Representation by CPRE Lancashire, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester (CPRE Lancashire, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester)
- Date submitted
- 13 September 2021
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Dear Planning Inspectorate, I am writing on behalf of the Campaign to Protect Rural England Lancashire, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester (CPRE) with a request to be an Interested Party and to represent at the hearings for the A57 Link Roads. CPRE wants a thriving, beautiful countryside for everyone. Tameside has lovely rural places that should be afforded protection as strategic transport infrastructure is planned. Key CPRE issues: Climate emergency harm, as highlighted by the evidence from the IPCC report in August 2021, requires a radical change to investment decisions. Air quality harm in the area is poor due to congestion and arising high levels of pollution causing many health problems and high mortality rates. More road building will exacerbate the problem. Residential amenity harm will be further harmed. More road development and traffic will lead to a decrease in tranquility with additional noise, vibration and light pollution. Green Belt, which aims to keep land permanently open, protects the land that is proposed to form the route. The Government has promised to maintain Green Belt protection. The road will be permanent, and it will increase vehicular activity in the area, which will lead to harm to Green Belt openness to a large extent, both spatially and visually. The road would harm the purposes of Green Belt, such as preventing urban sprawl, countryside encroachment, the merging of distinct areas and brownfield preference, contrary to Section 13 of the NPPF, July 2021. Very special circumstances do not exist. Landscape Character harm would occur as the road will have an urbanising effect in the rural fringe location. CPRE wants areas of predominately rural character to be protected from needless development. There would be substantial adverse change to the visual amenity and landscape character value. Greater Manchester ‘Places for Everyone’ is the Join Development Plan, (at Reg 19 consultation stage) and one of the strategic priorities is to deliver an integrated network with world class connectivity. The A57 Link Road proposed is contrary to the GMCA ambition to transition to a low-carbon economy. Post Coronavirus planning of strategic infrastructure requires an understanding of the long-term implications for travel to work and retail patterns with many people choosing to work from home and shopping online. There may be a material reduction in traffic flow through the Mottram area. Cumulative impacts should be properly assessed by National Highways, including those arising from several proposed large-scale developments, for example, the Godley Green Garden Village, which need scrutiny and adequate measures, such as mitigation at both the M67 J4 roundabout and M60 J24 Denton Island. In summary, when considering the abovementioned issues, I recommend that the application for the link road is refused. Jackie Copley MRTPI MA