View source for Wolverhampton Borough Council: Transport Policies and Programme 1986 Submission

{{Artefact
| date   = 1986
| owner1 = Steven
| type   = Publications
}}

==Context==
Ah, local government in the mid-1980s.  The Metropolitan Counties had just been abolished, and so the individual borough councils were now responsible for everything (again, in most cases given they were County Boroughs only 12 years prior).

So, this is quite a glossy book regarding transport proposals from Wolverhampton Borough Council both in the 1987-88 financial year, but also proposals up to 2001-02.  Which is nice.

It has in it the council's Transport Policy at the time, which mostly talks of urban regeneration and economic prosperity.  To modern eyes, there is surprisingly little focus on public transport, but then this is perhaps unsurprising when it is also realised that the Transport Act 1986 had just come into being, so there was huge amounts of uncertainty about exactly how that would affect the PTE areas.  Instead it focusses on the road network, both new build, maintenance, freight operations, parking, pedestrians, cycling and road safety.

In places, it goes into quite some detail such as the fact that landscaping in Victoria Square in 1985-86 cost £85,000.

There's also an interesting little section about Trunk Road development in the area, including the "Northern Relief Route (Northern Orbital)", where it talks about the "green" route being selected, and the expectation that the first sections would open in 1993.  It also talks about the "Western Orbital Route", but that not much can be done becuase the DoT hadn't published the route at that time.

==Contents of Note==
* Major Projects programmed before the end of the 1980s, including A463 Black Country Route, A449 Stafford Road dualling, and a whole list of projects that never happened, such as A4124 Wednesfield junction improvments and an A454 Compton Bypass.
* Medium to Long Term Schemes, again that mostly didn't happen including full dualling of A449 Penn Road, and junction improvements to A4150 Inner Ring Road with roundabouts proposed at A449 Stafford Street and A4124 Wednesfield Road.
* Some really nice maps, which reveal that it was proposed to add roads to the Primary Route Network: A4124 (which makes some sense), and A4039 (which really doesn't).

[[Category:Publications]]