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Western Orbital Motorway | [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
This road proposal first appeared in the late eighties and early nineties, known as the Western Orbital Link Road. The idea was to connect Dudley town centre to the proposed Western Orbital Motorway near Himley. The proposal appears to have been resurrected.
The basic route seems to follow the course of the previous proposal, except where development has taken place such that the potential new route must be changed, for example in the vicinity of Russell’s Hall Hospital. To follow the original course of the route here would mean that part of the new hospital build would have to be knocked down.
As such the potential route affects the following nature conservation sites:
These sites also form significant components of two connecting Wildlife Corridors - the Oak Farm - Barrow Hill corridor and the Fenns Pool - Buckpool corridor - as indicated in the Black Country Nature Conservation Strategy. They are also offered protection by Regulation 37 of the Habitats Regulations 1994 which relates to features of the landscape which, because of their linear and continuous structure or their function as stepping stones, are essential for migration, dispersal and genetic exchange. Regulation 37 also encourages the management of features of the landscape which are of major importance for wild flora and fauna. The Multi-Modal Study, in which this road proposal appears, does not identify Fenns Pools SSSI as a Candidate Special Area of Conservation.
The route also affects significant breeding populations of great crested newts and their habitats at the following sites
The great crested newt is an internationally important species. It is protected under Schedule 2 of the Conservation (Natural Habitats etc) Regulations 1994 (Regulation 8) and Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Birmingham and the Black Country supports a population of great crested newts whose conservation is significant in national terms.
It is clear that this road proposal has been dusted down and taken off the shelf. There is pressure within Dudley to include the route of the road in the next revised version of Dudley’s Unitary Development Plan, despite the fact that the consultation process is halfway through. The route of this road is more than ten years old and pre-dates more recent legislation, more recent guidance and major changes in circumstances. It ignores the fact that Fenns Pools is now a Candidate Special Area of Conservation, signifying that the site is of European importance; it ignores the fact that the Habitat Regulations (1994) provide international protection for great crested newts; and it ignores the fact that the Habitat Regulations insist that alternatives must be considered.
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Contact DetailsChris Crean,
West Midlands FOE,
c/o The Warehouse
54-57 Allison Street
Digbeth
Birmingham B5 5TH.
Tel:0121 643 9117
Email: chrisc@foe.co.uk