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Public Consultation and Selection of the Route

As part of the public consultation process, a public exhibition was held in November 2001, to inform the public of the three options presented for consultation.

The favoured option arising from public consultation with 61% of responses expressing a preference was the Green Route, which included an underpass from the A45 Stonebridge Highway to the A46 Coventry Eastern Bypass  through the junction and a link road between the A45 London Road and A46 Coventry Eastern Bypass, designed to remove some traffic from the junction altogether.

There were, however, concerns expressed by local people about the link road as it would cause undue severance of Brandon Lane affecting access to residences, a local school, a wild life centre and industrial units thus forcing heavy goods traffic through Brandon village and creating lengthy detours for other traffic.

After consideration of the comments received following the public consultation, the Green Option was amended and this resulted in the development of the "Alternative Green Route", with the removal of the link between the A45 London Road and A46 Coventry Eastern Bypass.

A further assessment of this option was undertaken in 2002, including a targeted consultation with those who, during the initial consultation had either raised concerns, or endorsed the inclusion of the link road between the A45 London Road and A46 Coventry Eastern Bypass.

The outcome of this further assessment and targeted consultation was positive, with the Regional Planning Body and local authority indicating their support for the scheme, and no strong views being received from any of the consultees against the proposed 'Alternative Green Route'.

As a result on April 1st 2003, the entry of the 'Alternative Green Route' into the Government's Targeted Programme of road Improvements was announced by the Secretary of State.

In June 2005, the Highways Agency appointed Morrison Construction, with Hyder Consulting as their designers, under an ECI contract to develop the Scheme through to draft Orders and Public Inquiry and potentially on to detailed design and construction.

During 2006 and 2007, the scheme was further developed and reviewed and as a result of this, a variant based on the 'Alternative Green Route' was identified as the 'new preferred scheme'.

The new preferred scheme was similar to 'Alternative Green Route', however the link road between the A45 London Road and Siskin Drive was removed as it was found it would not significantly improve the scheme's performance and would actually reduce the capacity of the A45 London Road. 

The new preferred scheme, was the result of further discussions with interested parties comprising key representatives from relevant sectors and organisations in the West Midlands, including: transport operators, the business community, Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council officers, environmental groups, Coventry Airport and other key stakeholders.

The new preferred scheme was selected as being the one that best reduced the scheme costs whilst still continuing to be based on the Green Option.

In March 2007, a Public Exhibition was held in the Marriott Hotel, Coventry to inform the local community and stakeholders of the new preferred scheme.

The design of the new preferred scheme has, since 2007, been further developed, to become the current Scheme, on which the draft Orders and Environmental Statement will be published.

Copies of the Consultation leaflet from 2001, the 2002 Final Study Report which includes a summary of the 2001 consultation and the further development of the 'Alternative Green Route' and press release of the Secretary of State's announcement in April 2003 can be found in the publications page.