Setting Transport in its Wider Context
Introduction
The West Midlands region includes the Metropolitan Area and the counties of Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. It also includes the Unitary Authorities of Herefordshire, Stoke-on-Trent and Telford & Wrekin. The region is home to 5.3 million people and covers 13,000 square kilometres.
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The Metropolitan Area is at the heart of the region and has strategic links with the rest of the country. It covers 900 square kilometres, is home for 2.6 million people and provides jobs both for its residents and many who live in the wider region.
Our Area can conveniently be divided into three sub-regions, each reflecting characteristics that may go beyond individual local authority boundaries. They are:
- the Black Country, including Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton
- Birmingham / Solihull
- Coventry, separated from the main conurbation by the 'Meriden Gap'
The Black Country, on the western side of the Metropolitan Area, is an amalgamation of a large number of villages and towns that grew during the industrial revolution to create a continuous urban area . It is the heart of the 'metal bashing' industry but, like many manufacturing areas, the dominance of traditional industries has declined. The Black Country is polycentric and has very mixed land use, reflecting its industrial past and today's changing circumstances. This manifests itself in complex movement patterns.
The Birmingham / Solihull area is at the centre of the Metropolitan Area. As the capital and economic centre for the region, Birmingham exerts an influence across the West Midlands and beyond. Birmingham city centre provides the UK's largest concentration of highly skilled, highly paid jobs outside south east England. The Regional Spatial Strategy recognises the need to strengthen Birmingham's role as the regional capital and to achieve 'World City' status.
Land use and transport patterns reflect Birmingham's central position and the complementary centres of Solihull and Sutton Coldfield. There are strong radial movements and distinctive land use patterns reflecting the growth of Birmingham over the last two centuries. Solihull contains both Birmingham International Airport and the National Exhibition Centre. It also has areas of countryside, which provide synergies with Coventry and Warwickshire.
Coventry, on the eastern side of the Metropolitan Area, is a free standing city separated by the 'Meriden Gap', an important area of countryside. It has many links with surrounding Warwickshire. Coventry displays more conventional land use and transport patterns, with strong radial movements in key corridors.
The following three figures show our Area's peak period travel patterns. It demonstrates the differences between parts of the conurbation, particularly the polycentric nature of the Black Country.
Our LTP2 is consistent with a range of local policy aims and objectives, set out in a variety of local strategies and plans. But other agencies and organisations also influence the transport network. They include local, regional, national and European bodies, all of which contribute to the framework within which local authorities must deliver services.
This chapter sets travel and transport in their widest context to ensure that our LTP2 meets local needs, caters for wider influences and is aligned with as many other strategies, objectives and targets as is practicable. These are considered in the following paragraphs.