Highways Agency dogged in Kegworth
Ross Porter | 09.04.2006 15:36 | Sheffield
The Highways Agency circus was in Kegworth this Saturday making its penultimate exhibition to sell the M1 widening project to residents. This expensive road show should not be confused with any sort of public consultation for although the word is used in their literature, the public have no say in the Government’s decision to waste £3billion of tax payers money on increasing CO2 production in the UK.
As always the ‘No M1 Widening’ campaign were outside Kegworth village hall to greet the HA and provide the alternative view to residents in the form of face-to-face discussions and information leaflets.
Whilst a number of locals we spoke to were opposed to M1 widening and clearly pleased to see that there was a strong campaign of opposition, others did not see our point of view. This was clearly due to a couple of factors specific to the Kegworth section of the motorway.
Firstly, people in Kegworth have been campaigning for many years for a bypass as the main access to the M1, the A6, cuts right through the centre of the village with a constant stream of traffic and a high proportion of HGVs. As part of the widening deal Kegworth is being offered the sweetener of a bypass. But what many locals may not yet have realised is that the increased traffic flow resulting from widening the M1 will only encourage more traffic in the area, with greater noise and atmospheric pollution levels, and as the example of Newbury shows, the increased traffic will eventually spill back into Kegworth village.
The second factor is the assertion by the HA that the stretch of M1 immediately adjacent to Kegworth will not be widened. However the predicted 42% increase in traffic flows which will result from the widening of the motorway, a fact almost disguised in the HA’s glossy brochures, will still pass Kegworth.
In all a successful day, and especially important that we were there to alert the people of Kegworth to these facts which might otherwise have been lost in the gloss of the exhibition and smooth sales pitch of the senior HA official speaking to the local residents groups.
In fact he was so busy talking to them that a frustrated Derby Telegraph reported gave up waiting for him and came and interviewed us instead!
The final exhibition is at Selston Parish Hall, Mansfield Road, Selston, Nottingham, NG16 6EE on Wednesday 12th April 2006, 14:00 - 20:00.
Lets make a big showing for this and let them know what we think about encouraging more road transport. THIS MADNESS MUST BE STOPPED!
www.nowideningm1.org.uk
Whilst a number of locals we spoke to were opposed to M1 widening and clearly pleased to see that there was a strong campaign of opposition, others did not see our point of view. This was clearly due to a couple of factors specific to the Kegworth section of the motorway.
Firstly, people in Kegworth have been campaigning for many years for a bypass as the main access to the M1, the A6, cuts right through the centre of the village with a constant stream of traffic and a high proportion of HGVs. As part of the widening deal Kegworth is being offered the sweetener of a bypass. But what many locals may not yet have realised is that the increased traffic flow resulting from widening the M1 will only encourage more traffic in the area, with greater noise and atmospheric pollution levels, and as the example of Newbury shows, the increased traffic will eventually spill back into Kegworth village.
The second factor is the assertion by the HA that the stretch of M1 immediately adjacent to Kegworth will not be widened. However the predicted 42% increase in traffic flows which will result from the widening of the motorway, a fact almost disguised in the HA’s glossy brochures, will still pass Kegworth.
In all a successful day, and especially important that we were there to alert the people of Kegworth to these facts which might otherwise have been lost in the gloss of the exhibition and smooth sales pitch of the senior HA official speaking to the local residents groups.
In fact he was so busy talking to them that a frustrated Derby Telegraph reported gave up waiting for him and came and interviewed us instead!
The final exhibition is at Selston Parish Hall, Mansfield Road, Selston, Nottingham, NG16 6EE on Wednesday 12th April 2006, 14:00 - 20:00.
Lets make a big showing for this and let them know what we think about encouraging more road transport. THIS MADNESS MUST BE STOPPED!
www.nowideningm1.org.uk
Ross Porter
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