3.11.06: TSLM Press Release - IT’S A WHITE ELEPHANT!
DESTRUCTIVE AND UNDERPERFORMING ROAD FAILS THE DISTRICT, PUBLIC INQUIRY ESSENTIAL.
Despite huge controversy and soundly based criticism of the road scheme, Lancashire County Council has ignored the calls to reconsider and today approved their own planning application to themselves. But the real hurdles for the HGV dual carriageway scheme still remain.
At a time when national politicians are making plans to combat environmental damage and climate change, following the ominous Stern Report, County Council politicians are carrying on regardless with plans that will encourage more cars onto the roads, and are sending out a very bad message to the people of Lancashire.
The battle is far from over. Lancashire County Council have yet to persuade the Government to stump up over £137 million for the controversial scheme, and the Government Office for the North West has already served notice on the County Council which prevents the Council from going ahead without reference to them. This gives the Government the opportunity to call the matter in for the much needed independent public inquiry. If that were not enough, the Northern route has a formidable opponent in the district MP Geraldine Smith who considers the scheme to be a white elephant.
The Council’s objective for the massive dual carriageway road is to cut the journey time to the Port of Heysham. This will attract more heavy traffic into the area en route to the ferry. Unfortunately, as many critics have shown, the road brings many burdens for the people who live in the district. The road does little to relieve traffic in Lancaster City centre, and does nothing for regeneration south of the river. The University, the main employer in the district, remains isolated from Morecambe and North Lancaster.
173 acres of Green Belt will be destroyed if the Council gets their way. Lancaster and Morecambe College will be severely compromised: 900 jobs there could well be at risk. The health and wellbeing of thousands of people who live near to the HGV route will be affected by various kinds of pollution from the HGV road.
Local communities asked for relief for congestion. The County Council have simply used the problem as an excuse to build an HGV route for ferry traffic. No meaningful attempt to consult the people of the district has been undertaken since the plans were published in spring of 2005, and no option of less destructive alternative measures has been proposed.
Lancashire County Council has a major technical problem, to prove that the Northern route is in the Lancaster and District Local Plan. If the Northern route is not in the plan, as appears to be the case, then technically it is a departure from the Development Plan, and on this point alone, it should not go through without a public inquiry.
David Gate, Chair of Transport Solutions for Lancaster and Morecambe (TSLM), who favour alternatives to road building, said “We are not surprised at the decision. It has been the only ambition of the County Council for some time, and they would look foolish rejecting their only plan. We have been focused on the need for a public inquiry and the poor value for money aspect, and the campaign to stop the road moves up a gear. The only people to speak up for the road, apart from someone from the Chamber of Commerce, were local Labour councillors, and they now have Geraldine Smith to contend with. No local residents spoke in favour of the scheme; in fact residents from Torrisholme, Slyne and Halton demonstrated how angry the local public will now be about the destruction and the failure to tackle congestion.”
TSLM will now be stepping up the campaign for a call in and it urges everyone to write to the Government Office for the North West to demand the ‘call in’ and appointment of an independent inspector.
The archived Devcon meeting webcast, can be found by following the LCClink from below: