00:00This part of Sutton Coldfield was already one of the busiest places in the city to do the food shop.
00:06Along this stretch there's already a Tesco, an M&S food hall, an Aldi and a Lidl.
00:11Now another major supermarket, Sainsbury's, has opened behind me on the former home-based site on Chester Road,
00:17adding one more big name to an area that's already packed with competition.
00:22For shoppers that means more choice, more convenience and another large retail unit brought back into use.
00:28From a business point of view, the attraction is obvious.
00:31This is a busy suburban route, a well-known shopping destination and an area with plenty of passing traffic.
00:38But around here this has never just been a story about what's on the shelves.
00:41It's also about what happens on the roads outside.
00:45Chester Road and Jockey Road are already familiar pinch points, especially at busy times of the day.
00:51And congestion has been a long-running complaint for local residents.
00:55It's normally very busy around here.
00:57Yeah, there's good traffic.
00:58Yeah, the junction coming from this direction, from the Chester Road, from that way is normally very busy.
01:03So we actually, we go a different way.
01:05We go down all the back roads to avoid the main junction.
01:08So it is normally a real traffic hotspot and a place to avoid, if I'm honest, this particular junction.
01:16So it will probably add more traffic.
01:18This junction is particularly bad because there's a pinch point just behind you where the Chester Road crosses the Jockey
01:29Road and goes into a single lane before it opens out again for the retail park.
01:36And that can cause traffic backing all the way down beyond the next two traffic lights sometimes right down the
01:46Chester Road just to access the retail park and Tesco.
01:52And to allow it with only a single entry and exit point rather than creating an exit, say, onto Chester
02:01Road, nearly opposite Aldi.
02:06I can't understand it.
02:07I really can't.
02:08Well, that concern has also been reflected by local councillors.
02:12There has been public discussion about the impact of the store on traffic and access and calls for improvements around
02:18the surrounding road network.
02:20Residents have voiced concerns about what this latest addition could mean for congestion.
02:25Planning approval allowed the redevelopment of the old home-based site to go ahead with opening hours and delivery arrangements
02:31agreed as part of the scheme.
02:33But even with that process completed, the traffic issue has not gone away.
02:37If anything, it remains the central question now the doors are open and customers are arriving.
02:43So here in New Oscar, this recent opening is more than about one supermarket.
02:48It's about the balance between investment and infrastructure, between retail growth and road capacity, and between giving shoppers more choice
02:56and making sure the roads around them can still cope.
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