This week’s Newark Advertiser readers’ letters
High cost of delaying the inevitable
I see the Government has now confirmed funding for dualling the A46 Newark Bypass.
Older readers may recall a time when the A46 ran through the centre of Newark and the gridlock on summer Saturdays with traffic to and from the Lincolnshire coast. I used to park near the marina and walk to the Market Place from there.
Then, around 1990, as I recall, we were to have a bypass.
The contract, to build a dual carriageway, was awarded to Budge Construction, but immediately, it was decided to save money by negotiating a reduction from dual to single carriageway.
This is sadly typical of expenditure on infrastructure in the UK. We fail to plan for the future — that’ll be someone else’s problem.
This attitude is so common that we even have a term for it. We call it “kicking the can down the road.”
I don’t know how much was saved back when the Government was negotiating with Tony Budge, but today’s piece in the Advertiser tells us that the cost of the dualling has now reached an eye-watering £686m.
Then there’s the months of disruption along an extremely busy road rather than the work being on the vacant site we had back then.
So, beware the politician who says they are seeking the “most efficient” or “most cost-effective” solution. What they invariably mean is “cheap” and the rest of us end up paying for it. — JAMES TURNER, Syerston.
Barriers to flowing traffic
It’s only since we moved to the Kelham Road area of Newark, two years ago, that we realised the impact that the Castle Station has on the town.
Numerous times a day the barriers come down to allow often empty or half empty trains to cross.
This results in traffic back ups right down to the Cattlemarket roundabout and beyond, all along Castlegate and Lombard Street and North-gate, thus impacting on many more people than those who use the trains.
On particularly busy days the impact is magnified. This is one of the major causes of congestion in the town and will always be there as long as the station is in its current location, regardless of any bypass upgrading.
Re-routing the Castle line through the Northgate station would eliminate the problem, but the cost would be massive, so I guess we will continue to be stuck with the congestion! — K. HARROW, via email.
Excellent idea to link routes
Congratulations Ken Heptonstall of Epperstone for the great idea of linking up the Pennine and West Highland Ways to provide a longer, more challenging and rewarding trek.
His staged 40-day route starts at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, ending 560 miles away at the summit of UK’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis. The plan has received favourable reports in Scotland, England and abroad.
For 20 years I've unsuccessfully tried to get MPs and councils in Staffordshire and Cheshire to campaign for the Pennine Way to be extended from Edale, Derbyshire, to the start of the South Pennines near JCB’s Rocester head-quarters and the renowned Alton Towers Resort in Staffordshire.
However, I urge Mr Hepponstall to rethink the southern end of the Northern Trek, taking it through East Staff-ordshire, East Cheshire, and much of the Peak District National Park, making a better, more accessible, and scenic launch point.
The 67-year-old retired des ign and multimedia consultant told The Scotsman newspaper: “Piecing it together proved much more difficult than I had imagined. I started with two identical RAC road maps, cut the pages out, pasted them together, laid them on the floor and started work with a magic marker. I then bought 23 OS (Ordnance Survey) maps and started to fill in the very large gaps. Of course, I then had to walk the whole route again and photograph it end to end. Which I did over the course of the two years I spent creating the route.
“My plan now is to get the Northern Trek approved by the government as a long distance walk in its own right. My campaign has already started and I will put as much effort into achieving that as I did in creating the walk.”
Response to the plan has been “excellent,” he added.
The new Reform administration at Staffordshire Coun-ty Council has been asked to pick up the Pennine Way extension baton, something Conservatives, Labour and walking clubs have failed to do.
The glorious vistas in the suggested extended trail through the two extra counties are second to none on the 268-mile wild northern uplands track. — C. PROUDLOVE, Stoke-on-Trent.
Fate intervenes
Would I rather, being an avid book reader, have a good book shop in Newark or, being careful with money, have a good discount store?
I guess fate has decided I’m more a reader than a cheapskate! — PAUL DUDD-LES, Balderton.
No rush to go green
I was interested to see that the American Enterprise Institute has just published a report called Clarifying The Public Debate Around Energy and Climate.
They found that the American public does not support a rapid elimination of fossil fuels but, instead, supports an energy policy which includes not just solar and wind, but also natural gas, oil, and even nuclear energy.
They do not believe in the narrative that unless we immediately decarbonise everything, humanity will plunge off a “climate tipping point” into apocalypse. Such doomsday language is not supported by a scientific consensus and is not shared by the voters whom climate activists and bureaucrats claim to represent.
Americans care about ener-gy cost and reliability, not about satisfying moral posturing of climate activists. Among working class voters, the emphasis on affordability and reliability is more stark.
The report shows that the notion that the US public is ready to sacrifice comfort and prosperity for ‘planetary salvation’ simply does not withstand scrutiny. Voters overwhelmingly reject the need for expensive household retrofits or electric vehicles.
These findings must feel like heresy for the climate policy establishment who have promoted every hurricane, flood, or heat wave as proof of impending doom.
The dream of Net Zero by 2050 — complete decarbonisation, and the abolition of fossil fuels — remains just that: a dream!
The report concludes that the simple truth is that “climate policy will be much more effective if it works in the direction of public opinion, rather than against it”.
This is an American report based on American public opinion but, I am sure, it would be equally relevant to people in Great Britain.
The obsessive pursuit of Net Zero is not supported by the public and will bring our economy to its knees! — ROBERT SHEPPARD, Beckingham.
Sconcehenge
For the last few years have noticed that around this time of year the sun appears to go down right between the middle of the bridge leading to the Queen’s Sconce in the Sconce and Devon Park.
I jokingly call it Sconce-Henge as a pun on the solstice and position of the sun at Stonehenge.
I took the photo (above) recently, and I think you can agree that it's quite a striking image (lens flare included). — STEPHEN WALLS, via email.