After the Government fails to come up with funds for a vital M4 link road at Emersons Green, is the wider Kingswood area facing gridlock?

By BeckyFeather | Sunday, April 10, 2011, 12:33

Because of Coalition cutbacks, we are not going to get the much-talked-about link road to the M4 at Emersons Green where 6,000 jobs are currently being created at the new science park and another 2,000-plus homes are going to be built in the coming years.

Building work is well under way on the science park and is clearly visible from the M4 Picture: SPark

How is all this development being allowed without the motorway link that was first mooted 20 years?

Currently drivers cannot reach the motorway without travelling on the Avon Ring Road (A4174) to the M32 in Hambrook about three-and-a-half miles away or taking a seven-mile trip through Pucklechurch to Tormarton, even though the new science park is very close to the M4.

Think how traffic levels have increased in the area as a maze of residential roads have replaced farming land over the last 15 or so years. There is also the busy retail park which includes Sainsbury's.

Last summer outline planning permission was given for thousands more new homes - Emersons Green East will see up to 2,550 houses built. Land has also been set aside for employment use and community facilities with one primary school included in the scheme and land identified for a second primary, as well as a secondary school.

Meanwhile the science park - called SPark - is on course to be open by the end of this summer and buildings on the £300m project are starting to take shape.

Nearby is the Emersons Green NHS Treatment Centre - a hospital by any other name - which opened in 2009. There is also the 30-hectare Emerald Park, which South Gloucestershire Council hails as a "major development area". Sainsbury's has a 30,000sq distribution depot there. And then there's the prestigious new Harlequin Office Park too.

In 2004, a year-long review of the transport network, funded by the Government Office for the South West, called on the Department for Transport to provide a direct link to the M4 from Emersons Green.

But of course it all boils down to money - or lack of it. The current Transport Minister Norman Baker (Lib Dem) has said that due to spending cutbacks, the Coalition does not have the money for any road scheme not yet adopted.

A year ago Kingswood's then MP Roger Berry (Labour) said the science park made the idea of a link road from a new junction on the M4 to the ring road at Emersons Green "even more necessary".

And his successor Chris Skidmore, speaking when he was the prospective Conservative candidate, said this: "Currently the ring road has major tailbacks due to the amount of traffic heading towards the M4.

"Quite a few of these cars are heading towards Swindon or London and have to double back on themselves after joining the motorway.

"An M4 link road to the Avon ring road was planned but the (Labour) government axed it. By building the M4 link road there would be reduced congestion which would reduce pollution. With all the extra houses that have already planned for Emersons Green, now more than ever we need this vital piece of infrastrucure."

He set up a petition at the time, and now as MP will be continuing the fight for the link.

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Comments

if it costs that much Becky then there is no chance that is going to happen then in the current climate unfortunately.

By king1and at 17:05 on 11/04/11
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Yeah roads cost a fortune, I studied environmental science at Soundwell College after leaving school and I recall the lecturer saying that it costs about the average house price for 20 meters of motorway. I wonder what the ring road cost.. and to think that the shortwood section stood untouched and unconnected for years because of protesters. Surely if local MP's fight for a slip way off Badminton Road, similar to the slip way on to the M5 near Thornbury, this will not only ease a short term issue but it will be very useful in the future to work alongside an Emersons Green direct link..

By Richard34 at 00:42 on 11/04/11
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I have heard that the estimated cost of the link road is £40m! Staggering, eh?!

By BeckyFeather at 21:44 on 10/04/11
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Interesting Becky, I haven't taken any interest in this idea before but it makes a lot of sense and at first I was shocked to learn that it's three and half miles to Hambrook from Emersons Green.. it never seems too far in the car but for years I worked in Tytherington and getting to the ringroad from Fishponds was always painful. In the end I found a new route and went through the lanes connecting via Frampton Cotterell. However adding to your story has it been discussed to add a connection to the M4 off Badminton Road? Surely this is a far cheaper option for the minute and it's just one and bit miles from Emersons Green shops. My mates grandmother actually owns the land on one side lol. It's been in their family for 100's of years and at one time they owned everything in that directions, her swimming pool as a child was bitterwell lake. But coming back to your article, this could work until the recession has passed and surely the government can get the job done for £2m.. I asked a few times if a similar scheme could happen off Caldharbour Lane between Stapleton and UWE Frenchay Campus. This would ease traffic in aloing the M32 and give direct access to the UWE.. hopefully this will happen one day, it's scheduled to happen as part of the GBBN project apparently but I haven't seen the plans yet.

By Richard34 at 21:28 on 10/04/11
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