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 We read with amazement the "County has a bad case of congestion" article by Nick Spoors in the Chronicle & Echo. Our trusty Highways Department claim they have a "Growth Strategy". Northants Residents Alliance has questioned the basis of Northamptonshire County Council's traffic predictions at local planning meetings for a year. Our expert accuses Planners of halving the base figure that was used 10 years ago to predict traffic flow from new housing.
Their excuse is that 'sustainable' transport planning (that means you and I getting on the bus, cycling or walking) allows them to halve traffic growth predictions when planning the impact of new housing developments. A reported 20% increase in traffic over the last 10 years shows the ideology of sustainability is obviously not realistic. Who among us will be the first of the thousands of families to brave the elements and give up their car(s)? “After you - no, after you.”
I challenge Northamptonshire County Council to reveal their Growth Strategy for Northampton. Tell us where roads will be built and when. Show us that there is guaranteed funding to support them.
Look at their report on the Northamptonshire County Council web site
– there is NO strategy for Northampton.
Their report states:
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“Transport Vision for Northampton:
Detailed examination of the transport implications of growth in Northampton currently awaits the outcome of work to define growth options to test. As such it has not been possible to undertake detailed work in the same way as for other towns.”
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The only new roads on offer in Northampton are the pitifully under funded Sandy Lane improvements, which they still insist on calling a bypass, even though there isn't enough money to make it a dual carriageway or even demolish the houses that stand in the way of the "Bypass" joining a main road to the north of the town. This road is intended only to satisfy developers’ needs for access to thousands of new houses. The Council blame the massive growth in population for our troubles. Yet they are the officers who, with WNDC are blindly carrying out the Government’s orders to increase the population of Northampton by 60%.
If they persist in covering green fields with masses of new houses, there will be even less room for a future-proof new road network. Surely our planners should be planning and securing funding for a serious road infrastructure to support 100,000 extra houses in Northamptonshire - before they build the houses?
It’s madness – why don’t these professionals confess that their housing growth plans are unsustainable, under funded and will result in a permanent reduction in everyone’s living standards? Only a New Town will prevent us all from misery in the near future. One’s thing is for sure – it will get worse, but it won’t get better.
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