Newsbrief 97 13 Action Needed Lancashire County Council to discuss M6 jt33 recongfiguration

Mary Breakell

Jan 13, 20236 min read

Updated: Jan 14, 2023

Newsbrief 97 13 January 2023 ACTION NEEDED Lancashire County Council Cabinet to discuss South Lancaster to M6 Road Scheme: Link Road and Park and Ride Facility on 2 February 2022

Executive Summary

1. Lancashire County Council Cabinet to discuss South Lancaster to M6 Road Scheme: Link Road and Park and Ride Facility on 2 February 2022

2. CLOUD complaint regarding Planning malpractice

3. . CLOUD members with concerns on the changes and way carried out, flood risk, air and light pollution, financial risks should contact Cabinet members

4. . Members of the public are being allowed to attend in person and by Zoom

5 . Who to contact

6. Any offers of help very welcome!

1. Lancashire County Council Cabinet to discuss South Lancaster to M6 Road Scheme: Link Road and Park and Ride Facility on 2 February 2022

In Newsbrief 96 we alerted you to surprising changes in the road scheme, park and ride and Bailrigg Garden Village link road. We were alerted on Monday this week that at the Cabinet meeting on 2 February Approval is sought to take forward the South Lancaster to M6 Road Scheme by approving the evolved route of the Link Road; the Spine Road to serve Bailrigg Garden Village and a new site for a Park and Ride facility, together with the use of compulsory purchase powers.

CLOUD complaint regarding Planning malpractice

The following complaint, regarding planning malpractice, has been sent to all Lancashire County Council Cabinet members to be taken into account at the meeting on February 2nd

Distribution : All members of Lancashire County Council Cabinet and Cllr Maxwell Scott (Lancaster Rural East).

Dear County Councillor

I am writing to you as a south Lancaster resident and on behalf of the CLOUD organisation (1) to raise complaints and objections about the handling by Lancashire County Council of the planning process for the South Lancaster to M6 Road Scheme. We have seen the public notice of the Cabinet meeting to be held on 2nd February 2023 on this subject, although we understand that the agenda has yet to be published. In advance of the meeting, we wish to register these points with you.

Major change to the road layout - Transforming Lancaster Travel Newsletter no 2 (March 2021) advised residents that the County Council’s Cabinet had resolved formally to adopt Central 1 Option from the 6 routes on which the public had been consulted for the South Lancaster to M6 Road Scheme. The Newsletter also stated that field surveys would be undertaken “to collect information about the environmental conditions around the adopted route” (my emphasis). It therefore came as a complete and unwelcome shock when a Chapel Lane resident was advised by County Council staff in December 2022 that a major revision to this adopted route had now been deemed necessary. This would have the effect of requiring the compulsory purchase of part of his property - a step which had not been envisaged when he purchased the property in 2021. At that time the plans showed the link route alignment to be well clear of his property. This raises two major issues:

First, we consider that this is a case of planning maladministration. As I am sure you are aware it is a principle of the planning system that changes to publicly announced plans should be advised to everyone involved in the original consultation and not just to one individual. Lancaster County Council has not done this (indeed there have been no Transforming Lancaster’s Travel newsletters since the one noted above in 2021, despite the commitment in the 1st Newsletter that this would become a biannual publication). We note that the plans for the revised road layout are dated November 2022 and so the need for this change must have arisen some considerable time earlier - indeed we have now ‘unearthed’ a reference to it in the Jacobs Report (South Lancaster to M6 Road Scheme EIA Scoping Report B2327FEK-NP-RPT-0001 08 February 2022) as referenced in the Scoping Study Planning Application SCP/2022/0002 dated February 2021.

While we accept that minor changes are an inevitable and indeed an intended part of the design process, this revision cannot reasonably be defined as minor, involving as it does the relocation of the Park & Ride, a new roundabout, new bridge over Hazelrigg Lane and possibly other changes with an apparent junction on narrow, steep Langshaw Lane..

We therefore call on Lancashire County Council to inform local residents via a Transforming Lancaster’s Travel Newsletter of these changes.

Secondly, we contend that these major changes to the proposed road layout require the County Council to undertake a complete repeat of the previous public consultation. It is by no means clear that the revisions to the Central 1 Option now envisaged mean that it would have emerged as the ‘favourite’ - whether in terms of public or stakeholder preferences or technical or engineering evaluations, or the relative costs and risk of each option. Only a further public consultation can provide confirmation or otherwise. We therefore call on Lancashire County Council to undertake a full public consultation on the route options for the South Lancaster to M6 Road Scheme, to include the revisions to the Central 1 Option.

Costs and risks - From the conversations which took place with County Council staff, we understand that the need for the changed road layout stems from the identification of a piece of woodland as having ‘the characteristics of ancient woodland’. This has meant the realignment of the proposed northbound entry sliproad on to the M6 with knock-on changes to the link road alignment. This begs serious questions about the thoroughness of the initial evaluation - if ancient woodland was overlooked, then what confidence does this give us about the other aspects of the proposed development and particularly the cost estimates for the work?

Other Issues - There are other issues, including that of the flood risk, which concern us about the M6 link roads. We will write to you separately on these.

We intend to attend the 2nd February Cabinet meeting and have noted the attendance procedures set out on the website.

Conclusion - We would appreciate an early reply from you and assurance that these points will be given due weight in your Cabinet meeting on 2 February

3. ACTION needed! CLOUD members with concerns on the changes and way carried out, flood risk, air and light pollution, financial risks should contact Cabinet members

Our complaint has focused on planning practice but it is vital for anyone with concerns about the changes urgently register these concerns with Lancashire County Council Cabinet members before 2 February 2022

If you are worried by the changes do please contact Lancashire County Council Cabinet Members and the local County Councillor for the Lancaster Rural East ward - contact details below.

These are a few elements which especially worries us about the way in which the new route may make flood risk worse for Galgate.

It involves significant earth works on a field in which there are numerous springs and where there is off run from the University which runs later through a culvert into the Conder. The moving of the Park and Ride to adjacent to the new M6 slip road creates the added issue of surface water run off. The proposal shows attenuation ponds but on what basis was calculation of flood risk made, given the attenuation ponds run into the Conder? How will the oil runoff from the new road be dealt with and how will polluting the Conder be avoided?
The newly designed section of the road is to be lit bringing light and air pollution to the north end of Chapel Lane.
How will pedestrians safely access the Southern end of the University Campus or the regular bus services?
This is a period of considerable financial uncertainty and unpredicted and unpredictable inflation and rising interest rates. All Councils are facing financial pressure HIF is not index linked and, as a result other Councils, including nearby Carlisle reconsidering their projects and putting them out for retender. We notice that Lancashire County Council have recently stopped or scaled back road proposals https://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/transport/lancashire-motorway-bridge-demolition-plan-dropped-because-of-rocketing-costs-3982683