Bedford Borough revises 1980's road link idea rather than send traffic around the Bypass!

My own view of the below translation from more homes to where to how is as follows: his claim this will reduce congestion is spurious, it at best will shift it. It is well known more capacity attracts more traffic. It would use railway arches and land to get to and from the Commercial Road Junction and unless demolition will happen creating a large roundabout, could be a problem for buses, large lorries and other long vehicles turning into Preben Street. Council have identified brownfield land for more urban housing with presumably more traffic. It should be directing north - south movements to the bypass and around urban Bedford not encouraginging another High Street flow through residential areas. Again the Mayor puts a hard sell gloss on it, but it won't cut congestion overall and end to end of the road will be more congested in all likelihood. The Borough consigns East-West Rail to existing rail layouts rather than station remodelling and designs, which will restrict access and adds to less than optimum rail access to Bedford, which could provide more alternatives. It strikes me as strange Mayor Dave can find £10 million capital funds towards a Wixams Station and now this road scheme, but cannot do the same for a station on the Bedford-Bletchley line to give access to the Retail Park, which studies have shown would boost and win, win for all? In short it seems ill-thought out or rather pandering to pop motoring interests and developers not necessarily public transport, emissions reduction or greener transport solutions making development more sustainable.

Council bid for Prebend Street relief road funding

Bedford Borough Council has submitted a bid for £15m of government funding to help reduce congestion at the Prebend Street / Midland Road roundabout.

Working with Homes England, the Council have developed the plan since submitting an expression of interest last year, and have now submitted the revised bid.

The new relief road would link the bottom of Ashburnham Road with Commercial Road West, reducing the number of cars queuing along Prebend Street and Midland Road, particularly at rush hour, while also helping to improve air quality in the area.

Mayor of Bedford Borough, Dave Hodgson, said “The Prebend Street Relief Road will be a key measure in cutting congestion. The relief road will improve the day-to-day experience of those who travel through Bedford and reduce the burden on the 5-way roundabout with Midland Road and Ford End Road. It will also bring benefits for Prebend Street and Midland Road with reduced traffic and improved air quality for local residents.”

ENDS

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"We call on the Government to abandon the HS2 Rail project."

Click this link to sign the petition "We call on the Government to abandon the HS2 Rail project." https://petition.parliament.uk/signatures/57041906/verify?token=EBzYNW3JZri3C7pw3Bsa Thanks, The Petitions team UK Government and Parliament

Olney Battle - Support 'flat as a pancake'! Need big business to turn up and demand rail access!

Bedford-Northampton Rail Link: A new railway is needed, but may never serve Olney again!

Everything is in an economy of scale. If a big enough backer/s or consortium decides it wants a new rail link between Bedford/Midland Main Line and Northampton/West Coast Main Line Loop then they will study the lie of the land, decide the best course of action and set about doing it. Thus, the obliterations at Olney including new encroachments at Lavendon Road are poised to offer two solutions either 1. "here's the cheque, move" or 2. bypass Olney. If the railway goes north of the sewage works it will have to clear for juggernauts crossing the A509 at height out of a cutting from the top of a hill. To then go across fields (current status) to swing towards joining the trackbed somewhere east of Clifton Reynes, more like Newton Blossomville has to be pitted with a go north easterly from Castle Ashby lands around Piddington and go north of Lavendon and Turvey to join the old formation west of the Stevington Walk? It is a new 10 mile stretch of railway out of 21.5 miles of reconstructed railway. East-West, if not using the old formation, will be up to 20+ miles of new railway and so this region is to become physically familiar with reconstruction and new construction of local rail and so the model is proven and can be adopted and cascaded elsewhere. The credentials for Bedford-Northampton are long proven, Brighton/Cambridge to Bedford and Northampton to Birmingham and WCML Networks, Bedford-Northampton is the given growth, these trends will exacerbate, so all should be committed to keeping their options open, even Milton Keynes Council and jurisdiction. Alas they seem to have a back door 'treat Bedford-Northampton as development expedient' and chuck every developers whim at blocking it, by default of course, deliberation the jury is out!

