How convenient...

People travelling along Woolley Bridge Road from Hadfield will have noticed the slow and steady destruction on the road surface over the past few months, in particular the 50 yards or so leading up to the mini-roundabout at the (former) Spread Eagle pub with became very dangerous (virtually lethal for cyclists).

There's little doubt that the rapid deterioration is due in no small part to the increased HGV traffic coming to and from Rossington Park, because the wear was worst where the A57 meets Woolley Bridge Road.

So isn't it so convenient that a complete resurfacing has been completed this weekend gone - just in time for Inspector John Watson's site visits, which commence tomorrow?

John Watson's tour of Longdendale - ' On the Road Again'

The latest dates have been announced for John Watson's 'Tour de Longdendale' - the itinerary for his tour locations (and impromptu gigs) has been announced and can be viewed here. He'll be taking to the road on Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th of July, to view the sites and areas the Highways Agency/TMBC wants to devastate with the bypass.

Take your place by the roadside to wave him on his way. Though groupies will not be encouraged, there is a chance that he will sign copies of 'Highway Construction & Maintenance' at selected locations for his fans. The tour's secret last date is at Number 8 Back Moor, where JW will play before a select, invite-only audience of his biggest fans.

The Tale of Jeremy Fisher

Many people know that Beatrix Potter had an intimate association with our area - though I personally cant remember for the life of me what it was. It only emerged at about the time of her biopic, at a time when local news was somewhat thin on the ground.

What is less well known is that claims have been made that a sequel has been discovered (pages 23-97)- an until recently undiscovered sequel to her internatially (spelling courtesy of Cllr "roadmunkey") acclaimed work about a frog, "Jeremy Fisher".

Apparently and quite strangely, it represents a departure for Ms Potter being less overtly about homely Lake District animals, and mystifyingly more about a "deregulatory approach to town planning and road proposals in this other area that meant so much to her".

In the sequel an ambitous town planning frog manages to land a plum chief job in his Planning Department due to the very sudden departure of his predecessor. Cue all kinds of relaxations on planning applications. Retrospective permissions become the rule, and erstwhile public land slips into the hands of private ownership by laws of adverse possession. Short of putting a sign up on the byeways, such as "Cowboy developers welcome in this town", the message generally gets across to those who need it, and cranes and concrete block prefabs pile up in the sight of conservation areas.

Interestingly at Public Inquiry into the road the frog shows a keen interest in sustainable transport, suggesting that he has copying tricks off his chameleon like neighbours. But never fear, his flagship employment zone, far from being the town's new "information park" as claimed, is more or less simply a massive distribution centre, dependent on a bypass, and carrying no threat of being labour intensive. That would be too tedious after all, to actually deliver any kind of sustainable development is after all much too boring for a frog. So all the people who actually came to the town, can proceed with their very full intention of continuing to commute to work as a chosen lifestyle. They will find little in the flagship zone to distract them from their usual employment pattern.

At public inquiry into road proposals, these principles are encapsulated when said frog describes "conditions laid down for granting the road" as not being workable and making no sense, and suggests coyly to the Inspector that in the interests of the applicant they can be overlooked. But protests the ever conscientious and highly independent Inspector, "they are conditions, how can you overlook them", or words to that effect.

Oh well we will just strike them out, is the essence of the reply. They dont make any sense to us anyway, adds the amphibian, forgetting in passing that he himself signed the very conditions he now describes as unimposable and making no sense.

One wonders on the wisdom of such frogs being in positions of responsibility and their fitness for office.

Showdown

Following on from our last post, we're genuinely excited by another of Councillor McKeown's blogs today. He announces that Thursday's Glossopdale Area Forum meeting (7.00 p.m. Glossopdale Community College, Newshaw Lane) is all about 'Regenerating Hadfield'. Since the current policies of HPBC vis-a-vis Rossington Park are all about degenerating Hadfield, and because hundreds of people in the area are very pissed off, this should be a meeting worth attending to watch the shit hit the fan.

Having your cake and eating it

Older (or should that read 'weary'?) readers of this weblog will remember that amongst our first posts was an attempt to have a dialogue with a Glossop Councillor, Anthony McKeown, about High Peak Borough Council's decision to support the bypass. This fell flat on its face, largely because he refused to allow 'anonymous' comments on his blog (although that doesn't seem to have stopped certain Longdendale Councillors...).

