Telford & Wrekin Council M6 link proposal meeting with minister proves positive
A Telford and Wrekin delegation has had an “extremely positive” meeting with a government minister about proposals for a proper motorway link to be built from the M54 to the M6 North and the M6 Toll road.
The delegation included Telford & Wrekin Council leader Kuldip Sahota, local MPs, business leaders and Shropshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport, Simon Jones.
They met with Mike Penning, the Under Secretary of State for the Department for Transport to discuss the planned scheme.
Councillor Sahota had written to the Department for Transport to highlight the impact on businesses in Telford and Wrekin caused by the lack of a suitable link and parliamentary questions had been asked by both Telford and Wrekin MPs
Councillor Sahota said the Minister was positive about the scheme at yesterday’s meeting but he made it clear that it would have to be a motorway standard road and not a lower cost alternative that might require additional upgrading in future.
The current estimates for the scheme are between £280m and £300m including development costs and risk allowance.
Mr Penning also told the delegation that he would welcome a “one voice” approach to the scheme from Telford and Wrekin and neighbouring authorities that are affected.
This should concentrate on the economic importance of the scheme and its links to growth.
Should a scheme be identified that is deliverable and acceptable, the initial processes would be likely to start around 2015 with a construction start pencilled in for 2018.
The four local authorities affected are now to investigate what they can do in terms of securing developer contributions to deliver the scheme
Councillor Sahota said: “We had an excellent meeting which took in all political parties and I am delighted we are putting party politics aside on such an important issue.
“If we can persuade the government to support the plan, it will be a real boost for the local economy and persuade businesses to invest in Telford.
“I want to thank the town’s two MPs – David Wright and Mark Pritchard – for working together with the council to get the meeting set up and we have approached this in a cross party way working together.
“I’m not pretending this can happen on every issue but we can always do more together if we speak with one voice.”
The M54 is part of the Trans European Network for freight but the current motorway layout means that it only provides a link to the south of England as the routes for progressing north are on local de-trunked roads.
The absence of a suitable link has been holding back economic development and inward investment in Telford and the council believes that the opening of the Jaguar Land Rover plant at i54 adds further weight to the M54/M6 Link project.
The link was originally proposed when the existing M6 Toll was built but has subsequently been delayed.
