'Small' chance of Stourport relief road funds

Funding for a Worcestershire town relief road may be difficult to raise in the current economic climate, the Wyre Forest MP has said.

A Stourport relief road has been mooted for decades, but Conservative MP Mark Garnier said it would be hard to secure £80m from the government.

However, he said he backed the scheme and would try to make it happen during this Parliament.

Mr Garnier said good transport was key to attracting new firms to the town.

"If I am being perfectly honest, with the way the nation's finances are right now, there is a pretty small chance of getting this money," he said.

"But we absolutely must be supporting businesses across the Wyre Forest region and we also need to be looking to the future for Wyre Forest, we need to be attracting bigger and stronger and more robust businesses to our area."

He said he would make the case for a relief road within the next four or five years.

He said Stourport had about 100 acres of brown field site available for business development, but the present level of congestion to access the sites would put firms off.

He said a relief road would offer companies freedom of movement for their workforce, raw materials and finished products.