Dear Sir,
May I draw readers’ attention to the North East Transport Plan, a £6 billion proposal to update, improve, integrate and decarbonise our regional transport structure. You can read the full plan here: https://bit.ly/NETPfull
Like many such plans, you flounder in waffle, but you may want to skim-read pages 29-47 (which overview the principles of the Plan), and please look at pages 50-53, which identify the proposed schemes.
THE PLAN AND WHAT IT DOES (NOT DO) FOR AYCLIFFE
You will see from the maps that the Plan is very largely about Tyneside. Paul Howell MP has got his Ferryhill Station scheme into the Plan (well done). The Leamside line is there, too, proposed from Tursdale to Pelaw in the next ten years and connected to the Metro some time after that. There are some plans for enhanced cycling and walking routes in our area, and Junction 60 of the A1(M) is to get traffic lights.
But that’s fairly much it. There is mention of a long-term scheme to ‘widen’ the A1M from Barton to Chester-le-Street in the next 15 years. On enquiry, what this means in reality is looking at “options for safety, reliability and capacity … from adding a third lane through to incremental junction improvements”. The focus is on Durham to Chester-le-Street and the proposal explicitly excludes the stretch between junctions 57 and 60 – i.e. the stretch between the A66M and Bradbury – i.e. the stretch which runs past Aycliffe Business Park. I trust that Paul Howell MP is making this omission something for his immediate attention – if he gets a station for Ferryhill but loses the motorway past Aycliffe Business Park I will be very disappointed.
I feel that many Newtonians will wish to comment on the Plan. There is one final consultation event on 7 January, and an online survey you can complete – but I am going to send an email to transportplan@transportnortheast.gov.uk
I AM GOING TO…
(1) welcome and support the Plan but point out that, even if the entire Plan is approved, government investment in our regional transport infrastructure will still be woefully inadequate – we need at least ALL the £6 billion and not, say, Treasury approval for £5bn of it.
(2) welcome the Leamside line but stress that it MUST be a plan to rebuild THE WHOLE LINE, and not trimmed down to just the northern section;
(3) demand that the proposed ‘widening’ of the A1M means adding a third lane for the WHOLE of the motorway from Junction 56 to Junction 63 – INCLUDING the stretch between Junctions 57 and 60 which passes Aycliffe Business Park;
(4) complain that the Forrest Park Rail Freight Interchange is not mentioned in the Plan. This scheme is included in the County Durham Plan, informed by a positive feasibility study. It would enhance the offer of Aycliffe Business Park, and help decarbonise transport;
(5) mention the C35. I recently got this added to a list of DCC projects ‘if and when there is any money available’ … which means, of course, never. The chances of me getting it added to the North East Transport Plan are, of course, negligible to zero. However, it does no harm to keep mentioning it as a vital route north for the Business Park and, connected to an enhanced A689, a key element of any local transport plan.
Cllr John D Clare
