Representation by Aubrey Nestor
- Date submitted
- 16 February 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
My primary representation is that the whole LTC proposal should be scrapped. It's original aim when the project was kicked off many years ago was to reduce congestion at the Dartford Crossing. By HE's own figures they will only reduce congestion at Dartford by 14% based on traffic figures that are already a couple of years out of date. By the time the LTC is actually built and operational the traffic figures will have increased to a point whereby the actual congestion at Dartford will be far higher than it currently is and the LTC will have had negligible impact. To make matters worse Thurrock Council recently did their own study on the impact of the LTC on Dartford congestion and concluded that the LTC would only result in a 4% reduction on today's numbers! (I am much more inclined to believe Thurrock's numbers!). Now that it apparent that Dartford Crossing congestion reduction will not justify the LTC project HE have instead shifted the primary aim to 'stimulating wider economic activity' and they have come up with a pretty nebulous claim of £8billion worth of economic benefits resulting from the LTC development. HE were very reluctant to release any details of how they arrived at this £8billion number but after a court order obtained by the LTC Action Group they were forced to publish their cost/benefit analysis which, unsurprisingly, has been found to be full of holes. With the estimated cost of the project at £10billion and rising, and with highly dubious 'wider economic benefits, and with no significant reduction of congestion at Dartford this project is extremely poor value for money and should be scrapped. The only effective way of reducing congestion at Dartford is by building more crossing capacity AT DARTFORD! For reasons best know to themselves HE discarded this option very early on. My secondary concern is more specific to HE's proposal to locate a works compound right up against the southern border of the North Ockendon Conservation village. They also intend to create a monstrous slag heap of the waste from the construction digging which will be located at the perimeter of this compound. They have kindly referred to this slag heap as an 'Aural and Visual barrier' to protect the village from the noise and sight of the construction works. In fact the construction of this slag heap so near to the village will cause residents far more noise, vibration and poluution than the actual road constuction works themselves. The relocation of this compound to this site was a late breaking design change which HE did not include within their consultation document. They justified this on the basis that it was 'too minor' to merit inclusion. In fact this is a hugely significant change which will inflict years of noise and misery on to our small conservation village community. We have made our feelings clear to HE but they seem minded to ignore them and proceed regardless. We would urge the Planning Inspectorate to order HE to find a more suitable site for this compound and slag heap which is sufficiently far from human residences as to not constitute an issue. I look forward to views other than those of HE getting a fair hearing by the Planning Inspectorate.