Yet again the solution to the congestion in Morecambe and Lancaster goes to an enquiry. Various groups complain about the ever rising costs, have they thought that actively campaigning against the road and delaying it is actully the cause of the rising costs? Had it been built when it was first planned we’d have saved a fortune.
It’s a nightmare journey around 8am and 5pm and whatever statistics you throw at us, you only have to do the journey a few times to realise you are queuing behind lines of HGVs heading to the M6 and a third of the cars that get stuck on Greyhound Bridge are heading to the M6. I know this because I sit in it daily, I’m one of the third heading to the M6 with daily commutes across the North West, Yorkshire and Humberside.
It’s no fun when you know that at the end of your 2 hour journey from Sheffield it can take you another 40 minutes to cover the last 5 miles. The relief road would make that 40 minute journey about 8 minutes. Think of the impact on the environment those extra 32 minutes running the engine has. No, I can’t travel by train because that would add at least 2 hours to my journey, time I could spend doing some work.
As for the Northern route being longer, it’s no longer than the route everyone takes now. Very few people drive through Lancaster heading to J33, the vast majority go to J34 to avoid Lancaster city centre and head south on the M6. Look at a map of the route to J34, no longer than the proposed link road.
I’ve heard complaints from people in Torrisholme about the road. I bought a house in the centre of Torrisholme in 1980 and my solicitor talked me through the proposal for the new road which the local search had picked up. A road that had been planned since the early 1960s. It was her duty to point out to me that the road could be within earshot of my house. Knowing that, I still bought the house, my decision. The people that have discussed the road with me have all moved into that area since 1980, all knew about the road yet still bought their houses. Sorry folks, you knew what might be coming.
