Stop Option 'A' Wins

Last night [Friday 5th December 2003]Wednesfield protesters met at the Jenny Lee Centre in Wednesfield to hear a public meeting addressed by Wolverhampton City Council and Centro. There were close to two hundred people in the room.

They heard of the rational of the two routes that were out for consultation. They heard the City Council view of the consultation and they listened to Tom McGrath of Centro give the official Executive view of the need for for Metro to travel down March End Road.

The meeting was remarkably gentile considering the fact that Metro would take down 2 homes and require the gardens of 22 other homes.

A variety of speakers spoke against the scheme, there were many Councillors present, to hear the views of the residents. The Leader of the City Council Roger Lawrence condemned the consultation as being poor.

He also led from the front by declaring his allegiance to the ‘vote no’ to option ‘A’….the route through March End Road. Cllr Lawrence also suggested that the City Council would inform Centro of their decisions in January.

Local MP Ken Purchase also declared that he was against the route, and he was scathing in his assessment of the needs for a Metro at all in Wednesfield! He gave some very dubious figures to back up his comments. But the Meeting loved every word of the contribution as it was all that they wanted to hear.

Phil Bateman say’s “the fact is that Centro who is leading this project has created a problem that shouldn’t even be discussed. They have chosen about 1,000 metres of poor alignment for a route that will run in excess of 10 miles. They never needed to run Metro through March End Road. It was a crass decision.

Option ‘B’ through Well Lane onto Wednesfield Way and Steel Park Road then through to Willenhall is the best and least controversial. It is also the best route to take advantage of the new Wednesfield that is materialising.

There is space for the development of a kiss and ride site small bus interchange and a small but valuable Park and Ride site all in one of Wolverhampton’s prime industrial and development sites.

Now the real anti Metro opponents are joining genuine miffed residents to oppose the whole scheme, which in my opinion is wrong. We do of course require to plan transportation for future generations not just today’s, that is why we are in this mess now with our transport. No one is taking the longer view. That is why I refuse to be blown off course by short term argument.

We do require Metro, how we fund it is part of a different argument, but we do need fast public transport that can move people quickly and which is environmentally friendly. All of which Metro is.

My hope is that the City Council will weald its influence and quickly put Centro the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive in its place. Insist on the development of Option ‘B’. This will remove any threat of blight and help re assure residents that their property is safe. Many of these residents had been at one time supporters of the Metro serving Wednesfield. Finally I must raise concerns that there appeared to be no leading Councillors in the entourage from the Passenger Transport Authority at the meeting. As it will be ultimately those Councillors that will take the vote at the PTA on the whole scheme, I am surprised that commitment and courage was apparently missing.”