Alton Towers Relief Road

[Matt N]

Hi guys. Over the years, I’ve often heard a “relief road” that was once proposed for Alton Towers getting talked about whenever the issue of travel to the park comes up.

However, surprisingly little exists on the internet about what the actual plan for this road would have been and why it was ultimately scrapped.

So I was only creating this thread to ask; what would this “relief road” have actually been like? What was the desired effect? And why was it scrapped?

All I really know about it is that it was the initial justification for the park introducing a parking fee in the early 2000s… other than that, I have little idea about what it was actually supposed to be. Other than the pretty self-explanatory detail of it being a road, of course.

Any insight would be much appreciated!

 

[jon81uk]

JCB wouldn’t allow the land to be used.

 

[James]

There will be members of this forum who can probably give more information.

The idea of the relief road was to ease congestion in and around Alton village by having a bypass road that cuts through the JCB headquarters and goes directly to Alton Towers. The idea was that it would stop traffic issues in Alton village, allow an easier route for drivers to get to the park/resort, and allow for a large expansion of the park without having to worry about increased traffic (as the road would handle this increase in visitors).

What would have it been like? A very long road I guess.

What was the desired effect? To stop locals moaning about the 6 weeks of heavy traffic per year.

Why was it scrapped? As Jon said, JCB, and the local council.

There were some issues with JCB land, I think some financial. The local council also wanted Alton Towers to foot the full bill for the road (£12-£15 million). When Merlin took over in 2008 and drawn up the LTDP, they had no intention of expanding Alton Towers significantly, and given that the congestion in Alton village is limited to a few weeks of the year, there was little justification in Merlin forking out £15 million for a road, so the plans were scrapped.

 

[Tom]

Was there ever a sketch of the/a proposed route?

Either way, the concept is an impossible self-destructing paradox for any Conservative-brainwashed rural area: The road would harm the area as much as the traffic it's attempting to alleviate does.

 

[djtruefitt]

I can see why merlin wouldn’t want to build it, and I imagine they never would now (if they had to pay for it). There would be very little gain to the actual park to have a relief road, guests won’t decide to visit or not to visit because of a road like that, especially as it’s not going to really save much time. So why spend millions of pounds on a road when you’ll actually see nothing back from it.

Of course the locals would have liked it because of the traffic, but I guess the pubs and shops around Alton wouldn’t have liked it!

 

[Jb85]

Economically it would have done more harm then good.

And sustainability wise probably never achieved payback. Just a pipe dream to be filed with the cross valley coaster

 

[Dave]

There was never an actual detailed plan proposed, from memory it would start near the original gates to the estate which is located in Denstone (turn right at the roundabout instead of left towards Alton).

The people of Denstone were not that happy as it would double the traffic coming through that part of the route (as the northbound traffic currently goes through Farley). The owners of JCB as well as JCB itself own all the land that backs onto the resort and they historically are rumoured to hate Alton Towers so it would have required a compulsory purchase order, and as the Bamfords are huge Tory donors that was not exactly going to happen either.

It was always a bit of a non-starter in all honesty.

 

[Kraken27]

The main issues with the Towers Relief road (nicknamed by staff at the time as TowersToll, as it was the early 2000's when the M6Toll had just opened) were...

JCB - the road needed to cross some of their land and they would not allow it. Going back to the 1980's when Alton Towers was establishing itself as a theme park, John Broome annoyed the Bamford family (owners of JCB) with his "I'm the biggest businessman in the area" attitude and he frequently ignored planning / development rules. Think how often rides appeared, operated for one or two seasons, then vanished in the early 80's. Broome knew he could put something in without permission, operate it for one season before enforcement action took place.

Money. A relief road would not lead to any increase in attendance at the Towers. So it was £12-£15m (so well over the cost of a SW ride) down the drain in effect. Merlin were told they would have to fund the road themselves.

Of course, with regard to the land issue, the council could have sought to get a Compulsory Purchase Order put in place - but pointless doing that unless you know the funding is in place to build the road, which it was not. In addition, [Lord] Anthony Bamford has more than a few political connections & is a large donor to the Tory Party. You could guarantee any attempt at a Compulsory Purchase Order would have resulted in a long drawn-out planning process / Public Enquiry etc - it would probably still be dragging on now had they tried to go ahead.

There are locals (& some guests) who rightly state that the car parking charge introduced at Towers was supposed to fund the relief road & improved transport plan. This is true - Ralph Armond (Divisional Director of Towers went on record to this effect when the parking charge was introduced to try and justify it). Furthermore the parking charge has increased most years, with little / no improvement in the transport plan to Towers, so it is really just an easy-money cash cow. (NB: this is not a criticism of Towers / Merlin per-se... just look at a Disney car park and do a "back of a fag packet" calculation to work out how much they make on perking per day).

 

[Ash]

As others have said, the the Tory’s in power and Bamford about they’ve got no chance. This is the man who hosted the former PMs wedding, one of if not the biggest donor. How do you think he got that brand new bridge over the A50? Or got the PM to turn up and launch his hydrogen vehicles? Go on trade envoys? Host speeches at the factory? As well as the pretty ruthless way they can treat staff at times. Anyone round these parts knows how powerful JCB are and considering the relief road needed to go over their test track it was never going to happen

Getting the bats out of Oakamoor tunnel and the railway extended is far more likely. Especially as the expansion to leek will be finished soon. A much better place for a park and ride system