Representation by David Sparrow
- Date submitted
- 3 September 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
This relates to the proposals about the Greta Bridge junction and the diversion through Startforth. As you can see I live in Startforth and often use the route that will be affected. An organisation has objected to allowing a full junction at Greta Bridge on the basis that some parkland will be affected. The fact that it is parkland and not a natural environment means that it it is an artificial man-made environment. In other words a brownfield site and not a greenfield site. Apart from that many of the trees in the area have already been removed. History (at least in part) is the study of how and why things change. Conservation is about preventing change. The two things are diametrically opposed to each other. Part of the interest in looking at mediaeval churches and monasteries is to see the different styles over the centuries in different parts. Eggleston Abbey is not far away. One of the most interesting things there is that the church part was repeatedly altered and there are about 5 different styles of window. That adds to the interest. The proposed route through Startforth includes taking a lot of extra traffic along The Sills with its narrow footpath where if two pedestrians approach each other then one has to step into the road. It will also add a lot of extra traffic to the bottleneck which is The Bank in Barnard Castle. To increase dangers and increase problems at a bottleneck based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what history is makes no sense.