Newsbrief 100 What you can do next after M6 Link road Drop Ins and Consultation

M6 LINK ROADS : NEXT STEPS FOLLOWING THE LANCASHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL DROP-IN SESSIONS ON 8th and 9th MARCH

• Introduction

Many CLOUD members attended the drop-in sessions arranged by the Lancashire County Council planners in Galgate village hall on 8th/9th March. Many also came to the open forum part of the Ellel Parish Council meeting on the following Monday - 13th March. For anyone who missed these events, they provided an opportunity to see the plans and ask questions about the link roads from the M6 into the proposed Bailrigg Garden Village site and onwards to connections into Ashton Road (A588).

Here’s the LINK to the on-line version of the plans.

• Next Steps

  • Submit your response to Lancashire County Council on the drop-in sessions. It is essential that everyone responds so that County know the strength of local objections. Although the drop-in sessions were only held in Galgate, the road scheme will affect a much wider area of south Lancaster, right across to Ashton Road (A588). The deadline for responding is Wednesday 22nd March. Here is the link to the survey to complete

  • Email the County Councillor for Galgate with your questions, concerns and objections to the link road proposals - Matthew Maxwell-Scott is the County Councillor for the Lancaster Rural East ward (which includes Galgate) and this is his email address: Matthew.Maxwell-Scott@lancashire.gov.uk

NOTE : If you live in the Bailrigg/Hala area, your County Councillor is Erica Lewis (Lancaster SE) erica.lewis@lancashire.gov.uk and if you live in the Aldcliffe/Glasson area your County Councillor is Gina Dowding (Lancaster Central). Gina.Dowding@lancashire.gov.uk

• Please copy what you send to Cllr Maxwell-Scott to CLOUD at cloudbgv2017@gmail.com so that we can keep a tally of questions asked - and check that proper answers have been provided! (The easiest way to do this is probably to copy and paste your comments from the survey into a separate doc before you submit it!)

• Ellel Parish Council Meeting 13 March 2023

  • By chance Ellel Parish Council was meeting a few days after the drop-in sessions. Many local residents took advantage of the open forum at the start of the meeting to voice their strong objections to the Link Road scheme. (The numbers attending may have set a record!)

  • Despite the short notice, Cllr Maxwell-Scott came to speak at the meeting and made these points:

    • As Chairman of Development Control at Lancashire County Council he had to remain neutral on the Link Road scheme; any views he expressed at this stage for or against the scheme could prejudice the final decision.

    • Nevertheless he was very critical of the planning process and the way the consultation with residents had been handled so far. He would press for a dedicated liaison officer to be provided who would be the point of contact for resident inquiries in future.

    • He asked residents to copy to him all the questions/objections they submitted to the planners so he could see the issues being raised.

    • He assured the meeting that, contrary to what some people had been told at the drop-in sessions, no part of the Link Road scheme was yet a ‘done deal’. Approvals would only be given where a sound case was presented.

  • Many residents spoke at the meeting. The proposed permanent closure of Langshaw Lane & Highland Brow was perhaps the most contentious issue. Other issues included: climate emergency - flooding risk - construction traffic and disruption - impact of up to 9185 houses in south Lancaster (30,000 new residents?) - viability of proposed P&R on the Link Road when the P&R buses from the existing J34 P&R carry so few passengers.

• Additional Points

  • So as to recognise that the M6 Link Road scheme affects not just Galgate but a much wider area of south Lancaster, CLOUD has pressed for future drop-in sessions to also be held across the area . We have been assured this will be done.

  • We do not know precise details of the link and spine road yet. What is clear that a major construction project of this sort is deeply disruptive. A quick look at the following video clip gives you insight into what the Preston Distributor Road was like during the construction phase in 2022. Just 18 miles down the M6, with the same contractor, this video shows the level of noise pollution, disruption and damage to the environment to expect. Concerns about the construction phase should of course be raised in the survey and with Matthew Maxwell Scott. Click on this link to the video clip Living with major road construction

  • Our experience with Lancaster City, during the public consultation over the Local Plan, was that our objections ‘disappeared’ without ever receiving a proper answer. To try and ensure this doesn’t happen again with the County over the Link Road scheme, we are going to keep a master list of all issues raised so we can check for adequate responses. This is why we are asking all CLOUD members to copy their objections to us.

  • We will keep a close watch on developments and arrange open meetings for CLOUD members as and when this looks appropriate. We should also think about raising a petition to County and if so when the most effective time might be.

• Future Dates

  • The full Planning Application for the M6 Link Roads is scheduled for Autumn 2023 and Lancashire County Development Control Committee is due to decide on the scheme in January 2024.

• Summary

  • Respond to the County survey - deadline 22nd March.

  • Please don’t give up - the Link Road scheme isn’t yet a done deal and we received valuable assurances at the Parish Council meeting.

  • Let us know if you think we’ve missed anything or have ideas to help the campaign.

• Finally, as you may have noticed, we’ve reached the 100th CLOUD Newsbrief. A strange sort of achievement, but we're still campaigning!