Closed meeting discusses upgrade of M5 junction 10 - and full business case is to be prepared
THE Highways Agency has left the door open to a major revamp of junction 10 of the M5 in years to come.
Officials from the agency met Tewkesbury Borough Council and other interested parties yesterday to discuss the upgrade of Junction 10 of the M5.
It followed the Echo's Open Up The M5 campaign, to get the motorway junction near Cheltenham made four-way.
Following the private meeting at the borough council's headquarters in Tewkesbury, it emerged that the agency planned to start work on strengthening the bridge later this year. It made it clear that it would not have time to arrange for a full revamping of the northbound-only junction, even if it could secure the extra £13.2 million that would cost.
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Highways Agency officials did, however, say they would consider a junction revamp in the future and a full business case for that will now be put together by the borough council, in collaboration with the community. The agency's regional planning manager Andrew Page-Dove said: "We will continue to work with Gloucester City Council, Cheltenham Borough Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council while they seek to identify an economic case to support an all-movements junction at junction 10."
Councillor Robert Vines (C, Badgeworth) is Tewkesbury Borough Council's leader.
He said: "It was an extremely positive meeting, which allowed all interested parties to sit down together to discuss the issue.
"It is clear now that we need to do further work to develop a business case and we will be working together to achieve that."
Tewkesbury MP Laurence Robertson has backed the Echo's campaign.
Although unable to be at yesterday's meeting, his assistant, Mark Calway was there.
He said: "We need to prove that there's an economic case for making the junction four-way and I think we can."
He said he felt no final decisions on the matter had been taken and another important meeting would take place on Thursday in London between Mr Robertson and transport secretary Stephen Hammond.
Mr Calway said the agency had stated that it would take two to three years to achieve a revamping of the junction, even if the planning for it began immediately.
And it had said that no savings would be made by carrying out the revamp at the same time as the vitally important bridge repair.
7 Comments
by tewkman
Wednesday, February 27 2013, 7:22PM
“So much for closed meeting! The HA and the council will probably be all for the Hitchins development at J9, on a road that is already congested. The best solution would be to allow this development to be built at J10 and make the developer pay a major contribution to the alterations to the junction. Most of the traffic visiting this centre is more than likely coming straight off the M5 anyway.”
by Louise9099
Wednesday, February 27 2013, 12:52PM
“I agree with all of the comments on here so far it makes perfect sense to change the junction from all angles. However we are now back to "strengthening the bridge", which I believe was the original story that TiG ran. The public outrage of this story was the amount of time the bridge is going to be closed for while this is being done (was it a year?) This story seems to have been buried under the proposed (or rather the "not going to happen" changes) Can anyone from authority advise what this length of time will be??”
by Jane__H
Tuesday, February 26 2013, 7:50PM
“What I would like to see (as tax payer) is the breakdown of the cost, I can't belive it would cost an extra £13.2 million to make the junction into a four way.”
by Matt1006
Tuesday, February 26 2013, 3:16PM
“The HA do not have a good track record in this neck of the woods. Took them 3(?) attempts at the upgrade works to J12, J11a is not ideal, and then there's the on-going "missing link" fiasco, with no sign of anything meaningful being done there.
And J10 looks like it's going to rumble on for years to come. Crack on and sort out the knackered bridge, as no upgrade works are going to happen for the foreseeable. Perhaps we'll have to wait for the tens of thousands of new homes to be built first - and the likely gridlock in the area - before they then decide that a full upgrade of J10 might be a good idea after all.
And whilst we're at it, I wonder how much involvement the HA are having with regards to developments close to J9 at Tewkesbury? New supermarket (Sainsbury, I think) has approval, now there are musings from Hitchins over a garden centre and retail outlet village opposite, and the possibility of housing on Ashchurch camp. It's bad enough around J9 now, so dread to think what it could be like in a few years time if nothing is done.
Given how long large transport schemes such as these take to complete once the green light is given, it helps if they're proactive and not reactive.”
by Shireresident
Tuesday, February 26 2013, 2:39PM
“I can see why this meeting was "closed" or secret. The fact that the council was told to go away and mug up a "business plan" is shorthand for" you're not a priority give us reasons why you should jump the queue". The participants are putting a face saving positive spin on this non event but I won't hold my breath regarding the outcome. At the end of the day, we'll get what we usually get from Tewkesbury and it's absent from the meeting MP-----nothing, absolutely nothing.”
by supernova1
Tuesday, February 26 2013, 11:31AM
“And it had said that no savings would be made by carrying out the revamp at the same time as the vitally important bridge repair.'
I'm sorry, but this really is not true.
If I call out a plumber twice for two different jobs, I can be very sure that had I got the two done at the same time, it would have been cheaper. Plus, if I put one of the jobs off till 'in years to come'........I can again be very sure the cost will have increased significantly.
Moreover, if we leave the upgrade till 'years to come', you can bet your @r$£, some new, and previously unheard of 'Euro tick-boxes/hurdles' will have to be overcome, again making the job too expensive.
I'm fed up with vitally needed infrastructure work like this being mothballed.
It will cause investment indecision, and many other economic negatives.
If nothing else, look at the ghastly errors we have made in J11a & J12.
With the latter needing £squillions, and huge upheaval time and time again.
Bit the bullet, and get on with it.”
by Flat-Broke Films Ltd
Tuesday, February 26 2013, 9:58AM
“It is a shame that a revamp for upgrading Junction 10 to a four-way intersection can not be brought forward to take the pressures off both Junctions 9 & 11. Hopefully public opinion will put extra pressure on the Highways Agency to see sense and get this major improvement sooner rather than later.”