LEP and partners celebrate Branston Locks road scheme completion

The completion of a major Staffordshire road project which will pave the way to a multi-million pound business, housing and leisure development near Burton has been marked at an event near the site.

The Branston Locks development will see 400 acres of land immediately west of the A38 developed with 2,500 new homes, a range of community facilities and a 50-acre employment site.

It will also include retail, health, leisure and recreational facilities, as well as provision for older people. A new 1,550 place high school has been built by the county council on land nearby – the first in 25 years – and a new primary school will also be built. The total investment in the area could be over £800million.

The county council has delivered a package of road and infrastructure works which will enable Nurton Developments (Quintus Ltd) to move on site to carry out the main project, together with residential developers.

The road project has been partly funded by the Government’s Local Growth Fund through its Growth Deal with the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership. The LEP contributed £5.1million to the scheme. Nurton Developments has also made a substantial contribution. The project recently scooped the Best Large Project award at an annual regional Institute of Highway Engineers event.

It has involved a complete realignment of Branston Road to make it suitable for the volume of traffic created by the new development and construction of a new bridge over the Trent and Mersey Canal. The new bridge has already won an award for its engineering design. Pedestrian and cycle access to the future development and canal tow path have also been created.

The project delivery team joined county council leader Philip Atkins, Local Enterprise Partnership executive board member James Leavesley, chief executive of the John Taylor Academy Mike Donaghue and other delegates at the event at The Bridge Inn, Branston, on Friday.

Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP executive board member James Leavesley said: “This road scheme has opened up a major development site, paving the way for new jobs, homes and community facilities.

“It is an excellent example of how we are working together across the public and private sectors to create new jobs, sustained economic growth and flourishing local communities. Branston Locks is one of a whole series of exciting new developments taking place across our region illustrating that Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire is an increasingly attractive place for businesses to locate and grow, and a great place to live.”

Staffordshire County Council’s leader Philip Atkins said: “This has been a huge project for us – paving the way for hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment leading to new jobs and new homes. It is a credit to our teams that it has been completed on time and on budget and is another example of the county council’s successful delivery of a major infrastructure project.

“Branston Locks is also further demonstration of effective close working between the county council, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP, developers and other partners including the local parish council to further increase Staffordshire’s economic growth across the whole county and make it the right place for business investment and an attractive place to live and visit.”

Photo caption: (left to right) James Leavesley , local county councillor Julia Jessel and Philip Atkins.