Its a real shame the current high level of public interest and indeed scrutiny in Brexit is not mirrored when it comes to the making of local decisions.
In July of this year Norfolk County Council made a decision on the route to be taken by the controversial Norwich Western Link. This was based on a Option Assessment Report prepared by NCC and a public consultation.
The Reprt contained a wealth of very technical and difficult to understand detail on traffic movement, and also touched on environmental issues. The thrust of the Report and earlier assessments centred around NCC’s belief the Road is needed to fuel new jobs, housing and to bring about a general improvement in the Norfolk economy. In short the Road will be part of what NCC views as badly needed infrastructure to make Norfolk more attractive to developers, businesses and investors.
The public consultation was low key and attracted around 1500 respondents. Bearing in mind the Road will have an impact on all of Norfolk and not just those areas directly affected by the proposed routes this can only be looked upon as a complete and utter failure.
More importantly however is the failure of NCC to provide clear, full and complete information so as to ensure both public and Councillors were adequately and sufficiently informed before the project was debated and a final decision was taken.
So where do these shortcomings arise?
When looking at the cost of constructing and maintaining a road the Council is under a duty to ensure that the value of predicted benefits of the road outweigh the level of public expenditure. At present NCC say the road will cost £150m. This is wholly misleading because it does not take into account the cost of complex design, nor does it factor in environmental mitigation. There is also inflation and contingencies. Most commentators estimate the final cost to be more in the region of £350m. Pretty expensive when there is only 3.9 miles of road! The same commentators estimate this will lead to an increase in council tax for each householder of £20. It will also inevitably result in the reduction in hard pressed budgets for other vital services such as care. So financially a high cost all round.
So as tax payers what do we get in return? NCC claim shorter journey time, less congestion in areas such as Weston Longville and more jobs and investment. The first question to ask is how can NCC be sure this will happen. Where is the evidence? You will be referred to the various reports NCC has commissioned full of very technical detail that to be fair not many people actually understand. So if there is no coherent evidence what can you do to find the slightest possibility that what is being said is in fact correct. Well why not look at what has happened when other similar roads have been built elsewhere. I think you will be surprised with what you find.
All available research shows that promised economic benefits are rarely fulfilled, journey time on average is increased by one minute and as for congestion all that happens is traffic will increase and the congestion problem is moved elsewhere. NCC for some reason decided not to make this research available when consulting and reaching its decision.
When looking at the benefit cost ratio one also needs to look at and factor in the environmental cost. Our research has shown that there is a large section of the public who are unaware of the fact this road will plough through the hitherto untouched beauty spot of the Wensum Valley. The destruction will spoil the landscape and cause irreparable damage to the wildlife and ancient trees.
At the time of choosing the route NCC believe or not had not completed environmental surveys and had no visibility of the true extent and damage this road will cause to the environment and bio-diversity. This is despite the fact that when looking at the NDR NCC went on public record as saying they were not completing the western link of the road due to the environmental impact this would cause to the Wensum Valley. Clearly this decision was based on its surveys and investigation so what has changed?
NCC will say Natural England and the Department of Environment have said in meetings all will be well with the environment providing mitigation measures are put in place. What are these mitigation measures and how will these avoid the devastation to the Valley and its inhabitants. Once destroyed no measure under the sun can be deployed to replace what is lost. The cost of the environmental damage is significant and in no way can be justified by the possibility of the nebulous benefits mentioned above.
We all owe a duty to ourselves, our family and future families to stand up to NCC and demand the production of accurate information as well as all available research and to pause any further work on this futile project until a review is undertaken. Government has called a halt to HS2 project and we should be calling on NCC to adopt a similar approach.
Please support our opposition to this road by signing our petition :