Major M5 project 'unlocks' thousands of homes at J10 Gloucester
Thousands of new homes could be built thanks to major improvements to a motorway junction. It was announced on Wednesday that development consent had been granted to a £229m project at Junction 10 of the M5 near Gloucester. Currently drivers can only access the M5 northbound from the junction, but the redevelopment will see access granted on and off the major route in all directions. The plans also include a new road linking Junction 10 to west Cheltenham, and the widening of the A4019 Tewkesbury Road.
Leader of Gloucestershire County Council Lisa Spivey told BBC Radio Gloucestershire she was "absolutely thrilled" the work was going ahead. "There's been a lot of work on this and on this and we see this as a real key milestone in unlocking the fabulous potential here in Gloucestershire," she added, explaining that it could also bring new job opportunities, including in cyber and AI. As well as upgrades to the road network the money is also planned to fund flood mitigation measures and "active travel" facilities.
The scheme has been funded by the government's housing infrastructure fund, alongside developers whose planned sites are set to benefit from improved links, with Gloucestershire County Council in charge. Rebecca Marshall, a senior project manager at National Highways - which is partnering with the council on the development - said: "This scheme will create smoother and safer journeys for all and improve travel times in the area. "It will also unlock housing and business development opportunities, as well as improving access to and from the motorway for emergency services.
Public information events are set to be held during the summer, with construction getting underway from spring 2026. Completion, the council said, is expected in 2028.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
22 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Reform and indy will be at the heart of our debate for years
Of course, by now you already know the result, so you'll know which of the following scenarios and their consequences are the most accurate. But let me start with what the national polls tell us ought to have happened, by-election peculiarities – which I'll come to – notwithstanding. The SNP should have won with around 33% of the vote, down significantly on the 46.2% it won in 2021, with Labour in a narrow second on around 28% of the vote. Reform should have come third with just under 20% of the vote, while the Conservatives should have collapsed to under 10% of the vote. The rest of the vote, around 10%, will have been split among the Greens, Liberal Democrats, and myriad minor parties and independents. But by-elections rarely work out this way, even when the national polls are accurate. Firstly, voters are more likely to have voted in protest than they are at national elections, which may well help Reform in this case. As Jamie, a service engineer from Hamilton, told a focus group run by More in Common, it's 'time to give someone else a chance,' even if he thinks Nigel Farage is an 'a***hole'. Read more by Mark McGeoghegan Secondly, turnout will likely have collapsed. In the Hamilton and Rutherglen West by-election in October 2023, turnout fell by 43% compared to the 2019 General Election. A similar decline here would see around 15,600 voters who would otherwise turn out in a national election stay at home instead. Given that voters turning out to vote Reform as a protest against both the SNP and Labour governments are likely to be more motivated than SNP and Labour voters, this may also advantage Reform. In fact, assuming predictions based on national polling would otherwise have been accurate, Reform's vote will only have to have been marginally more resilient for it to finish ahead of Labour and narrowly behind the SNP. Factor in that first peculiarity of by-election campaigns, and such a scenario is hardly far-fetched. On the eve of the by-election, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused the First Minister, John Swinney, and journalists of manufacturing Reform's competitiveness in the seat. Nothing could be further from the truth, and a Reform underperformance yesterday will have been more surprising than it coming second. It has demonstrated its strength in a succession of local by-elections, the latest of which saw it beat Labour to come second behind the SNP. Whether or not Reform came second yesterday, its performance will shape the narrative in Scottish politics going into next year's elections in conjunction with its UK-wide polling lead (it has led in 25 consecutive polls going back to the beginning of May) and strong results in recent local elections and Parliamentary by-elections in England. Ultimately, regardless of yesterday's result, the spectre of Nigel Farage looms over Scottish politics. There are three broad scenarios. Firstly, that Reform performed to its Scotland-wide polling, confirming that it is on course to win between 15 and 20 seats in next year's Scottish Parliament election. Secondly, that it did overperform, perhaps coming second, leading to the next 11 months to being dominated by the SNP seeking to present next year's elections as a choice between the SNP and Nigel Farage, and a bitter fight between Reform and Labour for status as the main challengers to the SNP. Thirdly, that it underperformed, in which case the SNP will be quick to emphasise divergence between Scottish and English politics. In any case, the SNP will use the prospect of a Reform government at Westminster to