BBEG members attend Highways PDG meeting at LCC - 15 May 2006

Highways PDG Meeting Michael Borrill and Robert Fisher attended the Highways PDG Meeting at Lincolnshire County Council on 15 May 2006. As members of the public, they were only able to listen to what was being discussed and were not able to comment or participate in the meeting themselves. Elaine Turner, Clients Services Manager, Lincolnshire County Council, showed a presentation to the meeting about the processes that have to be gone through in developing and obtaining funding for any major road scheme. Once again, this included the following points:

Michael Borrill

• it takes 5 to 10 years for a major road scheme to progress through the system;
• the Government keep changing their procedures to apply for funding for a road scheme;
• the Regional Assembly now holds the funding, which is shared between 6 Counties and the Highways Agency - less money therefore available for Lincolnshire;
• if we cannot show any regional benefit, then there is no hope for a road infrastructure;
• only two major road schemes are to be put forward in the 2nd Local Transport Plan.
  (Boston was not one of them.)

Elaine stated that LCC would, "rigorously identify needs and possible solutions", in accordance with the Route Management Study data information and they, "may identify one of the solutions" for implementation.

Robert Fisher

There were some interesting conversations and comments made by those present at the meeting, which included the following: Cllr Richard Austin posed the following questions/comments: 1. Is Lincolnshire represented on the Regional East Midlands Assembly? 2. Boston's population is rising and has reached almost 60,000 - there is no other town in Lincolnshire of that size that doesn't have an outer ring road? The route of such a road needs to be reserved. 3. Funding from other sources needs to be investigated.

Portfolio Holder Cllr William Webb, despite stating that there was a "political will" to find a solution to Boston's traffic problems, went on to announce that his Executive Decision to press ahead with their chosen route for the Lincoln Southern bypass, which had been called-in, was confirmed that it would in fact proceed by the Scrutiny Management Committee.

Some further interesting points/comments that came out of the meeting were:

• The A1073 is split into two regions - East Midlands funding and schedule was currently for a 2007 start, whereas East of England region funding and schedule would not be until 2011;
• Funding from Developer Contributions, European Grants and County Council's own funds would need to be further investigated;
• "Government policy demonstrates a reluctance to implement the building of roads - it is not a high priority";
• A closed meeting had been held with the few people affected directly by the routing of the Lincoln Southern bypass through Waddington - some Councillors had raised concerns at this fact;
• The general issue of blight was discussed and Cllr Webb stated he was in a dilemma over issues concerning noise both during construction of a road and after opening, loss of value of a property, or for health reasons (asthma and tinnitus specifically), as this would set a precedent for the Council if an issue was made over the Waddington case, affecting everything from roads to schools, recycling centres, etc.