New Tesco entrance scrapped from Stratford’s Birmingham Road project

IT’S an improvement to Stratford’s Birmingham Road that has been spoken about for around seven years, but has now been scrapped by the county council.

The new entrance into the Tesco store formed a significant part of the improvement scheme along with having an extra lane for traffic heading into Stratford along Birmingham Road.

Warwickshire County Council has changed the scheme so Stratford will have neither of those.

Changes were made to the proposed lane structure in November 2023 (due to a reported drop in traffic levels) and today (Thursday) it was announced WCC had cut the second Tesco car park entrance from the scheme.

Instead, the council said traffic modelling, after removing the traffic lights at the junction of Western Road, showed “that the proposed changes on Western Road sufficiently reduce the current traffic delays being experienced and that the additional car park entrance, as previously proposed, would no longer have a significant advantage”.

The council added: “The costs to create this second entrance were also prohibitively high due to the existence of multiple utilities beneath the carriageway at this location, and the value for money this change represented wasn’t sufficient to retain it within the plans.”

So what is Stratford getting in the final phase of the Birmingham Road works? New storm water sewers, widened and resurfaced paths for cyclists and pedestrians, new street lighting, a new bus shelter, fewer traffic lights and road resurfacing.

Cllr Tim Sinclair (Con, Stratford North) said: “I’m pleased to see the Phase three works get under way as they represent the greatest improvements to traffic flow for residents and visitors, something the town has been crying out for, for years.

“Phase three will also bring benefits for pedestrians and cyclists with the new shared use paths connecting the works already completed in Phase one and Phase two.

“I’m also extremely pleased to see changes to the traffic lights at Western Road, by McDonald’s. Congestion here, caused by the two sets of lights at the main Clopton Road-Arden Street junction and then Western Road, is one of the main complaints from drivers along this stretch.

“Throughout the scheme, I’m pleased to say that the council has been pragmatic and adaptable, and the changes to the design continue that way of working. They have removed the second entrance to Tesco and saved the subsequent cost and disruption of the work in favour of the later adaptations to the Western Road lights, and this makes sense to me in terms of the most effective way of dealing with the traffic delays.

“Both I and the project team will continue to work with local residents and businesses as the third and final phase begins. We apologise in advance for any delays to journeys but will always listen and, wherever possible, make any adaptations to ease the disruption.”

Two-way traffic will continue to run on Birmingham Road on narrow lanes during the initial stages of the work.

The main works will then be completed in sections running from St Peter’s Way to the Clopton Road-Arden Street junction and are expected to be completed this year.

Details of the first section of these works along with timings and traffic management arrangements will be announced shortly, the council said.

It is expected that these works will commence in early April.

“To minimise disruption and as each section of Phase three progresses, we will also see the resurfacing of the carriageway, as well as the resurfacing of the carriageway within the Phase two section of the works (Bishopton Roundabout to Worths Way),” the council said.