Representation by Mrs Judith Sheppard
- Date submitted
- 6 June 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I strongly object to the proposed scheme at Simister Island Interchange. It is one of the busiest motorway junctions in the north-west, and is already within Noise Important Areas (NIA) and Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA). Rather than increasing capacity, National Highways should be seeking to reduce demand I believe that this is a lazy and expensive solution to traffic congestion. It has serious implications for the health and wellbeing of residents who will be effected by climate/carbon and environmental/ecological harm caused by increased air, dust, noise, light and vibration pollution for communities. You should be exploring solutions to reduce such concerns not exacerbating those issues by increasing capacity. Instead of dealing with the severe air and noise pollution already faced by local people, this scheme would make things worse for many local residents and St Margaret's C of E Primary School is only 200m from the M62, while Parrenthorn High School is only 300m away (and a similar distance from the M60) so both will be negatively impacted by this scheme. Given Greater Manchester's adopted spatial plan will release more than 2,400 hectares of Green Belt for development, any additional loss of Green Belt for this scheme is not acceptable. 68 hectares of land surrounding Junction 18 is in the Green Belt If this planned construction will take place over a 3 ½ period during the night, surely you must consider the unacceptable disturbance to local residents who will be impacted by the noise and increase of traffic on local roads which in itself brings additional concerns to residents for safety reasons. There will be an increase in noise at Kenilworth Avenue, Warwick Close, Warwick Avenue and Peveril Close to the south, Balmoral Avenue, Kensington Street, Glendevon and Conisborough Place, Duddon Close and Derwent Avenue, to the north, and closer to Junction 18 at Brathay Close, Rothay Close, Marston Close and parts of Parrenthorn Road and Corday Lane. With or without the scheme, air pollution levels will still be unacceptably high and above safe limits and in some places will be made worse. National Highways should be examining solutions that will decrease the unacceptable level of noise and air pollution caused by the existing road. Carbon emissions would be increased by 62,013 tonnes during construction, and 151,090 tonnes over a 60 year period due to the increased traffic. This makes it even harder for the UK to reach its legally binding climate targets.