But after months of tedious posts about things that are mostly only of interest to himself, he has now given us something to go on. Today, he reveals that HPBC are steamed up because the National Grid want to use the remaining accessible tunnel at Woodhead to carry electric cables, thereby putting it beyond other uses. His conclusion is that we should all support HPBC:

"...the proposals should not be supported and instead referred to the relevant government office where hopefully the proposals can be stopped or at (word missing Ant!) amended to prevent the loss of this potential future transport route"

How ironic. This is the same lot who fully support the bypass, and join TMBC in pouring scorn on existing alternative proposals to re-use the Woodhead railway line and tunnel to relieve Longdendale of HGVs. So how long do we have to wait for future use of the tunnel? Are HPBC and their councillors lobbying government for sustainable & environmentally friendly alternatives to more roads and more cars? If you've got a point of view, pop over to this post and leave a comment (and remember, any old name will do as long as it's not a nickname...)

Shit rolls downhill...

Well, we have the Houses of Parliament visiting us today. And when you look how they arrived at us and what they were looking for (click through image to see the full screen grab), it would suggest a few possibilities:

1) Someone is in the shit, as news travels of his adventures on the internet

2) Said person is on an away-day to Parliament

Even more interestingly, we had the Guardian Media Group visit us yesterday too, so I'd like to think it's the former. We'll see...

Writing yourself into history

Inserting yourself into history before your time is up takes a certain amount of audacity, not to mention arrogance, but it seems Roy Oldham has those qualities in spades. Either that or lickspittles who anticipate his vanity. TMBC's latest wheeze is to erect a plaque next to the Lowry statue which shows important places and landmarks in Mottram-in-Longdendale.

There's quite a selection of places (with the obligatory reference to Lowry's last home) but this monument betrays some interesting concepts.

Firstly, the route of the Longdendale Bypass cannot be traced since it falls outside the frame. Perhaps TMBC are conscious that it may never be built? Perhaps they're embarrassed? Or maybe they thought this would be tempting fate. After all, even the most arrogant know their limits.

And if you didn't know where Oldham lived, you'd think it was on the corner of Back Moor, which it isn't. Perhaps Roy or one of his minions spotted that he wasn't present are ordered the sculpture to be suitably altered, despite the inaccuracy?

Or maybe it indicates that Oldham is about to retire? How sad...

Take heart Roy, we're looking forward to you taking the stand at the Public Inquiry to justify your project to us all!

The plaque - Oldham's house indicated by the white circle

'Councillor' Brocklehurst at the Public Inquiry (again)

Still with Day #5 of the Public Inquiry, there's no point in talking about the boorish figure of Duncan Hollows (Siege) and his babblings apart from a priceless quote he awarded us - "I have not got the ability to foresee the future, so I am not omniscient" (page 52, line 13). Yes indeed, he is not God. Glad that's cleared up.

The best bit of the day is reserved for Joyce Brocklehurst, someone who we've talked about before, with particular reference to her contradictory calls for less traffic and more Industrial Development for Tintwistle.

But hang on - why does the Inquiry Programme call her 'Councillor'? She used to be, but now she's a Parish Councillor, and she admits as much, but has to point out she held this post for 16 years. 16 long, long years. And it's all over now. Shame that.

She's against public transport - "I do not think public transport is a good option for our area" (page 57, line 15). Well, I'm sorry but IT HAS TO BE. Private car ownership and the complete subservience of transport infrastructure towards it is destroying our environment.

And then she's onto her pet project. Two lines tells us all we need to know:

"I think this (Rossington Park) was built on the proviso that we had a Bypass" (page 57, line 18)

"it (Rossington Park) really needs this (the Bypass) to sustain a lot of the businesses there" (page 57, line 25)

She goes on to blame the traffic for the closure of local shops in Tinsle (page 58, line 17) - but the same thing is happening in Hadfield, and that has little to do with traffic, and everything to do with people getting in their cars to go to Tesco in Glossop.

But under questioning, she admits that although she envisages HGVs will use the Glossop Spur to get to Rossington Park (fuck people in Hadfield, that's not her Parish!) , they may still use the existing routes. It's not rocket science is it? Which route is the best one to Rossington Park?

