My Name is URL
Well-Known Forumite
Forgot to say Tom.... please keep us (me) updated following the meeting... I can report back to Castlefields RA which may help both parties...
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Castletown Bypass - Western Access Road
- Thread starter Andreas Rex
- Start date
John Marwood
I ♥ cryptic crosswords
I am not dead
But this idea
Is
Very Much
Goodnight
But this idea
Is
Very Much
Goodnight
gk141054 is absolutely right in what he/she says. Lord Stafford has wanted to develop that land for years. It will give him a good retirement present. Most developments pay for the road i.e. the development comes first so when the Stafford development plan included Burleyfields then the County decided that it would plan for the road now. It probably always wanted the green route and is just including the others so that it looks democratic. Stafford cannot stay as it is so there needs to be major discussion on the way forward. There will be thousands of new houses built in Stafford over the coming years and none of the roads suggested will help the situation. What can be done? I don't know.
henryscat
Well-Known Forumite
Had a read through all the blurb accompanying the petition....Sofa said:
- Could you expand on what an "integrated transport policy" is and how it would be achieved? Its a phrase that gets banded about so much as to be meaningless because it means different things to different people. Does it mean buses stopping by the station? They already do. Does it mean having a train ticket you can use on the bus? We've got that. Cycle parking at the station? Yep, that's there as well. So what exactly does it mean?
- What is a "sensible bus service"? For travelling into town the bus services aren't bad. The only problem is the price of cash singles (passes are actually a lot more reasonably priced), but since bus services are de-regulated, it can only change with action from central government.
- Park and ride.... Is not a panacea. The places where P&R works tend to have some or all of the following: large volumes of day trippers, expensive town centre parking, limited amounts of town centre parking, congested traffic, but opportunity to give road space over to buses. At the moment Stafford is not suited to a P&R. It is still relatively cheap and easy to drive into town so there is little advantage for drivers. Stafford does not get the volumes of visitors that York, Chester and Oxford do where P&R is successful.
- Where's the bus station going? Whilst I agree its a good idea in principle, what I wouldn't want to see is a bus station that was inconveniently placed. Although present arrangements are far from perfect there is actually a nice choice of stops to get on/off close to various bits of the town centre. Would a bus station leave people with further to walk?
- Is the reference to Stafford Hospital really relevant....? The money involved is two different government departments. If the Western Access isn't build, the Department for Transport aren't going to hand over £31m to the Department of Health to sort out Stafford Hospital. Strikes me as red herring, and onethat's not helpful to your cause.
- The link to new housing is what lies behind it all. If Stafford BC allocate a big site near Castlefields, the houses will get built, the houses will generate traffic (no-one's proposed a car free development) and there lies the problem. If you campaign against the road, then you've equally got to campaign to have the housing put elsewhere as well. Transport is a function of town planning...
I agree with henryscat. Castlefields will be expanded and there are usually two cars per house. This generates traffic which needs roads. Therefore it is nonsense to campaign against a road. People like having cars whatever the Greens might think. The Greens like having cars and have them. Therefore, as we live in a town where there are almost two cars per house then roads must be built. I cycle, I drive a car, I sometimes catch a train and a bus. An integrated transport policy means that we can use all these means of transport and that they are connected in some way. Stafford still needs new roads otherwise we shall become more clogged up. A petition against the road is a nonsense.
Yes - the Green Party - http://tiny.cc/AYacIgk141054 said:
Unfortunately, I have not got the time to reply to all of henryscat's points at the moment, but I will do as soon as I have time.
The road plans are a County Council matter and housing plans Borough Council business. That is rather convenient in this case, because the two issues are being sold to the public as two separate things. They are not, they are wholly interdependent.
Here is a reply I made from a thread on the Facebook group, which goes a little way to explaining my position:
"The current County and Borough administrations are largely made up of well-to-do men in their sixties who live in rural comfort. Very few of those who make decisions about Stafford live in the town, and even fewer have any idea what it is like to rely on public transport.
The public consultation into whether the public supports this road being built can, to my mind, be seen, as a referendum on which direction Stafford takes for its future. If we want a sprawling, grey, noisy, smelly, polluted town, full of even more shops no companies can afford to rent, more pokey flats nobody can afford to buy and more angry motorists battling through the traffic to parking spaces which cost the earth, then I suggest supporting this road. If, on the other hand, you accept that Stafford's very essence is the charm that comes from being small enough to be friendly, but big enough to have what you need, and were it to grow significantly then that would damage or destroy that atmosphere, then please make a stand against this road.
This is a £36m exercise in short-sighted stupidity from a Government which rules centrally and does not listen to the people
Who asked the people of Stafford if we want 8,000 more homes? Nobody.
Who asked the people of Stafford what the priority for spending £36m should be? Nobody.
And who has to live with these decisions? We, the people of Stafford.
Is this fair? I don't think so, sonny Jim!
