Local residents on the Appleby - Brough section of the A66 in Cumbria (postcodes CA16/CA17), have expressed strong concerns about the proposals for the new dual carriageway to be built south of the current road . Instead, 94% of the respondents to a survey in November 2020 wanted the new road to go north of the current A66 (see map).

Local people are concerned about the impact of the proposed new road on the landscape, on individual living conditions, of noise, pollution,  the risks of flooding,  the loss of valuable farmland, on property values, business and community facilities heritage sites, and the consequent need for the construction of even more new roads. The planned routes would also destroy Bronze Age and other ancestral sites. The ongoing local campaign led by Warcop and Musgrave parish councils has included a well-attended public meeting, extensive letter-writing to MPs, the press and public bodies as well as surveying residents. Yet local people have never been offered even the option of a northern route by Highways England, who declined to send even one representative to the public meeting.

What is the rationale for this?

The area north of the current A66 near  Warcop  falls within  an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). It is national policy that these cannot be built on unless in exceptional circumstances. Yet, this AONB, which is used for firing by the army, consists of rough scrubland, and is not nearly as beautiful as the countryside and farmland  south of the A66 which will be destroyed. Trees have been planted which block visibility from the road and it is usually closed to the public. A road which went north of the current A66 would  avoid the disruption of several years’ roadworks on an existing road. It would be much cheaper, requiring none of the four planned untidy junctions.

Please sign the petition to support the wishes of local people to protect their farmland, businesses, properties and living conditions,  to safeguard the local environment for the future, and demand that a route north of the current A66 be offered as an option

A road which went north of the current A66 from Warcop to Brough would

-  avoid the building of even more new roads for access and more local pollution

 -  be a tourist attraction, enabling people to view landscape which is currently used by the army for firing purposes and inaccessible to the public.

-take up very little of the entirety of the North Pennine AONB

- avoid the long-term disruption to traffic due to building a new road on an existing one

- avoid the very real risk of flooding in an area which has suffered severe flooding

- cost less to the taxpayer

-    allow the current road to be used more feasibly as an access road for farm and local traffic

For a cost analysis of the northern route, press releases and further information, please visit the Warcop Parish Council website, A66 Upgrade section

https://www.warcop.org.uk/parish-council/a66-upgrade/

Note: The A66 Broomrigg and Langrigg campaign group logo shows a beautiful field that will be destroyed by a dual carriageway, a new local road and sink ponds.