In the run up to Christmas, there’s more travel chaos than usual in the suburban Worcestershire town of Bromsgrove. The A38 eastern bypass has been closed for three weekends in late November and early December to enable the axing of a vast number of trees.
Disruption and wanton destruction
Aside from the usual grumbling about traffic jams, locals are objecting to the scheme due to the destruction of several hundred trees along the route. Worcestershire County Council claims that removal of the trees is essential to make room for a dual carriageway, along with cycle and pedestrian lanes, saying there is “no alternative solution” that would allow for the widening of the road.
But the local campaign group Revise BREP disagree. Jonathan Coleman from the campaign told me, “The A38 BREP scheme will go down as one of the most shameful acts of environmental vandalism in the history of Bromsgrove and Worcestershire. For what? According to the county council’s own traffic modelling document a maximum reduction of travel time along the eight mile stretch of road by one minute northbound and three minutes southbound by 2040.”
Coleman also stated that in order to secure scheme’s the £50mn funding, the council had to incorporate an active travel scheme in a location that residents do not want. This means a combined cycle and pedestrian lane will run alongside the bypass. However, with the destruction of screening trees and flanked by heavy traffic, this will hardly be an attractive prospect for a leisurely stroll or morning cycle to work.
To address concerns about the devastation, the council has pledged to plant new trees on a two-for-one basis. However, many of these will not be in the vicinity and so will not benefit the local environment. In any case, as Coleman points out, newly planted trees will take decades to grow to the maturity of the ones destroyed by the scheme.
Creaking infrastructure
It’s true that traffic is an issue in Bromsgrove. After all, it is nestled equidistant between Worcester and Birmingham. With good schools and low crime rates, it’s an attractive prospect for the better paid workers from the cities. Between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, the population expanded 6% to just under 100,000. When I grew up there in the 1980s, it was around a third of that, yet the road system is largely unchanged since. The infrastructure is creaking, and with a scant and under-resourced public transport system, the bulk of the load has fallen on the roads.
In 2018, there were renewed calls from residents for a western bypass to be developed in response to the expansion of housing and the high level of car usage. An independent review at the time had cast doubt on a 2015 study, finding it had provided insufficient evidence to support its conclusion that a western relief road was not necessary.
However, the council maintained its position and the road was not built. Six years later, it seems that the eastern bypass, and its flanking trees, are enduring the consequences of that decision.
Active travel is a valid objective, both from an environmental and public health standpoint. Reducing reliance on cars would also relieve some of the congestion that blights life in towns like Bromsgrove. Yet despite the council’s careful public relations efforts, this scheme betrays a thought process that remains ‘cars first.’
If one were to conceive of an active travel scheme for the town, it would be unlikely to take in the eastern bypass while eschewing the high street, parks, and local places of interest. This busy road is not a place to build community, but rather a through-route to the M5. The active travel component of BREP risks becoming a white elephant. Even to a casual observer, it’s clear that it was a box-ticking exercise to obtain funding for the road scheme. That’s progress, folks.
Ground zero
It’s an upsetting and bleak scene of destruction when I visit the site. Discarded tree limbs are strewn across bare soil. A line of hacked stumps is all that’s left of this section of greenery. Houses that once enjoyed a view of the canopy are left exposed to traffic fumes and noise. And this is before the road widening begins.
It doesn’t feel like progress. It feels destructive, sad, and futile. I wonder how long after the scheme’s completion in 2040 the one- and three-minute gains will be eroded as a wider road attracts more drivers. Probably sooner than the replacement trees will mature.
It also strikes me as a failure of local democracy. I have yet to meet a resident who wants this clearance and yet it is well underway, with over 200 trees gone, and over 400 more marked for removal next year.
As Coleman put it, “The BREP fails to address the core issues of traffic in Bromsgrove. Yet Worcestershire County Council repeatedly votes down motions to review it, citing a study that has been independently found to be flawed.”
The Revise BREP campaign group have a Facebook page, through which they are hoping to galvanise local opposition with updates and video footage from the site. For now, however, Worcestershire County Council remains unmoved by the objections and the scheme continues.
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