- TfGM‘s Head of Strategic Planning has confirmed to me the surprisingly defined line of a High Lane and Disley bypass will be updated to a vague arrow in their final Transport Plan Draft. Consultation - and the fight against such ridiculously counterproductive roadbuilding plans - now begins Monday.
- Here's how that 'High Lane and Disley bypass' looks in the landscape. For an indicative route it is oddly specific - and different to any of the routes last proposed in the 90s. Bear in mind that Disley Golf Club is atop a very visible hill and between Disley and Strines is a green, deep valley.
- We have to question why TfGM still want to include it at all: a 30 year dead idea that “would hinder rather than encourage a modal shift towards public transport within the A6 corridor” and “hinder the aim for lower carbon travel” with no modelling of adverse traffic impact on the Peak District.*
- TfGM state it’s “promoted by Cheshire East” but they seem to disagree. ”Cheshire East Council has not formally sought … provision of a bypass of Disley. The last time this issue was raised was … several years ago and this was never adopted by the Council” www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a6_h...
- So who is really re-tabling this dreadful carbrained proposal, which (greenbelt destruction aside) threatens to swallow more time and money from developing sustainable solutions for the corridor? (Rail, bus, active travel…) I await FOI responses from TfGM and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council.
- Whoever put ‘new roads over Stockport’s greenbelt’ on their Christmas list, if they get adopted as part of the TfGM plan it will be Andy Burnham endorsing the idea. Not a great look at this point in his political career. Let’s not forget how he folded to the GM Clean Air Zone campaigners: speak up!
- *Statements directly lifted from the A6 Corridor Study of ten years ago (p194). www.highpeak.gov.uk/media/1620/M... It’s a fun read (trust me) that proposes loads of other sensible interventions while discounting a bypass idea. Let’s see how many have been achieved since… (yet bypass talk returns!)
- And sorry this isn’t the fun Peak District cycling content you signed up for! But hopefully the relevance and implications are obvious. These roads would cost £1bn. Any money and time spent furthering them could be spent on genuine solutions to reduce private car need and enable active lives.
