A bungalow especially adapted for a wheelchair-using special needs teacher and homes built just two years ago are among those that have been ear-marked to be bulldozed for the Spalding Western Relief Road.
After looking at other options for the central section of the route of the road, on Monday Lincolnshire County Council posted letters to the Bourne Road homes it will recommend be demolished.
In total nine homes are at risk from the bulldozers, five of which are right in the path of the proposed road.
The county council says it will recommended its Executive committee back the route in January that will need five homes demolished partly because it’s cheaper than potential routes where no homes are demolished.
Special needs teacher and wheelchair user Nicole Amott has lived with husband Lee and son Joseph for the last five years in a bungalow specially sought and kitted out to improve the quality of life for the muscular dystrophy sufferer.
Lee said they were “devastated” at the potential loss of the bungalow which comes just months after Nicole broke both her legs in a car accident which led to the community raising thousands of pounds for a new wheelchair.
“We’ve spent a long time getting the bungalow up to standards,” Lee said. “A lot of time and effort as well as thousands of pounds.
“We don’t know how much it’s cost in total as it just had to be done.
“Finding a new home is not simple for us. As well as finding somewhere suitable we’re going to have to adapt it all again.
“I’m just amazed because there’s been no discussions with us and the county council and it’s all been left up in the air.
“It’s a big shock and we don’t feel we’ve been treated fairly.”
Next door neighbours Catherine and Frank Roberts arrived back from a holiday in America just an hour before the letter was pushed through the door of the home they’ve lived in for 22 years.
“We just feel terrible,” said Catherine who has lived in and around Pode Hole for her whole life. “There’s no way I’m living in South Holland if we do have to move.
“By paying council tax we’re effectively paying for our homes to be demolished so why would I want to continue to pay council tax here?”
Frank continued: “Our home has been a work in progress and been adapted so we can retire here and live on one floor. We’ve brought it up to the standards we wanted and there’s the memories of the children and grand-children here.
“We’ve never been against the road, but when there’s alternatives to not bulldozing people’s homes, why aren’t they taking them?”
In total Lincolnshire County Council say eight routes for the central section of the road were considered with the three best options taken forward. Of those, two options did not require homes to be demolished.
A route originally proposed years ago, known as the ‘allotment route’, would have a “significant impact” on the adopted South East Lincolnshire local plan which has since ear-marked the land for housing and a secondary school on the same plan, the council said.
Another option included bulldozing the Trojan Wood commercial property rather than the homes, but the county council’s report says of this: “A significant disadvantage is the need for a complex staggered junction solution at Bourne Road and the need to culvert a watercourse at an oblique angle.”
The authority says bulldozing the homes would cost them £1.25m compared with £4.5m to buy the Trojan Wood site and overall going through the houses would be £6m cheaper (£39m) overall.
As previously reported, the middle three sections of the road are yet to be fully financed by the county council.
Work on the first section, one of two that are financed and have planning permission, is due to begin in the Spring.
Coun Richard Davies, said: “I know that identifying a recommended route hasn’t been an easy process and that officers have worked hard to technically assess the options.
“We also realise that, even though it is only an officer recommendation at this stage, the report’s outcome will be difficult news for the residents potentially affected to hear.
“We’ve written to residents on Bourne Road and Horseshoe Road within the ‘safeguarded corridor’ about the outcome of the study and will continue to stay in contact with them as things progress towards a final decision.”
Cllr Davies continued: “In order to bring Spalding’s relief road forward, we have to determine a route for it in the near future and have to receive and consider professional advice about where that route should go.
“I would like to reiterate that we have not yet made our decision and, even if the Executive approves the recommended route in January, work on the middle sections will not progress any further in the short-term.
“In fact, it could potentially be a decade or more before we start building this section of the relief road.
“Following the meeting of Executive early next year, we will reach out to the residents of Bourne Road and Horseshoe Road again to formally notify them of the outcome and outline what the next steps in the process will be.”
Cllr Davies added: “The study assesses eight different options and identifies the recommended route as the best one from a highway design perspective. It also identifies it as the most cost effective.
“The evidence within the study shows that the other options would all cost more to build than the recommended route, in addition to the land for the ‘allotment route’ already being allocated within the South East Lincolnshire Local Plan.
“Those are clearly very important things for us to consider in reaching our decision.”
A spokesman for the campaign group Spalding and Pinchbeck Against the Relief Road (SPARR), said: “We are yet again extremely disappointed by LCC’s blatant disregard for the concerns and anxieties of Bourne Road residents as well as the strong arguments about this Relief Road ‘to nowhere’ for many years already made by SPARR, and our MP, Sir John Hayes; it’s devastating impact on a number of families and the serious
environmental and ecological impact.
“This is just another example of our County Council (not to mention the interests of SHDC’s housing plans) ploughing ahead without even understanding, let alone taking into consideration, the needs of the people directed affected and the wider community.
“The review of the central section was supposed to have been completed this summer – that didn’t happen and Bourne Road residents have been left in limbo – LCC said the decision would be available several weeks ago and now we discover the final decision won’t be made until January next year.
“What’s more – the LCC website link for the Central Route Options Analysis October 2019 doesn’t work! No stress then for affected residents!
“After all this extended ‘deliberation’ – we are told that the recommendation will be to continue with the Bourne Road and Horseshoe Road route regardless.
“There is absolutely no reference to any proposed consultation prior to the Scrutiny Committee or Executive meetings, with the people whose lives and hopes will be shattered– just that they have been written to.
“One resident, it appears, received a letter from LCC to say his home wasn’t affected, only to be told later by a phone call that that was a mistake!
“Cllr Davies has stated that LCC will, ironically, at this very late stage, “reach out” to Bourne Road and Horseshoe Road residents to “formally notify them of the decision” in January. Just like they did earlier this year when residents found out about the demolition of their homes vis the ‘back door’.
“The most telling thing about the LCC news item is Cllr Davies’ comment: “The evidence within the study shows that the other options would all cost more to build than the recommended route. In addition to the land for the ‘Allotment Route’ already being allocated within the South East Lincolnshire Local Plan”.
LCC clearly knew that when they started the Central Section review (constantly delayed with more stress to residents) but obviously the cost and SHDC commitments to new housing proposals carry much more weight with our County Councillors than the emotional, psychological and health impact for Bourne Road residents, who face years of stress and anxiety and the ultimate loss of their much loved family homes, full of memories and their personalised investments to make their own.
“To suggest, as Cllr Davies did in his comments to Radio Lincolnshire on 15 October, that the fact that the LCC will offer to buy affected residents’ homes and allow them to remain as tenants (paying a rent) as a solution to those impacts shows a total lack of understanding and most importantly, empathy.
“He clearly can’t really understand his own feelings in such a situation – no doubt because he can’t ever expect his own home to be affected by such a travesty?
“SPARR remains fully united with our Bourne Road members and we will continue our campaign on behalf of all sections of the route, with the ongoing support of Sir John Hayes, to expose the futility of the SWRR and the major implications it will have for people, pollution, the environment, ecology, our precious wildlife and the importance of the safety of our attractive open spaces for children, walkers, wildlife, and may other factors, all due to be destroyed in the name of more housing development in Spalding.
“The argument that this is due to a wonderful relief road for Spalding is flawed.
“As stated many times, the Northern section will be a relief to nowhere for many years (except more housing development pushing more tailbacks and car pollution on to Spalding Road, Pinchbeck Road and all dependant routes and seriously delaying the emergency services who all rely on this route for their responses).”
