POLITICAL leaders in the West of England will be meeting next week in South Gloucestershire to discuss outline business cases into transport schemes across the region.

The West of England Combined Authority, which is chaired by West of England mayor Tim Bowles and includes the leaders of South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset, Cllrs Matthew Riddle and Tim Warren, and Bristol’s Mayor, Marvin Rees, will consider carrying out a series of outline business cases into transport schemes that would support delivery of the West of England Joint Spatial Plan (JSP).

The meeting will take place at the Kingswood Civic Centre on Friday, September 15, with further funding to develop feasibility studies for other transport schemes being considered at WECA’s next meeting on October 30.

The JSP sets out the long-term development needs of the West of England, including North Somerset, to 2036, including identifying housing and employment land, transport and other infrastructure needed to support the planned growth.

A Joint Transport Study (JTS) has been developed alongside this by the constituent authorities of the Combined Authority and North Somerset Council which covers both schemes to mitigate the housing requirements of the JSP and other key schemes.

Whilst no final decision has been made about the locations in the JSP, the Combined Authority needs to carry out this work to look into a number of possible transport schemes now. This will provide robust evidence if the West of England decides to progress any of these schemes in future.

A paper going to the meeting proposes carrying out outline business cases into the following possible schemes:

Among the possible schemes to be considered in South Gloucestershire are:

  • A432 MetroBus and strategic cycle route
  • A432 park and ride
  • Yate station enhancements
  • Winterbourne / Frampton Cottrell bypass
  • A38 (J16, Almondsbury to Falfield)
  • MetroBus and strategic cycle route to Thornbury (and Buckover), including A38 park and ride
  • Charfield rail station
  • M5 J14 improvements

The full meeting papers can be found on the West of England Combined Authority website www.westofengland-ca.org.uk/meetings/