Work on Stafford Western Access Road to start within weeks

The Stafford Western Access Route will aim to ease traffic pressures around the town.

The new road will connect the A34 Foregate Street at the north of the town and Newport Road to the west.

Junction improvements around Stafford and other preparations works have been carried out but work to start laying the road is expected to get under way towards the end of June. The bypass project will then carry on into the next year.

It comes after a huge 1,500-home estate to transform the western edge of the town was backed by planners in December.

The homes will be built across a vast site owned by Lord Stafford, part of which backs onto Stafford Castle and the M6, to deliver much-needed new homes for Staffordshire.

The Stafford Western Access Route, which is being delivered by the county council, will be crucial in helping the town to cope with the added traffic associated with the new development.

The first phase of the development will see 442 homes built, with the whole scheme expected to take up to 15 years to complete.

Developer Taylor Wimpey is putting £15 million towards the cost of the road.

A public information day on the access road will be held at the Conservative Association on Castle Street on June 3 between 2pm and 7pm.

Stafford councillor Carolyn Trowbridge said: "It will start in July and be built over the next year. The preparations have been done, it's now about physically going in and getting it done.

"They have said if anyone has any worries about noise and dust levels there will be someone we can go to. It is something we will have to monitor to see how it develops.

"It is good that Staffordshire is investing in this area, there are not many places that are putting this sort of money in to areas."