A. Travel the length of the Bypass, queuing at all the traffic lights (which are meant to discourage HGVs apparently), before negotiating roundabouts, then the Spur and the hold ups to get to the A57.

or

B. Turn left down New Road, up Waterside, right at the Lamp onto Woolley Bridge Road and bingo, you're there.

It really is no contest, and she knows it. Why would HGVs go much further out of their way, and take much longer to do so? It's similar to the argument about HGVs using the M62 - coming along the A628 is actually quicker, even with the hold ups. And the same thing will happen with New Road, with or without the bypass.

The solution? No Bypass means a strangled Rossington Park. The alternative cannot be contemplated...

Siege's latest 'local' supporter

Following our post the other day on the hypocrisy of Longdendale Siege's claims to have canvassed support among drivers from everywhere but Longdendale, it seems their supporters stretch even further than that if this comment on the Tameside Advertiser's website is anything to go by:

I travelled the route from Glossop to Hyde in the 1960s I travelled the same route thiis year .Stop procrastinating get the bloody bypass built.
harry snelson, canada

Is this the same Harry Snelson that is the Director of Communications for the American Association of Swine Veterinarians? And was he looking for swine in Tameside (and did he find any)?

Lies, damned lies and statistics

More nuggets from Day #5 were amongst the supporting statement of Patrick Jenner. He illustrates more contradictions in bypass supporters' arguments, this time from the perspective of Tintwistle Parish Council in an exchange with John Watson (page 15, line 19 onwards):

(Jenner) The need for a Bypass came top of the list, giving a clear indication of village feelings.
Q. Well, it is top of the list in the sense that that is where you have put it, but it got slightly fewer votes than keeping the Post Office, did it not?
A. Yes. They were near enough on par.
Q. Yes, that is right.
A. Second to the keeping of Post Office, yes.
Q. Yes.
A. A need for Bypass came top of the list as far as we are concerned, but on them statistics it came second.

So that's OK then...

But then, he's rumbled. John Watson clearly points out that his survey is on Derbyshire CC headed notepaper (page 30, lines 9-16). Oh dear:

Q. You have used Derbyshire County Council headed paper to tell people about the survey that you did.
A. Yes.
Q. The evidence that you give, are you giving it in your own right or as an employee of Derbyshire County Council or in what capacity?
A. I am not giving it as an employee of Derbyshire County Council.

So why use headed notepaper then? Does the Council know?

Hypocrites

All we ever hear from Longdendale Siege is how 'outsiders' are responsible for most of the opposition to this bypass. It's a huge part of their argument, that local people all want the bypass. So to whom do they run to drum up another petition? Motorists stuck in traffic queues. And where are they from? Well, once again, Siege supporter Arthur Stanway on the transcript from Day #5 of the Public Inquiry shows us (lines 17-22, page 9):

Q. Thank you. Just a further thought: so you collected the signatures from people passing in cars?
A. That is correct.
Q. So were these all local people?
A. No, no, these were people coming from outside the village. They are from all over.

Not local!

John Watson smells a rat...

Day 2 of the PI, and he's rumbled Tameside. A priceless quote from John Watson (p.94, line 22):

There seems to be a large rodent operating in the corner?

Some of us have been smelling a rat for years, but there you go...

Day 2 was a day marred by sound problems and John Watson's rapidly diminishing temper. You would have thought these problems would have been ironed out by now, but many people pointed out back in May that a large open space with a stone floor doesn't lend itself to good acoustics. It's not unreasonable to wonder whether this is deliberate, especially as someone from the floor pointed out (p.23 line 25) on the day that Hyde Town Hall has excellent acoustics.

Sean of the Dead

... has been resurrected. Yes, we have received word that some bright spark has managed to bring back to life Sean Parker-Perry's weblog (aka Roadmunkey). Note the change from the original ('bypassedwarrior' rather than 'bypasswarrrior').

Now everyone can read his missives which were posted up until his mysterious disappearance from the internet last month. One interesting piece of information to add is that a wikipedia editor in contact with Sean received a reply from the Borough Solicitor of Tameside MBC on a Sunday!

Meanwhile, back on wikipedia, Sean's other alter-ego (and IP number) 83.104.50.161 has been editing again - this time James Purnell's page. Indeed, all controversy has been removed from the page, just in time for his new job as Secretary of State for Culture. How convenient...

