The most northerly and southern sections of the Spalding Western Relief Road have been green-lit by the county council amid claims of ‘smoke and mirrors’.
Today (Monday) Lincolnshire County Council’s Planning and Regulation Committee gave the go-ahead for section one of the road from Spalding Common and section five from Spalding Road near Pinchbeck.
It means work on the sections will begin if the applications are not ‘called-in’ by central government to decide upon.
More than 300 local residents objected to the proposals with objections led by protest group Spalding and Pinchbeck Residents against the Relief Road (SPARR).
Simon Holmes, a chartered engineer, spoke to the committee on behalf of SPARR describing the application as “defying logic and concept” and “a sub-optimal plan with severe negative environmental impacts, that limits future options and will result in a significant cost to the public purse”.
“Why should tax payers in Spalding accept sub-standard options?” he continued.
A hand-written statement from Coun Elizabeth Sneath was read out calling section five a “giant cul-de-sac” and “nothing more than a developer-led ill-conceived folly that will blight the lives of residents on this main road leading into Spalding”, while Coun James Avery spoke opposing the plans on behalf of Pinchbeck Parish Council.
“Section five is a key for developers to unlock the land for housing,” he said. “I don’t understand why Lincolnshire County Council isn’t able to fully fund a completed relief road for Spalding.
“Evidence shows the relief road is critical to Spalding’s development strategy so surely the funding should be secured for the entire route. Instead the relief road enables hugely on future developer contributions. This I fear is a ‘get out of jail card’ for developers and Spalding may never have a relief road.
“Section five does not resolve the worst traffic problems because of rail crossing down time nor existing traffic flows and increasing traffic flows from new housing.
“Is this the legacy that you really want?”
Speaking for the Highways Authority, Ian Turvey said in support of the application: “Spalding Western Relief Road was identified as the most important infrastructure project in the local area. This is the product of several years of consultation, policy development and planning.
“In 2017 the strategy support and successful outcome of £12m funding being secured for the improvements adjacent to Spalding Road fully supported by the then Minister of Transport and member of Parliament for South Holland and the Deepings (Sir John Hayes). Instead of just one section being able to be developed now, the award of government contribution allowed the second section to be built at the same time.
“There’s a clear danger then if the planning decision for section five is not granted, not only would that be a part of local adopted policy it would also result in the loss of significant funding that would not be available in the future.
Coun Angela Newton said that she wanted a relief road that was “joined-up” mentioned the possibility of deferring the applications partly due to the proximity of the new roundabout that would link sections one and two being closer to South Drove than in previous plans though no formal motion for a deferment was tabled for either application.
She challenged Mr Turvey, saying: “Will he tell us what he told Bourne Road residents whose houses were to be demolished earlier in the year that by the end of summer you would be in a position to announce section two. Are we now close to section two being announced?”
However Mr Turvey responded that the application was only relating to sections one and five and that “no decision has been made”.
Committee member councillor Nigel Pepper said: “I applaud the forward thinking and design of the road. I find it strange we’ve got a starting point and a finishing point, and we don’t know what’s happening in the middle and no indicative plan of where it’s going to go.
“I can’t help thinking there’s a little bit of smoke and mirrors going on and discussions about this middle section as it involves the demolition of up to nine homes.
“I think if the whole section was discussed today there would be far more emotion and fairly confident that planning would be refused entirely.”
The committee’s vice chair, Coun Thomas Ashton said: “I hear the argument that it’s not the complete road. It’s two parts of what’s hoped to be a road in the future, but these things do have to start somewhere.”
Coun Daniel McNally added: “If this is refused the local plan would be thrown in the bin, houses will be scattered all over and we’ll be left with a bigger problem than what supposedly problem this could cause.”
Section one was voted through unanimously while one councillor voted to reject section five as it was passed.
SPARR’s Stacy Barneveld-Taylor was among 27 from the group who made the trip to Lincoln for the meeting.
She said afterwards: “What I found staggering was the complete lack of engagement to ask any questions to have any legitimate. I found that extremely concerning given they had over 300 objections and a number of concerns were raised. They just went with officer recommendations.
“We’re now really hoping that the Secretary of State calls it in.”
- As previously reported Sir John Hayes has asked the Secretary of State to potentially ‘Call-In’ the decision, which would mean it’s decided by central government. Dominic Raab was named the Secretary of State in last week’s cabinet reshuffle.
