TACKLING congestion on the increasingly traffic-choked Birmingham Road was top of the agenda at the first of three public consultation meetings.
MP Nadhim Zahawi chaired the meeting at Stratford ArtsHouse on Friday (January 22).
Around 100 townspeople attended together with senior representatives from Stratford District Council and highway chiefs from Warwickshire County Council.
Traffic on the road has been an ongoing issue for many years with much of it made up of shoppers heading to the Maybird Centre and nearby Tesco.
During the evening a number of proposals were put forward to help alleviate the problem including improving pedestrian and cycle links, road widening, and a dedicated slip road into Tesco car park while longer term measures could include a new east-west link road.
A second event was set to take place yesterday (Thursday) as The Observer went to press, and a final event is scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday). It will take place at the Rother Street venue between 10am and 4pm when transport chiefs will be on hand to answer any questions.
Exhibition boards will also be available to view at Stratford Library from Tuesday (February 2) until Monday March 7 – the closing date for public responses.
A county council spokesman said: “Warwickshire County Council launched a public consultation to ask Stratford residents their opinions on how the Birmingham Road corridor could be improved.
“The road is often congested with slow average speeds and the need to tackle congestion was identified as one of two key priorities from the Stratford Traffic Summits held last year.
“The launch event was well attended and responses will now help inform the development of a proposal for the Birmingham Road corridor before the public are further consulted later in 2016.”
Mr Zahawi added: “The Birmingham Road consultation launch event was a great success and a vital next step on the road to solving our traffic problems.
“The event was designed to promote and launch the consultation and I believe there was a good level of awareness and engagement but I would urge everyone to take part in this important consultation.”
Visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/BirminghamRoadStratford to see details of the proposals and complete a feedback form.
