4.9.06: Two years on: the nightmare continues
It is two years since Lancashire County Council hustled through the decision to build the Heysham M6 Link Northern Route, and the nightmare continues for several communities. High winds and showers on Sunday the 3rd September did not deter resolute people from Lancaster and Morecambe from making a protest against the controversial road scheme. The road would have a devastating impact on their neighbourhoods, their quality of life and their health and wellbeing. These people did not ask for this road, there are no benefits for them only misery.
At Torrisholme they face the prospect of a massive 26 ft high rampart carrying the dual carriageway through the residential district. The protestors built scaffolding to show the height of the road as it crosses Torrisholme Road. Because of the high wind, it was not safe to build over 20ft, but that was quite enough to give a frightening impression of the size of the monster. The wind also did not allow the balloons to soar a further 33ft to show the height of the lighting.
This road will not relieve congestion: it is designed to attract more HGV traffic into the district. It cuts the neighbourhood in two, severely impacts on Lancaster and Morecambe College and destroys the Broadoak garden centre. LCC did not pause for formal consultation, nor did they investigate alternative solutions to end the traffic misery. Many hundreds formally objected to the planning application, but they have simply been ignored.
One exasperated protester said: “Councillors won’t be happy until they’ve covered the area with concrete.”
What has LCC achieved in the last two years? Not much it seems, the road is still unloved and unfunded, and there is no answer to the district’s congestion problems, no boost to the district’s regeneration prospects south of the River Lune.
What can these communities look forward to? Well the Councillors in Preston will soon be considering their planning application to themselves. Given their longstanding political desire to build a road, they are not likely to turn down their own application: they will not have to live with their mistake. They will probably approve the application, in the face of huge opposition and controversy. If anyone else other than LCC submitted poor plans and ignored regulatory guidance, they would have their application thrown out.
Thankfully the Government Office for the North West has long since seen this move coming and, in a highly unusual step, they have ordered LCC, if they approve the application, not to grant planning permission, without referring the matter to GONW. They would then decide whether to ‘call in’ the scheme and for the Government to appoint an independent inspector to review the whole sorry debacle.
LCC cannot be allowed to blow £120 million pounds of public money on a massive road which would destroy the North Lancashire Green belt, affect the health and well being of local communities and still not come up with an answer to the congestion, without independent scrutiny. TSLM does not think so, nor does our local MP or our independent councillors.
Most importantly thousands of local people are unhappy too. In the only official measure of opinion taken on the Northern route plans, 76% of people said no. Given the growing problem of global warming, and the fact that we have now seen how damaging are the Northern route plans, the chances are, if there was a public consultation and poll, the public would simply blow the plans away. LCC know this and prefer to tough it out.
TSLM will be campaigning hard over the next few weeks for the much needed public inquiry. We urge everyone to write or email to our local MP Geraldine Smith to demand that there be a call in. People can also demand a call in by writing or emailing the Secretary of State for Transport Douglas Alexander at the Department for Transport.