A meeting took place between Highways England and the Parish Council on 17th May 2016 as the start of a public consultation process regarding the M42 Junction 6 improvement programme. Surveys indicate that the M42 will suffer ‘unacceptable levels of obstruction’ by 2019 and the Government have committed funding to address this.
Highways England have narrowed many possible solutions down to nine options and we were extremely concerned that all but two of these involved a new motorway junction to the south of Catherine de Barnes (in the area proposed for the Motorway Service Area) with associated link roads to the HS2 station and airport crossing green belt land. Two schemes involved works to the north of the A45/M42 and we suggested that these were probably the only plans which would be supported by our community as they would be less harmful to the Meriden Gap Green Belt.
A full public consultation will take place this Autumn.
Further information is available here: www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/m42-junction-6-improvement/