Pre-emptive war

The full implications of the Government's response to the WAIT e-petition are now becoming apparent. As ever, John Hall is leading the charge, and he has asked us to publish his email to Public Inquiry Inspector, John Watson:

"It appears that the Public Inquiry which you are overseeing has definitely been pre-judged by the Prime Minister as shown in his latest news release on the No. 10 Internet site.

The Press are also compounding the situation by now referring to Gordon Brown`s statement as "PM refuses to give way over need for a Bypass".

I believe this declared decision has completely usurped the Public Inquiry and your requirement to deliberate on the findings which would result from a properly conducted Inquiry,which as yet has not occurred.

No cross examinations of the proposers of the Road scheme have taken place, and no evidence produced by those objectors has been introduced into the Inquiry Public forum, therefore it is my belief that not only have the Highways Agency and Tameside MBC failed to produce credible suitable evidence in support of their proposals, but a close examination and scrutiny of what they still intend to produce as evidence will now seemingly not be accepted as cause for the Bypass Inquiry disclosures to be considered by the Secretary of State or the Prime Minister.

It can only be concluded that a deliberate attempt to negate the Public Inquiry has been shown by the recent announcement,in which case this also now reflects on your own credibility to produce a report on your findings knowing the issue has been pre-judged already.

The declaration signed by the UK Government accepting the Aarhus Convention Protocols have now been breached and disregarded,and the following is but "one small component" of what has been usurped by Gordon Brown MP"

The press article mentioned is predictably the Glossop Chronicle which, as usual, slavishly regurgitates the government's drivel.

glossop.com are also carrying John Hall's line, and though we try to avoid repetition, their quote is good enough to merit inclusion here:

"In view of the intervention by Gordon Brown who has decided to usurp the process of the Mottram Bypass Public Inquiry and seriously undermine the Public Inquiry Inspector, he has also chosen to completely breach the Government ratified Aarhus Convention Agreement which clearly denotes the importance of total participation in a Public Inquiry with Supporters and Objectors involved in the decision making process.

This therefore has exposed the Prime Minister's intention to not comply with existing protocols in an existing Public Inquiry which will result in the European Justice Complaints Organisation in Geneva being made aware of this irrational and declared pre-judgement of an existing Public Inquiry, without the objectors having been given an opportunity to openly disclose their evidence and scrutinise in depth the evidence again being produced in October 2008 by the Highways Agency which this time it's hoped is not seriously flawed and unsuitable evidence before a Public Inquiry.

The Public Inquiry Inspector has been informed of the announcement by Gordon Brown which has completely destroyed even the credibility of his observations and opinions which should have been considered by the Secretary of State when the Public Inquiry is concluded"

Article 6 of the Aarhus Convention deals with public participation in decisions on specific activities listed in Annex I which would include proposals for nationally significant infrastructure projects such as the provision of energy, water, wastewater and transport systems. It obliges the Government to inform the public in a timely and effective manner about a proposal and the procedure for dealing with it. Public participation should be early, when all options are open and when public participation can be effective. Procedures must allow the public to submit any comments, information, analyses or opinions that it considers relevant to the proposed activity at a public hearing or inquiry. Due account must be taken of the outcome of the public participation.

Business as usual (or the folly of petitions)

The Government has published a response to the (now closed) e-petition against the Longdendale Bypass today. We'd rather comment on it before we publish it here, then you can choose to read it if you can be bothered.

Let's face it, you know how it reads, you've heard it many times before. But what is a real slap in the face is the last two paragraphs that appear to stamp out any hope that the government will listen to reason about Woodhead. Clearly, the time for polite campaigning and asking the government to do things is drawing to a close. Only today, NASA (of all people!) have pointed out that the EU's Carbon Emission Reduction targets are set far too low. In a phrase that should send a chill down everyone's spine, Dr James Hansen from NASA said further cuts were needed if "humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed".

Clearly, the future does not lie with those who will not change radically, nor their institutions. This veritable 'Gas Chamber of Commerce' that seeks to place the economic considerations of a few rich bastards above every other poor victim on this planet cannot state it's 'business as usual' - Rome is Burning.

Read it and weep...

The Government remains committed to a safe and reliable trunk road network as part of the overall provision of transport for the country, and will provide improvements to the network where they are shown to be required. However, this is subject to the need to show that alternatives to road building have been investigated and where appropriate can be implemented.

Any improvements to the road network need to provide the highest levels of environmental mitigation, particularly in environmentally sensitive areas such as the Peak District Park.

The Highways Agency (Agency) was asked to identify a Scheme that considers all these issues. A history of the scheme can been seen on the website http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/16360.aspx

The Agency does not believe that it is necessary to withdraw the A57/A628 Mottram-Tintwistle Bypass scheme as it remains firmly of the opinion that a bypass is the optimum solution to the problems of congestion within the villages of Mottram, Hollingworth and Tintwistle.

However, the Agency is currently considering the alternatives proposed by other parties and will be responding to these matters during the Public Inquiry.

In Mottram, Hollingworth and Tintwistle there are 446 properties immediately adjacent to the Trunk Road. These properties are mostly residential but also include commercial, community use and recreational facilities. These residents currently have unacceptable levels of traffic noise, visual intrusion and severance, poor environment, air quality, safety and accessibility problems.

The proposed scheme would remove a significant proportion of traffic including HGVs from the trunk road within these villages and the journey times for travellers on the trunk road would be improved. The Route Restraint Measures on the A628 would reduce the attraction of the route to long distance traffic, and the Safety Measures would offset the effects of additional traffic on the trunk road network.

