Fight against A595 De-Trunking: Public Inquiry
The Highways Agency, a quango accountable to the government's transport department, wants to de-trunk the A595 and A5092, which means that responsiblity for these roads would be transferred to the County Council and that they would be moved to a lower status in the road hierarchy. This proposal reminds me of Dorothy Parker's review of a bad book.
Her comment was that it should "not be lightly tossed aside, but should be hurled with great force."
If we're going to protect jobs and businesses in West Cumbria we need better transport links, not worse ones. The money available to Cumbria County council to maintain these roads if they were de-trunked and handed over to the council would probably be about half what is currently spent. And it is also likely that less money would also be provided to improveme the roads.
The A595 is the only major road serving a large chunk of Cumbria, including the town of Millom, a large number of villages including Seascale, Beckermet, Gosforth, Holmrook and Bootle, and the Nuclear Waste storage facility at Drigg.
I have attended a number of meetings about this proposal recently, including a Neighbourhood Forum at Calder Bridge and a Pre-Public Inquiry meeting in Millom. The most memorable comment came from John Jackson, a borough councillor from Beckermet who chairs the neighbourhood forum, who said that far from de-trunking the road we should dual it.
Almost as memorable, and perhaps most significantly, the inspector at the public inquiry pre-meeting noted that it is very unusual for a road to have trunk status removed without a new or upgraded road replacing it. He asked the Highways Agency (the government organisation which is proposing the change) to produce evidence of how this fits in with national and local policies, and invited protestors to give a view if we think it doesn't. As there are a large number of national and local policies which can be interpreted as requiring improved transport links to West Cumbria, I hope and expect that those of us who are opposing the de-trunking order should be able to produce some strong evidence on this point.
The public inquiry will start in St Bees on Tuesday 19th April.
The people who are opposing the de-trunking include Cumbria County Council, Copeland Borough Council, just about every parish or town council in the affected area, Copeland Conservatives, the other local political parties (some more actively than others) and various local action groups, residents, and local businesses. So the public inquiry could be billed as "Highways Agency versus the people of West Cumbria." Let's hope the good guys win this one - it will be a black day for West Cumbria if we don't.
Her comment was that it should "not be lightly tossed aside, but should be hurled with great force."
If we're going to protect jobs and businesses in West Cumbria we need better transport links, not worse ones. The money available to Cumbria County council to maintain these roads if they were de-trunked and handed over to the council would probably be about half what is currently spent. And it is also likely that less money would also be provided to improveme the roads.
The A595 is the only major road serving a large chunk of Cumbria, including the town of Millom, a large number of villages including Seascale, Beckermet, Gosforth, Holmrook and Bootle, and the Nuclear Waste storage facility at Drigg.
I have attended a number of meetings about this proposal recently, including a Neighbourhood Forum at Calder Bridge and a Pre-Public Inquiry meeting in Millom. The most memorable comment came from John Jackson, a borough councillor from Beckermet who chairs the neighbourhood forum, who said that far from de-trunking the road we should dual it.
Almost as memorable, and perhaps most significantly, the inspector at the public inquiry pre-meeting noted that it is very unusual for a road to have trunk status removed without a new or upgraded road replacing it. He asked the Highways Agency (the government organisation which is proposing the change) to produce evidence of how this fits in with national and local policies, and invited protestors to give a view if we think it doesn't. As there are a large number of national and local policies which can be interpreted as requiring improved transport links to West Cumbria, I hope and expect that those of us who are opposing the de-trunking order should be able to produce some strong evidence on this point.
The public inquiry will start in St Bees on Tuesday 19th April.
The people who are opposing the de-trunking include Cumbria County Council, Copeland Borough Council, just about every parish or town council in the affected area, Copeland Conservatives, the other local political parties (some more actively than others) and various local action groups, residents, and local businesses. So the public inquiry could be billed as "Highways Agency versus the people of West Cumbria." Let's hope the good guys win this one - it will be a black day for West Cumbria if we don't.
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