Will Worcester's ring road ever be completed?

Yahoo

13-04-2025

THERE must be local elections in the offing because bandwagons are being jumped on and popular causes promoted.
One of these has been building the final link of Worcester's potential ring road. But has that ship sailed?
Realistically, is there now any chance of a connection being made between the roundabouts at Crown East on the west side of the River Severn and Claines/Hawford on the east?
A lot has changed in the 30 years since a plan was produced in 1993 showing three potential routes and, ironically, possibly even more since a two-route strategy was revealed in 2010 following a Freedom of Information request.
Now there are more new homes developments to avoid for a start.
Supporters of the Northern Orbital, as the final link has been officially named, have always claimed the route would mean traffic approaching Worcester from the west (Malvern, Hereford or Bromyard) would not be faced with the devil of three choices – either using the detour of the Southern Link to the M5 at Whittington, chancing the city centre or using the windy route through Hallow and Ombersley and the ancient bridge over the River Teme at Holt Fleet.
The idea of a full Worcester ring road began to gain serious traction once the Northern Link Road, from the M5 junction at Warndon to the A449 at Hawford, opened in April 1965.
It was followed by the Southern Link from Whittington M5 junction to Powick in 1985, widened in 2022, and later to Crown East.
But both stretches could be built without too much fuss as they mostly crossed open riverside land and were not near too many houses. The same cannot be said of the final segment on to Hawford.
This would involve the building of a third road bridge across the Severn and a busy new road slashing its way through or very near pretty villages with some historic properties.
The cost would also likely be astronomic. It was pitched at £17 million in 1993 when the first set of proposals were laid out in a touring exhibition but, with the increase in land and property values not to mention construction since then, heaven knows what it would be today.
Incidentally, its supporters have sometimes blamed the residents of the traditional Tory areas of Hallow, Grimley, Claines and Bevere for scuppering the plans and not wanting a new road near their 'nice houses'.
But in fact it was the Labour/Lib Dem administration of the then-Hereford- Worcester County Council which ditched the plans in 1996.
Interestingly Claines and Bevere are today represented by Mel Allcott, currently Worcester's mayor who is a Lib Dem.
And, although the current pitch is that completing the ring road would aid traffic problems in St John's , there were plenty of local residents in 1993 who did not want a new road anywhere near their patch.
The 2010 plan for the Northern Orbital was drawn up by engineering consultancy Halcrow and proposed two alternative routes - red and purple.
Both were designed for speeds of up to 60mph and included a cycle lane/footway along one side of the road.
However, there was a warning that 'both routes would have a varying degree of negative impact on homes, the environment, landscape and sites of historical importance'.
The line of the red route (route A) was:
• From Claines roundabout the road would cross fields to the north of the Bevere conservation area to the river Severn. • A new bridge would be installed north of the weir at Bevere Island. • The road heading west would cross Camp Lane and bisect Tinker's Coppice, ancient woodland of national importance, before joining the A443. • The road would continue west before heading south, crossing Moseley Road, Shoulton Lane and Hallow Lane, south of which lies Laugherne Brook, disused quarry workings and a large pond. • Heading south the road would run near Little Eastbury Farm, off Hallow Road, before intersecting the B4204 Martley Road where a new roundabout would be installed. • From there it would pass across fruit fields and two large fishing lakes before the intersection with Oldbury Road on the outskirts of Dines Green. • The route then continues for about 1km (0.6 mile) across arable fields until it joins the Crown East roundabout.
While the purple route (Route B) was:
* From Claines roundabout the road would cross fields to the north of the Bevere conservation area to the River Severn. • A new bridge would be built north of the weir at Bevere Island. • Away from the floodplain, the road would then turn south to follow the River Severn and run to the west of a gravel quarry which is now used as a fishing lake and near to mobile homes and chalets behind the Camp House Inn at Grimley. • The road would run west of the Green Park Arboretum but east of Hallow. • The route would then cut through Hallow Park and an arable field system before intersecting with the A443 just to the south of the village. • The proposed route then travels directly south-west across more fields and Laugherne Brook before rejoining the line of Route A just south of Little Eastbury Farm, off Hallow Road.
These appear to be the last published proposals to complete Worcester's ring road but likely it's all pie in the sky because a chance was missed back in 1965 when the world – and the landscape around the city - was a simpler place.