Mitigation measures would include new speed limits, additional traffic signals at Flouch junction, Langsett and Midhopestones, signs, rumblestrips and safety cameras.

There are no plans to re-open the Manchester to Sheffield route via the Woodhead Tunnels (known locally as the Woodland Pass). The Government's strategy for the development of the railway is contained in the White Paper 'Delivering a Sustainable Railway'.

Although the White Paper seeks significant increases in capacity on Trans-Pennine routes, this can be achieved by running longer trains and by Network Rail proposing capacity enhancements on existing routes, should this be required.

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)

Here are the results of the Longdendale Siege Committee...

Older readers will remember the many japes we've had teasing the Longdendale Siege Committee about their pathetic pm.gov.uk petition. Over the months, they've gone to all sorts of lengths to get signatures on it - their friend David Jones at the Glossop Chronicle even did his best to make sure everyone knew about it.

So what's the status of the petition? Well, it's now closed. And - wait for it - it has the fantastically convincing number of - oh, 198 signatures...

Time to rehash the bullshit about their 9,000 manual signature petition then. I suppose this is the last we'll hear from them about the electronic petition - though not if we've got anything to do with it.

Beep beep!

You have to feel sorry for Longdendale Siege Mentality. Being lovers of hopeless causes, they have gone to the trouble of waking up the silver surfer whose job it is to maintain their interweb contraption in order to get as many of their reputed 8,500 supporters to sign their pm.gov.uk petition. Yes, we've gone on and on about that before, but bear with us.

Allied with the plea on their homepage, a letter in the Glossop Chronicle exhorted the multitudes to go to this petition (whilst failing to give the URL - which does help), and they did manage to pull their socks up: the total currently stands at 110. They must be congratulated for coming within 30 signatures of ours. Someone put something in their collective Ovaltine no doubt.

But - I don't know how to break this. The opposing petition is now zooming off into hyperspace. The Siege are eating our dust...

...beep, beep!

2+2=5?

It seems that following our post on Saturday last, Longdendale Siege Mentality have been going all out to make up the numbers in the largely redundant respective online petitions.

Have a look now and spot some (in)famous names (& thankfully not faces) from Siege meetings, as well as the creator of this static, moribund website (where time truly stands still). Tameside Councillors are strangely absent though, as is the 'Chief' (copyright D Jones, Glossop Chronicle) Mike Flynn. The presence of 'Deputy Dog' also clearly lends credibility to the efforts of this shower.

Someone should mention to them - TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE. According to certain contrary souls, the supporters numbers are 'unprecedented'* in any Public Inquiry. Well, that must make the objection numbers 'un-fucking-precedented', because we have 30% more, as we demonstrated last week. Do your homework sonny!

*The term 'Unprecedented' can be applied to the objectors to the Weymouth Relief Road, where there are nearly 6,000. Makes us both look rather weedy by comparison but the government continue to push on regardless. Plus ca change.

Numbers game

Unlike this week's Advertiser, yesterday's Glossop Chronicle doesn't treat us to a report of the Pre-Inquiry meeting. In fact, the tables set aside for the press on Tuesday were strangely empty. It's even more odd given that the offices of the Reporter Group Newspapers are a 2 minute walk away.

But to compound this odd behaviour, there's a large article this week on the relative pro and anti bypass petitions on the PM's website which we highlighted in an earlier post. And clearly, some people read the paper, because the numbers on either are rising.

Longdendale Siege Mentality (their new name around here) do have a long way to go though. This is because the latest figures for letter of objection and support for the bypass have been published, though not as openly as the Highways Agency proclaim in this letter (which the wind blew into our hand). Indeed, at the date of writing, the information is yet to be displayed on their Freedom of Information pages, as promised (presumably because it doesn't suit what they're trying to achieve at the PI). So we thought we'd help them ease their workload a little.

Here it is then:

Objections: 2601
Supporters: 1377

You may remember that in June last year, the numbers in press releases were roughly 1400 objections and 1000 supporters. That gave us nearly 60% then, and we now have 65%. But whereas we have increased our objections by 85%, Siege have managed only 37% (the fact that we didn't rely on a couple of dodgy looking old blokes shuffling door to door in Mottram to try to chat people up might have helped).

Of course, this may only be a Pyrrhic & moral victory at this stage, but unless Siege enlist the help of all Top Gear petrol heads and congestion charge petition types for their pm.gov.uk petition, we think we have won this particular argument...

Petition pissing contest

MPs and other collected non-entities politely requesting something...

On a personal level, I'm dubious about the kind of activism that promotes petitions. Whilst compiling one is often an excellent way to create a mailing list (which is hopefully used properly), the kind of politics that politely request the government to reconsider are not mine.

But you have laugh at how pathetic the Longdendale Siege Committee are. The Bastard children of TMBC, who in days gone by managed to persuade their brother-in-law to fund their 'Highwayman' signs along the 'gateways' to Tameside are falling by the wayside if their latest propaganda effort is anything to go by.

They've raised at petition on Tony Blair's website - with 10 (count 'em), yes 10 signatories. God, I bet they're embarrassed they put their name to this 'mother of all petitions'. Whatever happened to the 8000 - the figure who, they're always keen to point out, signed their petition years ago? That's the one presented to 10 Downing Street, as opposed to the House of Commons, which means there's no public record, and therefore no evidence for its existence.

But you can't hide these figures. Neither can you hide WAIT's rather more impressive roster of 114 on an opposite petition.