Dear Sir
Last week’s Newton News asks for opinions on the transport aspects of the draft County Plan. It’s very clear to me that the essence of the Plan is to make using a car so unpleasant that people will only drive when they have to!
The draft Plan is to ‘encourage sustainable transport choices’. In plain English, this means they want us to walk or cycle or maybe ride a horse! Maybe they would like us to travel back in time to before the car was invented!
They seek to ‘put new development in locations which minimise the distance and time of journeys’. This implies building houses close to factories/ industry, even if people don’t want to live there.
They want to prioritise ‘those with mobility issues or disabilities, walking, cycling, public transport, car sharing and alternative fuel vehicles’. In other words they want to discriminate against the normal car user. This absolutely isn’t what I want.
An example of this is the congestion along Central Avenue when the schools open/close. If a single pupil wants to cross, the traffic warden stops all the cars and they have to wait. This is because pedestrians have priority. By waiting for a few people to want to cross and taking them together, the car queues would be radically reduced, but the Council wants to cause maximum inconvenience to the car driver. The draft Plan is telling us this is the sort of thing they want. It’s absolutely not what I want.
They also want to have a ‘proposed cycling network’. They can’t afford to fix the potholes in the roads, but they can afford to pay for a new cycling network for a tiny minority of younger people who are willing and able to cycle. This is despite the fact that cycling is statistically far more dangerous than using a car. This is not the prioritisation I want.
They want to ‘focus on limiting car parking at destination’. What does this mean? It means they will try to ensure you can’t find anywhere to park, so people will be driving round in circles wasting time and polluting fuel, and getting annoyed, looking for somewhere to park (and you’ll probably then have to pay for the privilege when you do). This isn’t what I want.
Currently, though it gets a lot of criticism, there is very good free parking for shopping in Newton Aycliffe. This is what I want, and what the Council doesn’t want. It promotes trade and helps people in their daily lives – exactly what the Council should be aiming to do.
Traffic light timing to minimise the flow of traffic, pinch points, speed ramps, bus lanes are all methods used already to persuade the motorist to stay at home. There are already plans for extra junctions on the A167 for the massive housing development proposed at Copelaw, which the Council regards as within easy walking distance of the town centre (I disagree!). I predict more such obstacles under this draft Plan.
In summary, I feel the draft Plan is philosophically flawed, as its main priority should be to improve the daily lives of the majority of people who either have cars and want to use them, or need or want to use buses and/or trains, the provision of which needs to be improved and made more attractive. Sustainability should be about continuing the process of designing less polluting HGVs and cars, not about expecting people to walk everywhere (though I must say I do approve of encouraging kids to walk to school where possible).
Everyone who has a car and wants to use it should respond to the consultation, though I feel the Council has already made its decision and is just fulfilling its legal obligation to consult. If enough people respond, the Council will need to change the policy or explain why it can’t, or the whole consultation exercise will be exposed as a sham.
John Snowball
