Newark Advertiser reader letter: Wrong solution to roads problem
The Advertiser has asked for our comments on the council’s refusal of consent to the widening of the Newark bypass.
This brave decision should be applauded.
Unfortunately, there are others who don’t seem to understand or respect democracy.
The planning committee’s reasons for the decision were eloquently put but unfortunately, in a repeat of past political machinations, it has once again been withdrawn.
In order to redress the balance a few things need to be emphasised but I’m not holding my breath in the face of vested interests.
It has to be said that the problems with the bypass are real, if intermittent, but even if they are getting more frequent, they are not properly addressed by the present plans.
The congestion is not caused by the lack of a dual carriageway but by the presence of too many badly designed roundabouts.
Without them, especially the one at the cattle market, traffic would flow more freely and many of the problems would disappear.
Even the interfering councillor Mathew Skinner acknowledges that this problem would be only slightly affected by having two carriageways.
Economic arguments in favour of dualling ignore the effects of an extended construction time on businesses due to the building of what amounts to a whole new road alongside the old one; and we all know to our cost how long construction works take nowadays.
What chance will businesses have if Newark is gridlocked for longer than necessary?
It would appear that the decision has upset our MP and brought forth from him some political mudslinging and public intimidation of councillors.
I just hope he is right that the present government will redress the wrongs of his previous government, stop throwing good money after bad and get on with a scheme which addresses the real needs of Newark instead of the pet bureaucratic project of speeding lorries to the Humber ports.
Mr Jenrick needs reminding that the money already spent was wasted by his government on an unnecessarily complicated scheme and will not be recouped by building this road.
A scheme which properly considers the needs of the town would include a solution to the dangerous nature of the two roundabouts either side of the A1 and the proposed eyesore of the stretch from the A1 to the Winthorpe roundabout as well as a flyover on the Farndon roundabout. Nobody is talking about this, however.
Newark needs a scheme which properly takes into account its real problems without being skewed by the needs of freight traffic alone. — IAN THOMSON, Collingham.
