Bradley Thomas has a 30-minute Westminster Hall debate on the A38 BREP scheme at 4pm on Tuesday 13 October. A transport minister must reply in person.

The A38 roadworks in Bromsgrove will be debated in Parliament on Tuesday 13 October. Bradley Thomas, the town’s MP, has secured a Westminster Hall debate on the Bromsgrove Route Enhancement Programme, the £49.7 million scheme known as BREP.

Parliament’s own calendar lists it at 16:00 to 16:30, under the title “Bromsgrove Route Enhancement Programme”, with Mr Thomas as the only named member. A minister from the Department for Transport has to attend and reply.

The debate lands in the middle of the next big set of works. The A38 at Stoke Road Bridge is booked to close overnight on the five nights from Monday 12 October, and the county council’s revised finish date for the Oakalls Roundabout is now summer 2027.

What a Westminster Hall debate is

Westminster Hall is the Commons’ second debating chamber. Any MP can apply for a slot, and the 30-minute debates are usually led by a single MP raising a local issue.

  • The MP who secured it opens and speaks for most of the time.
  • Other MPs can intervene or, with his agreement, make short speeches.
  • A government minister closes with a reply on the record.
  • There is no vote that changes anything. The value is the minister’s answer, which goes into Hansard.

That last point is the one to watch. In September the Minister for Roads answered Mr Thomas by letter. On 13 October a minister will have to answer him in public.

What the MP wants

Mr Thomas announced the debate on 1 October. His aim, he says, is to push the Government into “a greater role in holding the County Council to account”. The Department for Transport provides most of the money: £43,164,981 of the £49,698,512 total, according to the county’s own phase 3 page.

He said:

“BREP is one of the biggest issues impacting Bromsgrove right now, and as the local MP it’s my job to voice the anger residents and businesses are feeling. The County Council’s failures in delivering BREP on time has hampered our local economy and damaged our town’s reputation.”

He added that residents and businesses “are at the end of their tether with the constant delays and roadworks”, and that BREP “must be completed as swiftly as possible and on budget”.

How it got here

The debate is the third step in a correspondence that started in August:

  • 11 August: Mr Thomas wrote to the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, asking her to instruct National Highways to “review this scheme and administer it to completion”.
  • 14 August: Cllr Tom Wells, the county’s cabinet member for highways, wrote to him naming Cadent gas apparatus as the principal cause of delay. We set out what that letter says about penalties.
  • 4 September: Justin Madders MP, the Minister for Roads, declined to hand the scheme to National Highways. His letter gave summer 2027 for Oakalls. Our report: the Minister says Oakalls runs to summer 2027.
  • 1 October: Mr Thomas announced the Westminster Hall debate.

The Minister’s September letter said the Department “does not have a role in the day-to-day management of the works”. It monitors progress through the council’s quarterly returns. That is the position the MP now wants to test in the chamber.

What the county says

Worcestershire County Council is the authority building the scheme, with Colas as main contractor. Its stated reason for the delays has not changed all year. Its July programme update blames “further diversion works required of gas, water and electricity services due to inaccurate utility location records”. It says the timing of those diversions sits with the utility companies.

By its own figures, £34,666,977 had been spent by the end of July 2026. That is about 70 per cent of the total. The council’s frequently asked questions give phase 3 as due to complete by the end of March 2027. It has promised its next programme update in October.

The same week on the A38

The county’s BREP page lists these works around the debate:

  • Monday 12 to Friday 16 October: the A38 at Stoke Road Bridge closes in both directions from 20:00 to 06:00 each night, with 19 to 24 October held in reserve
  • 5 to 25 October: off-peak daytime two-way lights on Stoke Road, between Charford Road and the Sherwood Road roundabout
  • 9 to 12 October: weekend night closures on the A38 south of Oakalls

Our Bromsgrove roadworks page carries every closure and diversion, checked each visit.

What it means for you

  • If you want to watch, the debate is broadcast live on Parliamentlive.tv at 4pm on Tuesday 13 October. Mr Thomas says his speech will also go on his social media channels afterwards.
  • The written record of what is said goes into Hansard.
  • If you have a point you want raised, Bromsgrove constituents can contact their MP through his website before the debate.
  • Nothing said on 13 October changes the closure dates. Plan around the Stoke Road Bridge nights regardless.

We will add the minister’s answer to this page after the debate.

Sources