Feeds east-west rail and Midland Main Line, relieves north-south rails considerably and cuts cross country saving time and cost, cutting congestion (A14 Inc.) and ensuring good end to end joined up rail alternatives to car culture and drive everywhere with queues for parking price managed ratcheting up everywhere because demand outstrips supply/land use conflict - do we provide housing, employment or parking - a no brainer x 3 options for same spaces often in urban areas or on urban fringes. ERTA calls for people to join and offer to help out. We're into the business of spreading the load, taking responsibility collectively and sharedly and together we increase chances of success and contrast privatised, selfish individualism and arm chair critics pouring cold water, need to reconcile with the problems on the roads, the air pollution killing people and many an accident partly underscored by the stresses and tensions around driving these days. This, when for a small sum, the wear and tear costs saved through rail alternatives could inform a more generous rolling out of a bus and rail pass for off peak travel for under 65's which would ensure more off-peak services are used and more lifestyle greener choices become more readily available. This, especially for lower income brackets for whom a vehicle on the road is a labyrinth of cost and responsibility when they just wish to be more mobile within limited fiscal means. Oddly bus networks are being slashed due to inadequate funding and inability to subsidise them, usage falls are mooted still, but the humbug is £billions are found annually for more and larger roads with pedestrians, cyclists and slower movers being brushed aside at design and actuation of schemes designed for speed rather than inclusion. Join our free email loop: richard.erta@gmail.com or go to our website: https://ertarail.com/ and have a perusal/make a contribution beit membership or a free-will donation. It all helps us help others. Thank you. Bedford-Northampton is not 'dead' it is sleeping and a new dawn awakens beckons with entrepreneurship, leadership, vision and a fresh start.

Development encroachment on the old trackbed and realignment seems the only option but for compulsory purchase. 

Bedford-Cambridge let's have the origional route as an option!

https://eastwestrail.co.uk/haveyoursay

Please engage with nthe consultation and give your general support. Contrast their suggested routes to ours.

March-Spalding 11th hour appeal

Dear Colleagues,

A recent housing application at Cowbit threatens to obliterate the trackbed of the former March-Spalding rail corridor which survived all closures of the 1960's until 1981. This rail link, with over 30 years of growth is needed now as never before with the benefits it would offer of:

1. Commuting/employment to/from Cambridge and Stansted Airport from South Lincolnshire

2. Inward visitorship, footfall and spend on the back of diverse access being improved

3. More passengers and freight by rail, de-cluttering local roads, cutting waste and costs which congestion without alternatives locks in.

For these reasons and more the English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) believes that we must tailor development around not on top of trackbeds. That a study should be commissioned to look at the benefits for the areas it would serve of railway reopening albeit with modest deviations where blockages have been allowed to encroach the old route. For example at the Spalding end, could a new freight depot at Deepening St Nicholas also double up as a spur access to and from the Doncaster-Spalding-Peterborough line given the old junction nearer Spalding is now under housing? Likewise at Whitemoor, the existing and campaigned for reopening March-Wisbech line could have a twin track set of points off of it onto the Spalding lines clearing the Prison which was built soon after closure on the old trackbed. 

The new duck and up flyover plan at Peterborough North is laudable but for freight to and from East Anglia to Doncaster and further afield it is a great way round, timely and uncompetitive surely contrast the option to restore the direct rail route for boosted benefits on and off the railway including more employment and sustainable jobs?

I would, on behalf of ERTA like to ask for your support for forming a consortium to pool resources and bid for funds for a full blown feasibility study and to ensure planning authorities tailor development and inform a new policy of trackbed and deviation space protection. That does not have to be dormancy amidst rising demand, rather could be green spaces, linear park, cycle-walk-way spaces which could be slewed or redesigned in the event of the railway being restored. With Brexit informing a context of uncertainty, surely it is prudent to keep our local, strategic options open in a competitive world?

I welcome your further kind interest. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Officer.

https://ertarail.com/english-regions/

Spalding Voice newspaper coverage 17-01-2019 - unsure where they get 'John' from when they knew it was 'Richard' likewise we stressed March-Spalding via Cowbit, so why throw in Wisbech on this occiaision?! Apart from that, good piece.

If people support this rail link you can do the following:
a. Join ERTA - see our website
b. write to South Holland District Council, South Holland District Council
Council Offices, Priory Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom
PE11 2XE
c. Write to local MP Sir John Hayes MP, Office 1, Broad Street Business Centre, 10 Broad Street, Spalding, PE11 1TB

Tel: 01775 711534, Fax: 01775 713905, Email: davieshm@parliament.uk

d. Write to letters page in support see Spalding Voice Newspaper www.spaldingvoice.co.uk
You may want a purist approach of every dot of old route, you may support a pragmatic stance of deviations to avoid conflict or you may just support the idea and principle and agree any railway is better than none and leave the detail to a study - which needs to be campaigned for:
- route protection
- deviation space like at Cowbit
- study
- pooling resources
- forming a consortium
- getting councils on board and other agencies/organisations
All needs a growing and dedicated team, ERTA is acting to bridge the gaps and forge that team, delegate and appoint area reps anbd get the show on the rails! Please join us and give it your support without qualification until is it happening, not being built on and then being academic even as roads clog up, land is lost and swathes of people are being socio-economically disenfranchised. Let's retain choice objectively for all.

