Wolverhampton rightly sees transportation as a key requirement for the City now and into the future. Recently the Head of Transportation told Councillors that in the last three years £33m had been spent as part of the Transport Capital Programme.
In 2019-2020 there is to be a total investment of £14m and an additional £3m will be spent on highway maintenance.
Yet we all know of roads where the surface standard is quickly breaking down, more Potholes etc. I thought that the telling response we received to questions about the state of the roads was very illuminating.
“If all the roads in Wolverhampton was brought up to a reasonable standard it would cost an additional £24m”.
The City Council and Councillors are aware that our highway network is indeed degenerating. But this Government and successive Governments have cut back and axed the transport grants. All of that does in the end is to force a ‘make do and mend’ capacity. Areas like road safety get cut because there just is not enough resources to deliver on. Austerity we are told is ‘dead’. But there is little or no evidence coming from this Government that is showing that essential spending on the basic infrastructure is going to be re -assessed anyway soon.
I remain committed to delivering better more modern transportation system for the City. Where and when we can. I want to see Wednesfield with an extended metro route serving New Cross and the Village with the huge Bentley Bridge retail and Leisure complex.
We know climate change is having a dramatic affect on the Global weather. We need to plan for at least two new extensions to Line One of the current Midland Metro network. An extension to Wednesfield, and we need an extension that serves the Molinaux and then travels on towards the I54 site, and the M54 and Staffordshire Boundaries. We need that extension because the Government and Local Government in Staffordshire are building big on there Villages. All that extra car traffic over the next 10 years will be flooding the city. We need an extended and efficient Public Transport service built now to deal with the future prosperity and health of the City of Wolverhampton. The remaining time I am on the City Council I will be reminding and campaigning for transportation development.
