Road planners need reality check

19/10/09 – for immediate release

Save Swallow’s Wood today spoke out against the plans for a Mottram bypass being promoted by Tameside Council. Determined to progress a road scheme in some form, Tameside are promoting a shorter scheme than the Highways Agency scheme, that would follow a similar line to a section the grey route, which was rejected by the Highways Agency and all the local authorities when various route options were evaluated back in October 1993 [2]. Although the shorter scheme will spare the Swallow’s Wood Nature reserve, farmland, and Hollybank Quarry, campaigners remain dedicated to opposing any road proposal.

Emma Lawrence from Save Swallow’s Wood said:

“£100,000 on relocating the Mottram Show at a time when public services are threatened with cuts doesn’t make sense, particularly when so much money has already been wasted on this particular scheme and – despite Tameside’s confidence – there’s no guarantee that the scheme will go ahead. For a fraction of the cost Tameside could get behind a Park-wide lorry ban, which they now say they support, and improvements to public transport – improving access to jobs for those most in need - and promote walking and cycling, reducing the impact of the school run and rush hour. The end of the Inquiry should have prompted a rethink at Tameside, but they seem as determined as ever to build a road somewhere in Longdendale, and their insistence that no inquiry is necessary is worrying: if the scheme they devise is as half as bad as the one the Highways Agency thought up, the impact on the villages – particularly Hollingworth and Tintwistle – could be devastating.”

Notes for Editors:

For more information, contact: Emma Lawrence on 0845 226 3392.

[1] Save Swallow’s Wood is a group based in Glossop and Longdendale campaigning against the A628 Mottram (and Tintwistle) bypass. For more information, visit http://www.saveswallowswood.org.uk

[2] In the results of a public consultation into various route options held in October 1993, not one of the promoting authorities expressed a preference for the grey route. See http://www.highways.gov.uk/aboutus/documents/foi_a57_a628_consultation_results.pdf