try to increase the salience of the constitutional question, attempting to return independence to the heart of the Scottish political agenda ahead of next year's elections and the following UK general election. It knows that that is its best bet for winning back pro-independence voters who have swung to Labour in recent years. Replacing Humza Yousaf with John Swinney may have stabilised the SNP's support, but the party not really recovered in any meaningful way. The longer Reform leads in UK-wide polls, the more likely that narrative will be to gain purchase among the independence-supporting electorate. Strong Reform showings in Scotland will reinforce the sense that they could win power in 2029; weak performances will emphasise the ways in which Scottish and English politics may be diverging. Both provide hooks for the SNP. The spectre of Nigel Farage looms large over Scottish politics (Image: PA) The bigger question is whether this leads to a change in the constitutional deadlock. Some recent polling suggests that support for independence may have edged up. Norstat recently recorded its first Yes leads in three years, finding Yes ahead by seven points in the wake of Reform's strong showing in the English local elections. Survation still has No ahead by two or three points, down from leads of seven or eight points a year ago. The data is not conclusive, and we should be cautious of hypotheticals around whether developments will change voters' minds – we had enough such polls around Brexit and Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister that never bore out. But the prominence of Reform UK and Nigel Farage in UK politics is a gift to the SNP and the independence movement, regardless of how they performed yesterday or how they perform north of the Border in the coming year. If Anas Sarwar is frustrated with his opponents' and the media's "obsession" with Reform UK, he should get used to that feeling – they'll be at the heart of Scottish political debate for years to come. Mark McGeoghegan is a Glasgow University researcher of nationalism and contentious politics and an Associate Member of the Centre on Constitutional Change. He can be found on BlueSky @
The Sun
24 minutes ago
- The Sun
Sainsbury's is testing a huge change to shelf labels – and shoppers will be divided
SAINSBURY'S is the latest supermarket to test a major change to shelf labels in stores - but it will leave shoppers divided. One of the UK's biggest supermarkets is trialling electronic shelf labels in a small number of branches. 1 The retailer installed the tech at three of its larger shops late last year and has been trying it out across different sections including alcohol, health and general merchandise. Sainsbury's has partnered with Harrison Retail to build the shelf fixings featuring the labels. A branch in Witney, Oxfordshire, is understood to be one of the three locations where the tech is being trialled. A spokesperson for Sainsbury's said: "We are trialling electronic shelf-edge labels in a small number of our stores." Sainsbury's shoppers are bound to be left divided over the new electronic tags though. Fears have been raised digital labels could lead to "surge pricing", which sees prices hiked when products are more in demand. The labels can make it harder for shoppers to spot cut-price items too, as they're not as visible as the paper yellow, orange or red stickers. Sainsbury's joins a host of other supermarkets trialling electronic shelf labels in stores. Co-op is replacing paper product tags with electronic labels throughout its whole estate over the coming months. The retailer said last month it had already made the change in 340 branches but would roll out the tags more widely. SAVE AT SAINSBURY'S It said 1,500 stores will have the labels by the end of this year and rolled out across all its nearly 2,400 shops by the end of 2026. Lidl also said it would roll out the digital labels across all its stores before the end of 2024. This came after a successful trial at 35 branches. Asda is testing the digital labels at a Manchester shop. WHAT ARE ELECTRONIC PRICE LABELS Electronic pricing labels are not easy to spot and look almost identical to the traditional paper labels which have existed in stores for centuries. They feature everything a shopper would expect to see on a label such as cost, weight and unit price. The only difference is that the information is displayed on screens instead of a paper label. Usually, they are connected to a wireless network that allows for prices to be updated in real-time - instead of it being done manually by a store clerk. Supermarkets say the technology will help cut down on waste and help with efficiency in stores. OTHER SAINSBURY'S NEWS Sainsbury's exclusively revealed to The Sun last month it had closed all remaining patisserie, hot food and pizza counters. It is not clear when the pizza counters shut while is understood the patisserie and hot food counters closed in April. The closures come as part of a wide-ranging update of Sainsbury's' store estate which also saw 61 in-store cafes shut on April 11. The cafe spaces are being replaced with restaurants run by franchises such as Starbucks and Gourmet Burger Kitchen. The supermarket said its hybrid cafe and food halls were becoming popular among shoppers. Sainsbury's first announced the store overhaul in January, as it revealed 3,000 head office staff would also lose their jobs in a senior team shake-up. At the time, chief executive Simon Roberts said the changes would "ensure we continue to drive forward our momentum". .
