Objection and obfuscation

On Thursday 20^th June we presented our objections to the short Brough relief road (the one due to run from Skillings Lane to Moor Road under Phase 3 of the Brough South development) at the ERYC Planning Committee. We objected on the grounds that there has been no research done to determine what benefit this section of road will deliver once the mixed development at South Brough has been completed.

Residents around Skillings Lane and Saltgrounds Road are understandably concerned that any west bound traffic along the proposed relief road may cause a bottleneck at the narrow rail bridge near Brough Haven and contribute to additional traffic along Skillings Lane; adding to congestion in the centre of Brough at the traffic lights.

We argued that approval of the current smaller relief road should be suspended until a full review of options had been made (including a relief road running from Moor Rd to Melton Interchange) using more up to date traffic monitoring data. Our concerns were completely ignored by the Committee because unfortunately there was a previous legal decision made, prior to our campaign, for it to go ahead. 

One Councillor did ask for clarification from the planning officers as to whether any modelling of the impact of the proposed relief road from Skillings Lane to Moor Road had been conducted as part of the outline application. Despite there being no such modelling, the planning officer who answered the question fudged the answer saying that a full traffic monitoring assessment had been conducted and the outline application had been approved in full.  The answer should have been “no” or “I don’t know”.

Our main concern is that road safety will be compromised by the overall South Brough development and we will continue to keep an eye out for any forthcoming detailed plans. Work starts on the Skillings La/Moor Road link in December.

In the meantime, we have heard that the A63 junction roundabout plan could be brought forward due to a loan from Housing England; although this would still be 2 years away. The original requirement was to complete it before the 450^th house in the South Brough development becomes occupied, which could potentially be 6 years away, if indeed ever. This is better news but as many will know we need work to start sooner, or we could still see 250 houses occupied, generating up to 500 cars a day on our junction.

Also we are still keeping up our campaign to get a proper Brough relief road link to the Melton Interchange. Updates as soon as we get them.