00:00Hello, I'm Lillian Greenwood. I'm the Minister for the Future of Roads. I'm here
00:05along with the West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker and we've been on a tour
00:10of the area to see the impact that the M54, M6 Link Road is going to have on the
00:19local villages like Featherstone and Shares Hill, on the West Midlands region
00:24and on the country. I'm really pleased that following the spending review we
00:29were able to announce that the Labour government is funding this Link Road.
00:34It's going to make an enormous difference to the local economy. It's going to
00:38improve safety and cut congestion for people who live in those local villages
00:42on the A460. It's going to move traffic, particularly lorries that were stuck in
00:47congestion, off that A460 and onto the new Link Road. It's a way to go but the
00:54funding is definitely there and we're really keen for the West Midlands and
00:59the country to see the benefits. Thanks Lillian for coming today. It's a really
01:03important infrastructure project for the West Midlands. As the Minister said it's
01:07going to relieve some A roads of lots of congestion. It's going to improve
01:13transportation across the region. It's going to improve our productivity. It's
01:18going to open up employment land. It's creating new jobs.
01:21I'm Sarah Spink from Midlands Connect and this is a project that we've been working on for a number of
01:25years along with the local authorities and national highways because it is just that
01:29missing link to the network. If you're coming in from Telford, if you're coming in from Shropshire
01:34and you want to go north, businesses have to go through along the A460 or
01:38through Featherstone and Sharesil and actually we've just driven through there
01:42and it's pretty busy on a Tuesday afternoon and to live in an area like that
01:48because a lot of freight vehicles go and press your door day in and day out and I think that's what this project will do.
01:53It will work on a local level because it will take that traffic away. It will work on a
01:58regional level because actually we're better connecting businesses across the
02:02region. They're going to be able to get their goods to market better. They're going to be
02:05able to access more customers. People are going to come in and get jobs and
02:09therefore have that benefit to the UK PLC. So it's a win-win situation for
02:15everybody really and it's such a little link. It's two and a half kilometres, 1.6 miles.
02:20Yeah. So let's just get it done.
02:22You said there it's a relatively small piece of road actually. In terms of the kind of economic benefits
02:28and how important now is it just to get back into the projects and get it delivered?
02:32I think whenever you do any small projects you want to make sure that you have government backing and that's what announcements this year have really pushed that forward.
02:42But this has been in the process, in the pipeline for a number of years. So really it's all
02:47that coming to fruition. So now we just have to keep that momentum going and make sure it gets built and delivered.
02:53Thank you very much.
02:59Did you ever tell me what those issues were or was it just effectively mothballed by the last government?
03:03Well the last government mothballed this project in 2022.
03:07I'm really pleased that as a result of our spending review we've been able to confirm that the project is going ahead.
03:13And of course with any project of this sort we have to ensure that it meets our strength-stretching environmental targets,
03:19that it improves biodiversity. Those are things that are covered in the development consent order process.
03:25And we've been looking to make sure that this project benefits everyone, both local, regional and national.
03:32I think it's a really good news story.
03:34Excellent. And just one more question from me.
03:36And it's on a link project. It's actually the North Coast Relief Road in Shrewsbury.
03:40Is there any update on that scheme? I know the Liberal Democrat administration in Shropshire were
03:45effectively looking for an off-brand to scrap the scheme.
03:50They were looking for some financial support for that measure. Is there an update on that project?
03:56Well look, the last government had many, many schemes in what was the snappily titled MRN LLM, Major Road Network Large Local Majors Programme.
04:07Those were supposed to be in construction delivered by 2025 and of course they weren't.
04:12And a lot of things have changed in that time.
04:14These are all schemes that have been brought forward by local authorities.
04:19The truth is we're not going to be able to develop all of them and many local authorities have decided the schemes
04:24that are either not what's needed or are no longer affordable.
04:28That's why we've got a review process for a number of those schemes.
04:32North West Relief Road is one of them and we'll be having conversations with local authorities,
04:36including Shropshire County Council, about the future of that scheme.
04:40Is there a time scale on that issue or is it just interesting?
04:46So that work is underway now. We're intent on doing that work so that we can give certainty to people.
04:54But you know, that's conversations that need to be had between the department and local authorities
05:00to work out which schemes have still got the possibility of being delivered
05:03and which ones really aren't now suitable for the purpose they were intended for.
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