Well, I, for one, can't sit by and let this nonsense carry on. I love Stafford, exactly because it has largely not yet gone the way of the many cloned, soulless and tasteless town centres which look like they have had Glass-and-chrome Man, the architectural super villain, spray ugly mediocrity all over the place.
I understand those who call for Stafford to be full of department stores, trendy bars, cinemas, bowling alleys, etc, as it is natural to want the most convenience possible on your doorstep. But the truth of the matter is that Stafford is not, never has been and never will be in a position to compete with Stoke or Wolverhampton, let alone Manchester or Birmingham. There is neither the space nor infrastructure and certainly not enough people living nearby to demand a Bull Ring Shopping Centre in Stafford. Blimey, the Guildhall has never re-opened its first floor, and struggles to keep the ground floor full most of the time.
People visit Stafford exactly because it is not like Stoke or Wolverhampton, Birmingham or Manchester. Let's preserve that. Let's celebrate that. Let's capitalise on that.
Wouldn't it be great to have Park and Ride to get shoppers and workers in and out of town, dropping them off at the clean and comfortable Stafford Bus Station, seconds walk from the beautiful Market Square. We can have this if we really want. But since the powers that be are not listening we shall have to shout to make our voice heard.
It seems that so many people just accept that the worst is going to happen and are just resigned to it. They look out in the depth of night and all they can see is darkness. Fortunately, there are those who can look out into that same night, but they look far into the horizon and can just make out a few rays of light, the bright sunshine of a new dawn on its way."
cookie_monster
Well-Known Forumite
my brother and his girlfriend have just pulled out of the house they were buying as a result of this application.
the proposed route would cut stright through the garden of the property they were interested in....so after spending since august trying to get things finalised, they have had to walk away.
x
the proposed route would cut stright through the garden of the property they were interested in....so after spending since august trying to get things finalised, they have had to walk away.
x
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
Planning blight.
That doesn't take you to the page, for some reason, you have to search for 'blight notice' and take the third option....
That doesn't take you to the page, for some reason, you have to search for 'blight notice' and take the third option....
My Name is URL
Well-Known Forumite
Skill point to Sofa from me!!! 
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
Something thats been annoying me lately - traffic lights. Why do pedestrians come second to cars? Most traffic lights in Stafford have no relation between the button being pressed, and getting a green man to cross. It comes on regardless, you don't actually have to press the button. Quite a few sets of lights have long delays, the new ones at Sainsburys wait twice as long to let you cross than they used to for example.
Now I know they paid some R&D department a fortune to decide how and where these things work, and I'm certainly not saying that giving more control to the pedestrians would ease traffic flow - quite the opposite! But it does highlight that cars are treated as more important than pedestrians, so its hardly suprising people drive!
Now I know they paid some R&D department a fortune to decide how and where these things work, and I'm certainly not saying that giving more control to the pedestrians would ease traffic flow - quite the opposite! But it does highlight that cars are treated as more important than pedestrians, so its hardly suprising people drive!
henryscat
Well-Known Forumite
It annoys me as well.... The one by the station is especially bad, so much so that I usually end up crossing well before the crossing stops the traffic. Some pedestrian crossings might be better off as zebras where cars have to stop as soon as there's someone waiting to cross. The one at Sainsburys does now give people longer to cross, but the downside is that it definitely takes longer to change. There is at least one set of lights where pressing the button does affect whether the pedestrian phase kicks in - Riverway/Lichfield Road, (but haven't noticed any others that work like that). If no-one has pressed the button to cross, the pedestrian phase doesn't happen.tek-monkey said:
My Name is URL
Well-Known Forumite
Hi blueshirt, where abouts on Castlefields do you live? (road name, not exact address)
I live on there too (Edwards Drive) and I am also a member of the Castlefields Residents Association. The RA will be issuing a newsletter which will contain some info on the bypass over the coming week or two.
You can also check out www.castlefields.org although it is still being developed. However the next meeting details are on there though so if the bypass is a concern (which I think it should be to all Castlefields residents) then get yourself along.
I live on there too (Edwards Drive) and I am also a member of the Castlefields Residents Association. The RA will be issuing a newsletter which will contain some info on the bypass over the coming week or two.
You can also check out www.castlefields.org although it is still being developed. However the next meeting details are on there though so if the bypass is a concern (which I think it should be to all Castlefields residents) then get yourself along.
My Name is URL
Well-Known Forumite
Trumpet... plans for a fourth lane on the M6 were recently shelved in favour of hard shoulder running.....
However when there is an accident i'm not sure having an extra lane will improve things? Most accidents see the closing of the whole motorway anyway (thanks to the traffic wombles) and those that don't usually don't have any lanes closed, its just the rubber neckers.
However when there is an accident i'm not sure having an extra lane will improve things? Most accidents see the closing of the whole motorway anyway (thanks to the traffic wombles) and those that don't usually don't have any lanes closed, its just the rubber neckers.
henryscat
Well-Known Forumite
The hard shoulder strengthening works are underway already -Trumpet said:
http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/24779.aspx
So that hard shoulder running can be brought in:
http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/25530.aspx
http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/25534.aspx