Re: Tories plan for North? : Fri Jun 27, 2014 11:25 am  

UllFC wrote:

Making Northern Rail modernise their rolling stock would be a good start to improving transport in the North, I believe their contract has no clause for replacing their trains, hence we have 70s/80s trains still.

I agree with another poster that we need more than just a high speed rail link, as RL fans know more than most as soon as the M62 has a delay the North is at a standstill, we need more alternative routes and bypasses.

Yep. It's a major factor in why I don't go to away games on the other side of the Pennines.
Firstly, there's the awful York Ring Road to negotiate, which adds a half hour to the journey to start with, and then obviously the packed M62. Then, certainly when getting to Wigan, the roads after leaving the M62 are a nightmare too.

Basically if I want to watch Leeds away at Wigan on a Friday night I'd have to set off at around 4pm/4:30. Which is ridiculous for a journey of less than 100 miles.

Re: Tories plan for North? : Fri Jun 27, 2014 10:17 pm  

I am a delivery driver going all over the North West so I often see huge build ups of traffic in certain areas. I've seen a couple of websites which detail local and national governments plans for new roads from around 50 years ago to the present day which have never happened. Every single one of them makes sense.

One plan was to carry the M58 on around the south of Wigan and join it on to the M61 close to Bolton. Anyone who's ever driven hrough Wigan town centre will know how congested it gets and that road would go a huge way toward alleviating this.

What I find perplexing is that St. Helens, a town with a population of around 20,000 more than Wigan, is an absolute doddle to get around in comparison.

Re: Tories plan for North? : Fri Jun 27, 2014 11:40 pm  

DaveO wrote:

Funny you should say that because the same thing is scheduled to happen in Chester on Green Belt land to the South of the City. For those who know the area it is on land between Wrexham Road and Westminster Park housing estate which means its next to Chester Business park.

The significance of that is this area is already gridlocked at busy times and no infrastructure improvements are planned here either. There are also concerns about how it will affect drainage (read flood risk!).

When this plan came up the first time it was based on some study suggesting Chester needed 4000 new homes. That figure has been revised down considerably since then but the plan is still to build 4000 houses.

Councils are supposed to plan new building to meet requirements so when it was first planned they were complying with legislation but now they aren't. They are not supposed to enter into developments that can be deemed "aspirational" i.e. developments built on the hope they will be required rather than based on a need.

Still pencilled in to go ahead though!

The last time Chester's Green Belt was threatened it was for a Sports Centre and flats for the University (not commissioned or requested by the University but more speculative development) in an area about a mile outside the city. The Tory chair of the planning committee cast his vote to overrule the planners thus voting the proposal down so his Tory colleagues sacked him, appointed a puppet who then waved it through.

It got stopped when it came to light several Tory councillors had a vest interest in the development and had not excluded themselves from a full council vote as they needed to do. When this came out the vote was overturned and scratch one development.

I am waiting for something similar to crop up again!

Yep.
I've just found out that York Council are planning many more house building areas all around the city. In total plans are to build 22,000 new homes, leading to an increase in population of the City by between 15-30%.
The sum total of planned transport improvements? A new park & ride (on an already busy and clogged section of the Ring Road) and an expansion of 2 others.
Sum total of planned Education improvements? An expansion of one of the Universities and some more sports fields for a single secondary school.

On top of which they've just revoked the car parking scheme whereby York residents got discounted car parking in council car parks.

I went to a council meeting a while back and it revealed just how out of touch they are. They wonder why people don't use buses (they're expensive, slow & uncomfortable), they wonder why people don't use bikes (not everyone can, the roads are dangerous, not enough facilities at workplaces, cycle lanes are dangerous & too small).
They wonder why people don't go into the city centre (because it costs £2 per hour to park and there's not enough). They wonder why people don't use the train station more (because it's a nightmare to get to, deliberately made harder by City of York Council traffic policies, the parking is expensive and there's not enough of it).

The funniest thing I heard was them bemoaning the fact they'd installed cycle & bus lanes around an out of town shopping park but no-one was using them. Until someone asked the question of how you fit a weeks worth of shopping on your bike.

Re: Tories plan for North? : Sat Jun 28, 2014 12:02 am  

There are mass house building projects going on all over the place which will only add more traffic on to the roads. These need major but expensive road systems to cope with the added traffic but local councils take the cheap option and add mini roundabouts and puffin crossings which will only compound current problems instead of adding graded junctions and subways/footbridges which cost more.

Re: Tories plan for North? : Sat Jun 28, 2014 6:31 am  

King Street Cat wrote:

I can't see the Conservatives being in power at the next election so this is all pie in the sky.

How could you not vote for him???

Re: Tories plan for North? : Sat Jun 28, 2014 7:56 am  

SNAP!

Re: Tories plan for North? : Sat Jun 28, 2014 7:57 am  

Yep, he's your man! Who couldn't trust a face like that?

Re: Tories plan for North? : Sat Jun 28, 2014 7:57 am  

And while we're at it...

Re: Tories plan for North? : Sat Jun 28, 2014 8:54 am  

That Sun photo represents the worst of the link between the media and politicians...

"Excuse me Prime Minister/Deputy Prime Minister/Leader of the Opposition, the editor of The Sun is on the phone and he wants you to pose with this draft copy and send him the photo by noon so they can publish it tomorrow"

"I wouldn't wipe my backside with that f'kin pisspoor excuse for a newspaper"

"Its a patriotic front page though sir..."

"What are they going to think in Liverpool ?"

"The Sun will crucify you if you don't pose sir..."

"Oh fook it, give it here and hurry up..."

Re: Tories plan for North? : Sat Jun 28, 2014 9:06 am  

I've said it for years. The media run this country, not the PM. They have far too much power. The scandalous goings on of the phone hacking trial is a perfect example.