CAMPAIGNERS CALL FOR A628 PUBLIC INQUIRY DELAY TO ASSESS HIGHWAYS AGENCY SURPRISE NEW EVIDENCE

Just two days before the long awaited public inquiry into the proposed Mottram/Tintwistle bypass and A628 upgrade, campaigners have been forced to call for a delay to proceedings, due to begin on Tuesday 26th June at 10am at Stalybridge Civic Hall, to allow all parties involved the opportunity to scrutinize substantial new evidence submitted by the Highways Agency.

The new evidence makes many amendments and corrections to the Agency’s already submitted Environmental Statement, which contained errors including the omission of numerous sites of historical interest and potential noise impacts that had been estimated using an incorrect factor.

With just two working days before the opening of the public inquiry it is impossible for anyone to deal with such a vast amount of information. This begs the question of the accuracy of the rest of the evidence submitted regarding the development’s environmental impacts, explains Transport Campaigner Anne Robinson of Friends of the Peak District. Along with local people the A57/A628 Corridor Alliance will be asking for more time to study the new evidence and this will mean that the public inquiry must be adjourned.

The Alliance (1) comprises major environmental and amenity groups who argue the bypass would devastate the outstanding countryside of the Peak Park for only a short-term alleviation of traffic congestion through the Longdendale valley.

Results from similar road developments such as the Newbury bypass point to a future of communities bounded by roads of streaming traffic, whilst local villages roads would continue to carry much the same levels of traffic.

Major road-building schemes are only allowed in National Parks when it can be shown that there is a national need and no alternative, said Ruth Chambers, Head of Policy at the Council for National Parks. At the inquiry we will show that this bypass fails this strict test on both counts and will exacerbate local traffic problems, damage a nationally important landscape and create more carbon emissions.

The Alliance is campaigning for alternative measures to improve the quality of life for people in these blighted villages whilst retaining the countryside they value. The central proposal of the Alliance is a weight restriction forcing lorries to use the existing M1/M62 network, coupled with proposals for massive investment in local transport and better facilities for walkers and cyclists.

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(1) The A57/A628 Corridor Alliance is opposed to the planned Mottram/Tintwistle bypass and A628 road upgrade and the Glossop Spur road. It campaigns for alternative measures to alleviate traffic congestion in the Longdendale Valley. Its members are:
· British Mountaineering Council (BMC)
· Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) North West
· Council for National Parks (CNP)
· Friends of the Earth (FOE) East Midlands Region
· Friends of the Peak District (FPD)
· Manchester and High Peak Ramblers’ Association
· North West Transport Activists Roundtable (NW TAR)

Friends of the Peak District (FPD) acts as official spokesperson on behalf of the alliance, co-ordinates communications within the alliance and takes on a leading role on behalf of the alliance in this public inquiry.