'Public Inquiry: Day 1' Channel M news report

Chris Woodward? Since when was he a 'talking head' - although he does try to get himself into the Glossop Chronicle at every opportunity, now he's for the bypass. Ever the opportunist.

Counsel for the Highways Agency: Charles Calvert

The counsel for the Highways Agency has made his mark on this Inquiry. On Tuesday, he did his best to avoid using the microphone, pretending that he didn't know how to use it or simply avoiding it altogether. Clearly, his words are intended largely for the Inspector. This man could strut sitting down.

But he needs to be taken seriously. His Bio on his Chamber's website makes it clear he is very experienced and this profile shows he has a clear track record in advocating road schemes. It also ironically shows that he finds leisure in the 'country life' - presumably not that of the Peak District and Longdendale, which he helping his client to ruin for eternity.

But his manner and deportment are at times ridiculous. He forever reminds me of ' la de dah Gunner Graham' from 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum':



Can you see the resemblance?

"The light is on but nothing is happening..."*

Being the words of the Highways Agency Barrister, Charles Calvert, during the opening day of the Public Inquiry last Tuesday, it's a phrase that could not be more apt.

It has been widely reported elsewhere, but the Highways Agency had the gall to admit that not only had they failed to submit a huge amount of documents by the statutory deadline, but that they had issued an Errata document to those they had already submitted that was 169 pages in length.

Calls for an adjournment were heeded by John Watson, though not as far as would have been desirable (and might have been achievable if the PDNPA and Natural England had showed some solidarity). The Highways Agency bleated that they need the current timetable because "their staff had booked holidays"! What tactical mischief is at play here? And how revealing was it that TMBC agreed with objectors that an adjournment to September would be OK? Some kind of game are afoot ...

This Inquiry is bound to produce only one result. That much is clear from the contemptuous manner in which objectors and the general public are treated by the hosts TMBC, and John Watson by association. What do I mean? The most immediate and obvious thing was that the Promoters of the Scheme had enough microphones to go around, which the Objectors had none. Furthermore, the microphone that was available kept feeding back. At times, the Promoters and Watson forgot about the mics altogether until they were reminded from the floor that no-one could hear anything.

But 2 things stand out and they are the responsibility of Watson. Firstly, when a member of the public was trying to make a point without a mic and could not be heard, Watson summoned her to front to speak, as if she were a school child. It's clear where the power lies in this room - those at the front, whether it's the promoters or the 'official opposition' are the only ones who really count. This was underlined by TMBC's action in producing only enough copies of their opening statement for those who they consider matter (i.e. not the scum in the cheap seats, even if they support their wretched scheme).

The second thing that it is noticeable is the clear contempt which Watson has for the Save Swallows Wood campaign. He tends to deliberately 'forget' the name:

Sorry, I did not catch your name but I know you are interested in Swallows Wood (page 52, line 5/6)

...and again

You already told me this morning that you are ... from Friends of Swallows Wood, or some manifestation of the wood (page 82 line 26).

The text looks innocuous without the phrasing, but it's clear that Watson thinks we are a joke, like all the other tarmac jockeys.

Suffice to say that Watson comes across like a clean-shaven Alan Sugar. Despite the clear tactical games that the Highways Agency are playing, he continues to do his best to keep this farce on track lest he is the one that is fired.

*page 69, line 5/6 of the transcript

Vanished...

...but not quite without a trace.

In this post, we drew attention to some suspicions we had formed (and also that were out there on the world wide web) about whether or not a Longdendale Councillor, Sean Parker-Perry, was the pipsqueak behind the roadmonkey pro-road weblog.

Then, last week, a long article appeared in the Glossop Chronicle about how Sean Parker-Perry (poor iccle lamb) and Roy Oldham (erm, poor old mutton) were the victims of a horrible internet conspiracy to call them potty names on the internet, specifically wikipedia. Or something.

Looking at the edit histories their respective pages (here and here), it's clear that there's been something of an edit war going on. But what's more interesting is that the one complaining loudest about editing has been no slacker himself. He outed himself on wikipedia last year, and this list of contributions by the user with the IP address 83.104.50.161 yields a lot of obsessive activity on certain pages, some of which lead back to complaints by Cllr Parker-Perry of editing on his own page. Coincidentally, the same IP address is a frequent visitor to this site, often leaving comments. Furthermore, if you plonk this IP address in an IP search engine, it comes out as the ISP demon.co.uk.

