Open message from CHAIN to All Members of CWAC Council

The following is the message emailed today to all members of CWAC Council to accompany the CHAIN Information sheet titled Carnage on King Street – The Facts :

‘Dear Councillors
The words of Brian Cartwright and the frightening photo in the attached CHAIN Information sheet send a clear message about your responsibilities when you come to consider the plans that LSEP Limited has to ramp up the scale of their Lostock Waste Incinerator and the number of HGV lorries on the nearby residential roads, particularly King Street, that service it.

The scene in the photo is proof that the already permitted number of HGVs will have deadly consequences for pedestrians on the pavements and for vehicle drivers and cyclists. That is not surprising because, as the records show, at the Planning Inquiry into the original application in October 2011, a statement was made on behalf of TATA, to the astonishment of local residents, that King Street is capable of accommodating three streams of traffic! That nonsense was immediately challenged by CHAIN verbally and in writing but CWAC Council did not have a problem with it. We also maintained at the same Inquiry, and still do to this day, that King Street is just not wide enough to safely accommodate two streams of large HGVs coming from opposite directions and that the carriageway needs to be widened by at least a metre in many places to meet DoT requirements.

The current proposal by LSEP provides a useful opportunity for your Council to go back to square one and undertake a thorough evaluation of the traffic implications, particularly from a road safety perspective. As elected members and with great respect, it is your duty to ensure that lives of local residents are not placed at unnecessary risk.’