Missing the Point

I have read the refusal - supposedly by the PM - to the petition to stop the plans for the Bypass, and unless other issues are still ignored completely, the Bypass will happen and no Woodhead rail scheme will be implemented.

The evidence substantiated by facts has been completely ignored up to now by most parties as to how the Bypass will impact once increased traffic is funnelled down the M67 towards Manchester.

The campaigns so far have not related to this problem, which surprises me because it's too obvious for words what will happen, not just based on rhetoric, but the recognised facts concerning the M67/M60/A57 major interchange. Could I remind all campaigners that Ministers and Supporters have completely focused on their continued themes of improvements for Tintwistle/Hollingworth and Mottram.

But how strange that there's no mention whatsover on the following substantiated and already known facts.

Denton & Audenshaw, adjacent to the M67/M60/A57 major routes, have 47,000 residents in a compact urban location, with no open environments for leisure or recreation, whereas
8,000 residents are spread throughout the Longdendale Valley which has vast areas of open land, vistas and recreation facilities, ALL of which need protecting.

In the main, the Hollingworth/Mottram region experiences 2 lanes of slow moving vehicles, but why ignore the 23 lanes of already heavily congested traffic encountered at the M67/M60 interchange?

If you check the HA/TMBC Map Evidence you will note the extended areas that comprise their evidence. But also note the deplorable & devious manner in which it draws a line straight through the M60 Motorway at the M67/M60 interchange - deliberately and disgustingly axing 11,000 people out of the picture in Denton West who live directly adjacent to the Interchange and Motorway. Compare this with references to Flouch etc, which are considerably further away in an extended area than Denton is to Mottram (5 miles).

Note how the DfT/HA/TMBC have deviously written off 11,000 people who live within metres of a daily minimum 220,000 vehicles, most stopping and starting at the interchange.

I am not deriding any part of the objectors concerns whatsoever because I support 100% all their claims, however I'm not sure whether everyone is aware of the substantiated facts - not by me, but by the HA/TMBC, that the largest Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) which presently exists is in the M67/M60/A57 region where it's confirmed that Government Pollution targets will "Never Be Achieved".

If you check the AQMA maps provided by TMBC during the past 8 years, you will note how TMBC have used duplicity and devious methods to create false AQMA locations in the Mottram/Hollingworth location by falsifying comparisons between various localities and this is FACT beyond contradiction, as my evidence to the Public Inquiry will (eventually) show.

How Ministers can plead the case for Tintwistle/Hollingworth/Mottram residents experiencing 2 lane slow moving traffic as "their reason for the Bypass" and completely and totally ignore the impact on the location and residents in Denton/Audenshaw is an absolute scandal. Why should we have to daily ingest daily pollution from 220,000 vehicles with a further 35,000-40,0000 added on with the Bypass? Can anyone tell me that it is fair and provide any form of case? I think not, so why have all the aspects of the Bypass completely ignored such a deadly serious issue?

The Highways Agency's reports over the past 6 years repeatedly state the insurmountable difficulties which exist at the M67/M60/A57 interchange, and my evidence contains the reference numbers of their detailed references, so why add to the existing tremendous congestion without a mention in their evidence?

I have asked 6 Councillors in this region (2 in Longdendale) and 3 MPs, plus 2 Longdendale Siege members, to accept my invitation to meet with me on the pedestrian road bridge at the M67/M60/A57 to observe the reality. But unfortunately, sheer cowardice resulted in no acceptances and no replies which tells me the type of cretins I have been communicating with.
I doubt if even one person in the Longendale Region has a clue as to how pedestrians in Denton West - 11,000 of them - have been "cut off" from a reasonable access to their local Denton town shops because the alternative is as follows:

Cross the A57 near the access to the Denton Golf Club and walk towards the M67/M60/A57 interchange, then halt at pedestrian signals before crossing onto the M67/M60/A57 major traffic island, surrounded 23 lanes of dense traffic circling around you. Imagine the elderly, infirm, children, mothers with babies having to walk onto this Major Interchange Island, then walk around the Island perimeter until you reach a further designated pedestrian traffic signal crossing, and then once again stopping the numerous vehicles circling the traffic island and exit to yet another route still at the interchange to again cross the M60 to then access the A57 route to Denton. I can state with confidence that this pedestrian route is amongst the most dangerous in the UK, so what alternatives are available? Well, a road bridge which entails a steep climb to traverse the M60 Motorway, then descend to a croft area and finally access the A57 approaching Sainsburys. Now I challenge mothers with prams, the elderly or the disabled to get across this enclosed road bridge known to the locals as "muggers alley" because of the climb to cross the road bridge.

There is just one remaining route - by walking through Denton West to its other side near Windmill Lane: walking along a 2 foot pavement on one side only (no pavement on the other side) and being within 2 feet of 2 lanes of fast (and I mean fast) moving vehicles travelling under the rail bridge tunnel on Windmill Lane.

Now if anyone wishes to make the short journey to what I have totally accurately described as our only pedestrian routes to "our shops", then I challenge anyone to see what the real road dangers are compared with Longdendale. It really is a pity that no-one (to my knowledge) has considered that the region I have described is worthy of a visit - some 15 minutes from Mottram - and recognise that the problems described are a valuable asset to halting the Bypass proposals, but it seems that we deserve no recognition as a completely justified objector because the problems have been ignored by some of those opposing the Bypass, whereas it could have been a tremendously useful tool in the armoury of the objectors.

At the Public Inquiry, my evidence will prove conclusively all my past statements, and it's because of the deliberate sacrifice of many thousands in this area by local and national Politicians that my intense contempt for these cowardly bastards exists. Hence my intention to prove conclusively what absolute shysters these beings are.

You may not have an interest in the major problems of others, but to fight effectively all battle fronts should be respected and utilised.

(posted on behalf of John Hall)