Story of Place

The Western Gateway economic connectivity study was included in its Regional Evidence Base, submitted to the Department of Transport in July 2019, to identify Sub-national priorities for the major road network from 2020 to 2025.

Resilience on the highway network
Improving North-South connectivity
Managing urban travel movements and the need to provide multi-modal travel options
Improving rail frequency of services, quality of rolling stock and need for increased capacity, and
Connectivity to Bristol Airport including multi-modal access.

The rate of population growth forecast to 2041 is higher within the Western Gateway area when compared to England as a whole
Areas forecast to have the highest levels of population growth include Bristol and surrounding areas, and
Attracting and retaining businesses within the Western Gateway area through better connectivity is essential to ensure sustainable economic growth.

If congestion is not managed in urban centres, it will negatively impact sub-national connectivity
Travel times to London by rail vary considerably
East / West connectivity between urban centres on the south coast is good, but resilience is an issue
Improving North / South Connectivity are vital to improve productivity and increase access to markets located in the Midlands and the north
Due to the close proximity of larger airports and the relative ease of access, there is a lot of passenger leakage to Birmingham and the South East airports, and
It is important to ensure the Ports in the Gateway area are well connected to the national transport network to maintain their long-term viability.

Each area has an adopted local plan – providing long-term certainty on locations of future growth
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole’s strategy are focused on their town centres and sustainable transport corridors
Dorset’s planned housing growth is one of dispersed medium-sized developments
Gloucestershire’s growth strategy is focused on its primary urban settlements and the M5 corridor
The West of England’s growth strategy is focused on Bristol and then dispersal to its smaller settlements, and
Wiltshire has focused growth on its Principal Settlements and then to its Market Towns.

At a national level, the highest employment rates for Travel to Work Areas were generally observed in the South East and South West
Western Gateway area supports over 1.6 million jobs
The two city regions of the West of England and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole provide 53% of the Western Gateway Areas jobs
Travel to Work data identifies the importance of working with neighbouring areas, and
A function of transport is to support economic growth by enabling key employment sectors to thrive. The role of transport in this context is twofold – ensure there is sufficient capacity in the transport network to enable employees to get to work, and that goods can be transported to facilitate supply chains using good quality reliable strategic networks.

The area has a high dependency on car ownership and car use
Network capacity constraints have resulted in several strategic corridors experiencing congestion, which has had a negative impact on productivity and the local environment
As the economy grows, journey time reliability and choice will be critical in travel decisions
The impact of planned growth must be managed to reduce its impact
Growth is not evenly distributed and will negatively impact several strategic travel corridors
It is paramount to reduce car use and manage the network more effectively
There is a need for improvements to public transport corridors and investment in bus networks to address urban issues and rail network to address sub-national issues
There is limited access to the Strategic Road Network in the south and capacity constraints throughout the area which impacts network resilience, and
Demand for new rail services need to be matched by infrastructure investment to remove pinch-points on the network to provide additional route capacity.

Although the STB contains centres of economic activity, the Western Gateway has several areas and communities that experience poor transport connectivity
The Western Gateway area is ideally suited to agglomeration improvements given that several Functional Urban Regions are in the area
Planned employment sites being delivered could support over 170,000 new jobs. Based on GVA per employee across all of the Western Gateway area, this is equivalent to additional GVA of £8.7 billion
Enhanced connectivity will help to unlock new housing sites (due to transport constraints being lifted), and
The Western Gateway STB has a major role to play in this rebalancing as it offers a unique set of economic opportunities that if sufficiently exploited, can help achieve the Government’s objectives of rebalancing the economy.

Reducing carbon emissions associated with infrastructure and transport propulsion is fundamental to addressing the global challenge of climate change
New infrastructure can have significant effects on the natural landscape and thus consideration must be given to the natural and built landscapes when planning new infrastructure
The Western Gateway area is home to a range of different landscape designations including: 3 World Heritage Sites, 1 National Park (New Forest), and 6 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Flooding is an issue across the Western Gateway area which can impact transport connectivity
Climate change is likely to exacerbate the number of flooding incidences (surface water flooding, sea level rises, tidal flooding), and
Outdoor air quality across the Western Gateway area is generally good however there are Air Quality Management Areas in place at a number of locations.