This film is part of Free

Tamworth Traffic

It's taking forty-five minutes to travel half a mile! The people of Tamworth want their bypass now!

News 1978 8 mins

From the collection of:

Logo for Media Archive for Central England

Overview

The Midlands Road Development Group, an organisation of industrialists and hauliers, are not happy with the speed of road building in Britain. The M42, announced in 1972, has failed to reach Tamworth, which is grinding to a halt due to the constant flow of heavy traffic. They try to explain to Peter Green what should be done and are joined by a local councillor and his placard wielding supporters desperate to save their historic town from death by traffic.

It was more than another ten years before the M42 (1989) and M40 motorways (1991) were fully opened and Tamworth's traffic problems were eased.