Worcestershire businesses are being asked to contribute to a major new research project being conducted on behalf of Gloucestershire’s GFirst LEP by transport experts Atkins.
The research aims to understand the economic impact of motorway and trunk road bottlenecks, with particular reference to three notorious Gloucestershire hotspots. Although based in our neighbouring county, two have a potentially major impact on Worcestershire businesses.
The first is Junction 9 of the M5 and the A46 approach at Ashchurch where significant traffic delays are common, with the potential to cause problems for businesses in eastern Worcestershire, including Evesham.
The second area is the ‘missing link’ near the ‘Air Balloon’ on the A417 near Cheltenham. Frequent traffic delays and accidents on this single track carriageway have the potential to impact on journey times for those Worcestershire based businesses who need high quality road access to the Thames Valley and the south west.
Worcestershire businesses that would like to share their views can complete an on-line survey until 12 September at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GFirstLEP.
The researchers are also hoping to conduct in-depth interviews with a small cross-section of Worcestershire businesses. If you are interested in taking part, please contact Mike Curran, Business Sector Manager, GFirst LEP on 01452 563325 or [email protected].
Peter Pawsey, Chairman at Worcestershire LEP says: “Efficient transport links into and out of the county are a vital part of Worcestershire’s growth strategy. We are therefore very happy to support our colleagues at GFirst LEP by encouraging Worcestershire businesses, particularly those who have a need to transport goods into or out of the county, to take part in this important research. Indeed we recently successfully lobbied Government to include improvements to the A 46 and to M5 Junction 9 in their ‘pinch point’ programme.”
