Supporting existing and future communities
The scheme would provide vital infrastructure to support both existing and future communities.
High traffic and congestion levels along the A46 through Ashchurch are long-standing issues, directly affecting the daily lives of local residents and businesses. Traffic and congestion levels are expected to increase as a result of approved development and more long-distance traffic including heavy goods vehicles using the A46 to travel between the Midlands and the West Country.
Upon opening, the scheme would provide a significant reduction in traffic using the existing A46, with quicker and more reliable journeys for both local and long-distance traffic. The scheme would also offer immediate safety and community benefits along the existing route. The scheme would support environmental improvements to the existing A46 route through Ashchurch to meet local needs by making it more pleasant to walk and cycle. With less traffic, fewer heavy goods vehicles and better sustainable travel options, new developments could be accommodated more easily without adding to congestion levels.
In the longer-term, the scheme would support and enable the aim of the Tewkesbury Garden Communities programme. This aim sets out to ensure that housing and employment opportunities are managed in such a way that both new and existing communities enjoy the best possible quality of life, through well-designed environments, more walking, cycling and public transport facilities, and better-connected communities.
The scheme would sustain the reduction in long-distance traffic including heavy goods vehicles using the existing A46, enabling a more pleasant environment. The new M5 junction and A46 would offer an effective bypass route with quicker and more reliable journeys between the M5 and Evesham. The potential junction at Seven Bends would provide a new southern access to the Ashchurch area, reducing the need for journeys to be made along the old A46 route.
Sustainable travel
The reduction in traffic on the existing A46 would provide environmental, health and wellbeing benefits for the local community, including reductions in traffic-related noise and improved air quality. Potential route options would also support sustainable travel, including better walking and cycling facilities at M5 Junction 9 and along the A46 through Ashchurch. The needs of walkers, cyclists and horse riders would be considered in the overall design, including where existing routes may be impacted by the new road.
Gloucestershire County Council will work closely with Tewkesbury Borough Council to ensure high quality sustainable travel links are coherent and connect with any development as part of the Tewkesbury Garden Communities programme.
Key considerations
Potential route options have been developed with a number of key considerations in mind; they include the impacts on:
- Homes and businesses of the local communities along the route
- The existing road network and the Birmingham to Bristol rail line
- Tirle Brook and its flood zones
- Cotswolds National Landscape
- Historic features, including Listed Buildings
- Priority habitat areas
- Solar farms
- High-pressure gas mains
As potential route options are refined, Gloucestershire County Council will continue to assess these impacts.
