Rallying call to save Royal British Legion clubs
- Today's leader
M6 toll road plans put on hold
Friday 16th July 2010, 11:23AM BST.
Plans for a £70 million extension of the M6 Toll Road to link with Shropshire’s M54 have been put on hold, a Government minister has revealed.
The project has been put on ice as part of a spending freeze imposed by the Coalition Government while it tries to tackle the UK’s record deficit.
But Telford MP David Wright today accused the Government of having little interest in Telford and the link road, which would make it quicker for drivers to get into the county from the West Midlands.
Mr Wright called on Michael Penning, the minister for roads and motoring, to speed up the construction of the multi-million pound bid to link the M54 with the toll road.
But Mr Penning said all Government road schemes were now on hold and under review to make sure they were “value for money”.
He said he could not comment on the link road project until the spending review had been completed later this year.
Mr Wright said: “The Minister’s response did not even address the question of what plans there were in place and how far things had moved since the announcement a link road was to be built.”
Sponsored Links
Most Commented
- Shropshire Council will face £8m redundancy bill
- Clampdown on Shrewsbury chuggers
- Bishop's gay marriage views do nothing to support bible teachings
- Letter: No sense in overseas job adverts
- Letter: Alcohol price plans annoy me
- Letter: Angered by close encounter of the furred kind
- The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff doesn't raise a smile
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Speaking from the perspective of someone who covers a lot of road miles on business, it’s hardly a big effort to use the A5/A449 to get from the M6 Toll to the M54. Is the link road really necessary? It might make it quicker to get into Shropshire from the West Midlands by all of, ooh, 5 minutes.
Report abuse
I agree with Jake. It would be handy and convenient, but it’s not absolutely necessary.
Anyway, with the price of the M6 toll, I think that David Wright is a little disingenuous in saying that it would allow drivers to reach Shropshire more quickly from the West Midlands.
Most lorry drivers that I know prefer to save their money and use the standard, free of charge M6, leaving the toll road to those in a hurry or on expenses.
Anyway, the most direct link from the West Midlands is surely the M6 itself – one would hardly go from Birmingham to the start of the M6 toll and then back around on themselves to get to Shropshire, especially as the potential log-jams around Wednesbury should be soon be eased anyway after 4-lane running is introduced in the near future.
We’re all in this together, so I’m happy to forego this extension until the country is in a better financial state and can afford it.
Report abuse