Representation by Holly Martin
- Date submitted
- 2 September 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
My grandparents live at (REDACTED) where the Langrigg road meets the A66: I have been going there all my life and have been taking my own child since she was born two years ago. In this special landscape I learnt a great deal about rivers, farm animals, woods, becks and wildlife. My grandmother’s own garden had a huge influence on my career path as a gardener and teacher of outdoor studies and biodiversity in schools. Under the current plans their house will now be entirely surrounded by roads, hard standing and ponds, and their views will be removed by the planting in the fields. It means my daughter will not grow up to cherish such a precious example of countryside life and our family home and garden that now goes back five generations will be ruined. I feel increasingly alarmed and concerned that the future generations are not being considered in these plans. The increased air pollution, noise pollution, destruction of attractive landscape around my family home and the wider emissions caused by increased traffic will both negatively impact the local environment and the health of our planet for many decades to come. The road will increase emissions from its construction by at least an additional 518,562 tonnes, all within the critical fourth carbon budget when we need to achieve 68% reductions in UK carbon emissions by 2030 under our legally binding commitments under the Paris Agreement. I am also appalled by the way in which the consultation process has been managed. It has been both confusing and distressing for my elderly grandparents, for example plans were only produced right at the end of the first meeting. Moreover, the final version of the plan includes an entirely new feature right next to their house, a hugely wide spur from the sliproad (almost as wide at its mouth as a dual carriageway), which was not on previous plans (e.g. those from March 2022). Many of the consultation documents were not publicised and inaccessible unless you had been given the web link. This made it very difficult to fully assess the impacts of the scheme, and to comment. For such a huge road building scheme that will interfere with so many people's lives I am shocked that procedures have been of such poor standard.