We applaud this letter and thank the local MP for taking an interest.

Support the ERTA Great Central Revival Plan

14 January 2018

Press Release

The English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) is a voluntary based pro public transport membership association and membership and support is open to all. We are aware that capacity on existing north-south rail lines is reaching a critical point of constraint and motorways like M1 and M40 for example are often clogging up with long delays which costs us all. Therefore, we believe something extra is needed. Birmingham may get HS2 but Coventry and Rugby – what do they get? We can’t turn the clock back, like our Victorian ancestors we need to start with a blank sheet and work out what can reasonably be done and recovered for reviving the rail corridor dormant between Leicester (Narborough) – Rugby-Calvert where the new railway would link into lines to Oxford via Bicester and beyond and also lines to Aylesbury and beyond to Heathrow and Guildford for example. This could be useful for more passengers and freight to go by rail and Rugby stands to gain.

ERTA has produced a report which seeks to acts as an appetiser, putting the outline of what we think may be possible and courting backers in the business and other community to come together and support it where possible, either hard copy or pdf downloads on our excellent sales page on our website: https://ertarail.com/sales/  ERTA hopes to facilitate meetings in Rugby and elsewhere over this year and welcomes support. Our email loop for interested persons is richard.erta@gmail.com

End Press Release

Further contact or comment: Mr Richard Pill 01234 330090 or richard.erta@gmail.com

Help save the trackbed of the March-Spalding rail link

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	RE: H01-0871-18 at Former Station Yard & Croft House Nursery, Mill Drove South, Cowbit
Date:	Fri, 7 Dec 2018 14:51:34 +0000
From:	Polly Harris-Gorf <pharris-gorf@sholland.gov.uk>
To:	'Simon Barber' <simon4barber@gmail.com>

Dear Mr Barber

I have received your objection and have précised this in to my report. Some of your objections seem to cover broader issues than those that could be addressed by this application and I would direct you to more strategic documents such as the emerging South East Lincolnshire Local Plan which can be viewed on the Council’s website, and the Lincs County Council Strategic Transport officers. If you wish to make representations  to these and to the Local Enterprise Partnership I suggest that this is undertaken separately of your objection to this application.

Yours sincerely

Polly Harris Gorf | Principal Planning Officer| South Holland District Council

Council Offices, Priory Road, Spalding, PE11 2XE
DDI: 01775 764504

www.sholland.gov.uk

Please note that any informal officer opinion expressed by this email is without prejudice and is not binding on the Council during the consideration of any formal application.

H01-0871-18

Comments have been received on the above application via the website and have been

transferred to Ocella.

The comments are as follows:

Consultee Name:               Simon Barber

Address:                               Flat 20, Fitzherbert House Kingsmead

Date Transferred:               7th Dec 2018

Planning Officer:                Polly Harris-Gorf

Response Type:                 Objection

________________________________________________________________ 

Comments:

I am a member of the English Regional Transport Association(ERTA),which is a voluntary membership-based,pro-public transport improvement association with its main projects initially in the Bedfordshire and surrounding regional areas but its remit has since increased since several of its projects have a nation-wide positive benefit and impact. .I am writing as a member of that organisation to mention a few concerns in relation to the above-mentioned planning application. The English Regional Transport Association has a web-site that could provide useful information: http://ertarail.com I do hereby lodge an objection to this development since these new dwellings will encourage more cars which will in turn increase the congestion on the local roads. Indeed a certain number of the new occupants could be car commuters accessing employment in Spalding or perhaps places such as Peterborough which suffers from severe traffic congestion. The site also appears to encroach the old trackbed of the March - Spalding railway line which we wish to see re-opened. I call upon the Council, Strategic Planning and Transport offices including Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to support, study, protect lands for a reopenedMarch-Spalding rail link.See The reopened rail link will enable more paths on East Coast Main Line, freeing up Peterborough for other trains, cutting Fenland traffic and linking York and Cambridge directly as a cross country Eastern England spinal route both ways including M11/A1 rail choice for more freight by rail. See https://ertarail.com/campaigns/ Yours faithfully, Simon Barber 

Write to South Holland District Council, Priory Road, Spalding, PE11 2XE and your local MP and join ERTA and strengthen our campaign. https://ertarail.com/contact-us/