify a pretty evident problem by finishing the job we started in the first place, PROPERLY?

I need a ciggie after that...

But exactly where would a bypass go if it extended from the Fire Station? How would it actually reach the A449 which is what it needs to do? Baswich, Weeping Cross, Hillcroft Park and Wildwood are all in the way.

As far as I know the Eastern Distributor Road has been "on the cards" since the mid 1960s and its never got any further than a few plans being drawn.

 

[Neon Jay]

Kind of my point - it at least needs properly looking into

 

[ddub1984]

The planned route is shown here:
http://staffordbc-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal/planning/cs/options?pointId=1228749682050

It carries on past the fire station, then does a sharp left just as you enter baswich, skirts round the back of the new Saxonfields estate, round the edge of baswich, then crosses the Milford Road at its junction with The Rise here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Walton-on-the-Hill,+Berkswich&hl=en&ll=52.78798,-2.070778&spn=0.001927,0.005659&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=15.45591,46.362305&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=18

If you look you can see the gap that has been left for the road. It then goes through the back of Walton High School grounds, eventually crossing the Cannock Road just as you leave Stafford after Old Croft Road here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Walton-on-the-Hill,+Berkswich&hl=en&ll=52.77824,-2.074142&spn=0.001927,0.005659&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=15.45591,46.362305&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=18

Linking then to the Argos/Acton Trussell roundabout on Wolverhampton Road, just down from J13. If you follow it round on Google Maps you can see where the road will fit quite easily.

 

[Mr X]

It carries on past the fire station, then does a sharp left just as you enter baswich, skirts round the back of the new Saxonfields estate, round the edge of baswich, then crosses the Milford Road at its junction with The Rise here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Walton-on-the-Hill,+Berkswich&hl=en&ll=52.78798,-2.070778&spn=0.001927,0.005659&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=15.45591,46.362305&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=18

Unfortunately, a few years ago Walton High School were allowed to build on the land left for the road. I don't know much about this or why the building was allowed, except that land previously occupied by mobile classrooms is now occupied by a 'proper' building.

But surely the obvious route for this road is, and always has been, straight down Baswich Lane. There's a few junctions that would need sorting: Saxonfields and Tilcon Avenue need those ridiculous, poorly aligned mini roundabouts removing, and some of the other roads would need adapting, like Porlock Avenue (not so sure how easily these could be improved, though). Someone's already said this before, but now Baswich House has been demolished a nice big roundabout could easily be installed at the top of Radford Bank.

Of course, people living on Baswich Lane would, quite rightly, object. But we can just send henryscat to knock on all their doors and argue that this road isn't what Stafford needs and, therefore, there will be no increase in the traffic passing their houses - everybody who drives in Stafford is heading to the town centre anyway - why would anybody whatsoever want to drive between Beaconside and Weeping Cross!?

 

[ddub1984]

That made me laugh :-D

Im sure Walton High School could build new buildings to make way for the road, they would be pretty much the only casualties of the new road, the only other casualty really being farmland & peoples views, which are not protected, something which has been debated on another thread.

Ive always thought another route would be possible going round the other side of Baswich & coming down through the Radford Bank floodplain in front of the BMW garage- it would have to be a road on stilts like Queensway to protect the floodplain, but it could work. Might benefit the BMW garage & the Radford pub as well, more passing traffic. It would still be relatively easy to link to Acton Gate from there without hitting any housing.

 

[Neon Jay]

The planned route is shown here:
http://staffordbc-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal/planning/cs/options?pointId=1228749682050

Interesting... how old is this?

 

[Withnail]

Unfortunately, a few years ago Walton High School were allowed to build on the land left for the road. I don't know much about this or why the building was allowed...

If you look at the map there are two proposed routes, the other going round the back of Walton’s hill - down through Jacob’s Ladder i believe.

My guess would be that this was the preferred route, though expecting heavy opposition they designed a second route that ran right past a school to bring out the

brigade and make the Greenfield route more palatable.

It does seem highly unlikely that this road will be built anyway, anywhere, and Walton really did need to expand to accommodate the growth in number of households round these parts.

P.S. the EDR was recently, and extensively, discussed here for further reference.