Telegraph
39 minutes ago
- Telegraph
National Lottery to suffer 36-hour outage in rush to deliver botched tech update
The National Lottery will be plunged into a 36-hour blackout this summer as its new owner rushes to deliver a botched tech upgrade. Allwyn, which is controlled by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek, has warned retailers their National Lottery terminals will stop working for around 36 hours while systems are updated. In a statement to shop owners this week, Andria Vidler, the chief executive of Allwyn UK, said: 'Technical switchover will happen over one weekend this summer, and to enable the new systems to go live, National Lottery terminals will be inactive for approximately 36 hours.' Ms Vidler did not provide a date for the shutdown, but asked retailers for their 'help and diligence to ensure a seamless transition'. It is understood that the upgrade will begin at about 11pm on a Saturday night to reduce disruption and loss of earnings. The National Lottery does not trade overnight and no draw-based games take place on a Sunday. Allwyn has pledged to overhaul the National Lottery's estate of 43,500 terminals at a cost of £350m. The update is critical to the company's promise to double the lottery's contribution to good causes. However, the IT upgrade has been plagued by difficulties and delays. Bosses are now racing to launch the new system amid pressure from the Gambling Commission. The complex update was supposed to be in place when Allwyn took over the running of the National Lottery from Camelot in February last year. However, this was delayed after the existing provider, International Games Technology (IGT), challenged the move in the High Court. The rollout has also been delayed by a separate legal challenge mounted by Richard Desmond, who is suing the Gambling Commission after missing out on the 10-year licence. He has argued the bidding process was unfair and is seeking £200m in damages. The delays have fuelled concerns that Allwyn will fall short of its ambitious pledge to funnel more money to good causes. The operator originally promised to increase its charitable donations from £17.9bn to £38bn over the course of the licence – equivalent to about £3.8bn a year. But it has now watered down these targets by pledging to double returns by the end of its licence, from £30m to £60m a week – or less than £3.2bn a year. The Telegraph revealed earlier this year that the National Lottery is already facing a £2bn shortfall toward its charitable donation target in its maiden year. This summer's outage, first reported by Better Retailing magazine, is also likely to spark concerns among shopkeepers who make commission by selling lottery tickets. Andrew Goodacre, the chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association, said: 'My opinion is that anything that disrupts the normal running of a shop is not welcome. 'We also have to hope that the proposed works go to plan and that any switch is restricted to 36 hours – I fear this may overrun. I would also like to think that the retailers would receive some form of compensation for lost business or inconvenience.' A spokesman for Allwyn said: 'Allwyn is investing over £350m into improving the operations and technology of The National Lottery. 'This change is critical – it will give us the springboard from which we can continue to improve the player and retailer experience and enable us to deliver on our ambitious plans to double returns to good causes from £30m to £60m a week by the end of the licence.'