But the best bit is the page set up by wiki administrators mulling over whether Sean Parker-Perry's only other corner of the internet should be deleted. Apparently, it's not worth the hassle and he's not notable enough. We could have told anyone that...

So what a surprise that when one visits http://www.bypasswarrior.blogspot.com/ today - it's disappeared. As quickly as it appeared. One can only surmise that if it was not our Sean behind it, then surely, it would carry on. After all, roadmunkey himself said he would 'fight to the end'. Or until the local papers started digging too deep - or until he took advice to shut his mouth.

And the councillor's myspace page seems to have been also similarly shorn of all content in somewhat of a hurry.

But he's also been lazy. So look here for his Technorati page which shows parts of the blog. And the Google cache of one his last incarnations is here.

This issue is by no means over. There's strong evidence that a Longdendale Councillor has been meddling with information on an encyclopedia to make him, his colleagues, and his employer look good, as well as silence any form of dissent. Furthermore, the roadmunkey blog took vicious potshots at people known only to him and some of us, in a manner calculated to intimidate.

But he hasn't vanished - he's left his pawprints all over the web for further study and analysis. And no doubt his blog will re-appear soon (we'll let you know when).

NB - update on Friday 15/06/2007: it appears that admins have decided to delete the Parker-Perry wikipedia page and therefore it no longer exists. This also means that a log of his and others contributions to this page also no longer exist. In any effort to erase history, someone (with the IP address 83.104.50.161 again), is also asking that the Longdendale Bypass page suffer the same treatment.

From the horses mouth

The Bypass promoters Proofs of Evidence have now been uploaded to the Persona Website, and there'a a lot of stuff to look at.

But we've spotted an interesting nugget in there already. In their Proof of Evidence (situated rather tellingly amongst TMBC's documents) High Peak Borough Council's Head of Planning and Development, Adrian Fisher, states rather blatantly the Council's position on the inter-related nature of the Bypass, Glossop Spur & Rossington Park. All in one paragraph (4.8), but here it is verbatim:

In the 1998 High Peak Local plan a large strategic employment site
was allocated at Etherow Park (now Rossington Park) off Wooley
Bridge Road in Hadfield. The Plan makes it clear that the planned
construction of the Bypass and spur would add to the attractiveness of
this site for investment and so was a significant factor in its allocation.
Following considerable new infrastructure Rossington Park is only now
fully coming on stream and the prospect of the bypass being completed
remains an important feature of local investment decisions.

The message to those opposing the Road & Rossington Park is clear - they are effectively part of the same plan, but the growth of Rossington Park (& no doubt similar developments) is dependent upon the bypass & spur being built. Without the bypass & spur, it cannot get any worse and may in fact wither away.

Our friend Councillor Ivan Bell has tried to put himself at the head of the campaign opposing Rossington Park, but in a recent letter to the Advertiser, the best he is able to offer now is that some of the existing monstrosities will be 'painted green' (Greenwash indeed) alongside making a call for everyone to go away now and leave it to the Councillors. But the Council and the Councillors are the reason we have this mess in the first place. Thanks Ivan, but we can get along fine without you...

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!

Coincidences

It's like an irritating fly that won't leave you alone...

We are loathe to draw attention to pipsqueaks who are largely talking to themselves, but roadmunkey has an interesting blog today.

He prattles on about some letter in the Glossop Chronicle 2 weeks ago, where one of Longdendale's less interesting Councillors gets his knickers in a twist over a regular letter writer to the Glossop Chronicle/Tameside Reporter, one Daniel Hooper.

Strangely, in this letter Councillor Parker-Perry seems to have as similar an obsession with Mr Hooper as roadmunkey has. Also, he is indignant about Rossington Park - as is roadmunkey. And lastly, the councillor's letter to the Chronicle also goes on about how the CPRE supposedly supports the bypass, as does the 'bypasswarrior' (sic) website. Coincidental? How the fuck should we know...?

Now we thought the latter issue was settled some time ago. We pointed out to CPRE that roadmunkey was blatantly lying about CPRE support for the bypass, and they sent him an email pointing that out. He must have ignored it, because the link is still there. But unbeknownst to him, it has been changed to make it clear no such support is forthcoming, and it carries a link for those interested in opposing the bypass.

Touché. Fly duly swatted.