Hundreds attend Stratford Transport Summit

HUNDREDS gathered at Stratford-upon-Avon ArtsHouse last night for the presentation of the town's long awaited transport strategy.

The strategy was unveiled during Stratford’s fourth Transport Summit, chaired by Nadhim Zahawi MP and outlined the proposals aimed at reducing town centre congestion and pollution and encouraging more people to walk or cycle into Stratford.

The 31-page strategy aimed to show how the town would cope with future development and how the historic core of Stratford would be protected.

Cllr Robert Vaudry, portfolio holder for infrastructure at Stratford District Council, ran through the strategy outlining aspects such as the proposed southern, western and eastern relief roads, plans to upgrade the town’s park and ride offering and a shared use scheme for the town centre.

Following the presentation a question-and-answer session was held, with residents expressing strong opinions about several aspects of the plan.

There were concerns raised about the possibility of the town having to accommodate extra housing development to pay for the relief roads and disappointment from some that the reinstatement of the Honeybourne Railway, seems to have been put on the back burner.

There was criticism levelled at a lack of detail contained in the strategy, while others called for quicker progress on measures to improve the town’s transport problems and showed disappointment that many of the proposals would only be implemented in the long-term.

However there does seem to be a more positive outlook on easing the traffic problems on Birmingham Road, with a decision on whether an improvement scheme will receive funding from the Local Enterprise Partnership expected later this month.

The strategy has now gone out for public consultation and residents are encouraged to leave their comments by visiting https://askwarks.wordpress.com/

For more on this story read next Thursday’s Stratford Herald. A full video from the event will be available later.