Hi
Norfolk CC have announced that they will be pushing ahead with the Norwich Western Link road.
This is after news that they have secured partial funding from the Dept of Transport.
This has all been announced to great fanfare, but there are several big stumbling blocks that they aren't mentioning much...
Money
The estimated cost has increased from £251m to £273.9m.
But the DfT has only committed to £213m, for now. They may come through with more but as it stands NCC have to come up with £60m. As they are currently delving into basic services to save £46m, this seems extraordinarily risky.
£274m is extremely optimistic. Even if the project doesn't run into complications, interest alone makes hitting a figure of £400m basically inevitable. Completion will be 2029 at the earliest.
NCC will have to
pick up these cost overruns - and with all the other pressures council funding is under, this could end up bankrupting NCC.
Carbon Calculations in the High Court
Bats!
Those pesky bats and their legal protections... they try to ignore it, but this road can't get built unless Natural England sign off on it. And the evidence is strong and being built upon by the day by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust:
the bats can't be avoided, and there is no mitigation that is effective.
Us
We aren't just a little local group anymore, we are a substantial coalition- with the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Woodland Trust, CPRE and Friends of the Earth amongst many
others.
What are we doing in response?
The meeting
At the NCC cabinet meeting on 4th December they will announce that they will be putting in an application for planning permission.
We will be asking a lot of difficult questions at this meeting. We know that we probably won't get good responses, but it gets all the concerns out into the public domain.
Then we will be calling for a public inquiry.
That will be via a formal letter setting out all the legal concerns.
However, we need all of you too. We want the decision to be 'called in' to the secretary of state (vs NCC nodding through planning permission, effectively marking their own
homework). Having evidence that there is public opposition will support that.
So please do make sure you, and everyone you know has signed the petition.
Then get them on this mailing list so that they take part in the
consultation (forward them this email)....
The consultation
NCC will likely launch a public consultation in Dec/Jan.
We will help you to
respond to that in as painless a way as possible. This will be an important show of opposition by the public.
The protest
What we really want is for NCC to stop pouring money into this black hole. There is a good chance that with a change of government, there will be a rethink and central funding withdrawn.
Obviously we still need to make sure that any future government knows that stopping
the NWL is a no-brainer, so we can't let the pressure up. But it does mean that NCC is likely wasting money on something that will never happen.
And meanwhile missing opportunities to help the beleaguered villages and create a sustainable transport plan for the region.
So we need to put some real public pressure on NCC. Put 20th Jan 2024 in your diary for a peaceful march in Norwich. We want to make this a big event - linking those with concerns about the environment and ecology with those that want their council tax spent responsibly. Please invite everyone you know.
The Stop the Wensum Link team
