Bilston Corridor - Wolverhampton City Council - Home Page

Part Two – The Key Directions of Change
Aim 19 – Meeting Shopping
and Service Needs outside
Bilston Town Centre
The northern part of the Bilston Corridor
benefits from proximity to Wolverhampton
City Centre and St Johns Retail Park. Although
there are no other centres in the south-east of
Wolverhampton, Map 7 shows that all of the
Areas of Search for Housing and Employment
Land have good sustainable transport access
to a centre or supermarket. There are also
small parades of local shops, such as at
New St, Ettingshall and along Bilston Road.
However, there may still be opportunities to
improve existing local shopping areas and
create local shops to better meet existing
and future local needs.
29) Are there any suitable locations
other than Bilston Town Centre that
could be developed for meeting
future shopping / service needs?
Aim 20 – Improve
Access and Transport
Transport issues are pivotal to the delivery of
economic growth and regeneration in the
Bilston Corridor and the City as a whole. There
are a wide range of transport options in the
AAP area that should be capitalised upon.
The AAP Area is served by the Black Country
Route (A463) and the Black Country New
Road (A41), a key transport corridor which
provides easy access to the M5 and M6
motorways. There is traffic congestion along
this corridor at peak times.
The Bilston Corridor is well served by public
transport. Wolverhampton Station, on the
West Coast Main railway line, lies at the
northern end of the Corridor, and the Midland
Metro Line One runs from Wolverhampton
City Centre through Bilston Town Centre and
beyond to West Bromwich and Birmingham. The
corridor is also served by a bus network focussed
on Wolverhampton and Bilston Centres, including
a number of more frequent core routes.
Provision for cyclists and pedestrians is
variable. There are a number of off-road
facilities but a lack of comprehensive
networks, with main roads, railways
and canals forming barriers and a lack
of permeable routes through residential and
commercial areas. The Birmingham Canal
also runs through the corridor.
The AAP will need to provide a strategy that
maximises the capacity and efficiency of each
of these transport corridors and supports the
regeneration of both the area and the City as
a whole. This will be achieved by maximising
the efficiency of the transport network and
providing a balance between modes,
recognising that they play differing roles and
generate differing demands. It is important
to consider the role of each of the transport
modes and how they relate to each other, for
example, could public transport improvements
help to relieve congestion on the A41 / A463?
At this stage, we do not think there is a
need for additional new major highways or
transportation schemes in the area, though
new development will inevitably put pressure
on the existing network and may require
local improvements.
38 Bilston Corridor Area Action Plan - Issues Paper