No link road

[Christies Child]

The Government have stated that they are unable to provide any monies for the proposed link road and have asked LCC to explore other areas to fund the road.

LCC have in reply said that they are unable to do so and as a result the link road hase been shelved for the time being.

Not surprising in view of the need to reduce expenditure.

Sad...very sad!

Looks as though traffic on Morecambe Road and in Carnforth will only get worse.

[Keith]

The Greens will be happy, they like it when cars are stationary, spluttering out exhaust fumes rather than moving.

The MBI's will be happy, they like it that tourists & business go elsewhere because it is so difficult getting in and out of Morecambe (why else did they object to it?).

The previous MP will be happy that something that could have helped to regenerate the town that she had political responsibility for was delayed long enough to be scrapped, as she campaigned against it.

[the pieman]

great news!

[George Dawes]

what i would do is build a fair size toll bridge(cars only) down the bottom end of the key on the river loon linking up to the start of the bypass and just charge £1 a time till it pays for itself(price it costs to build)

and reconstrucy some of the road layouts on route to make it possible, it's not the anser but it would ease things up a bit, and a cheaper alterantive, cant see it being a problem as the public would be paying for the toll bridge


and thoese who dont want to pay a £1 well dont..

[Suzi Quatro]

The death of the link road is a tragedy for Morecambe and also the future regeneration. It was imminent that the link road would be scrapped if the Conservatives formed the government. There was hardly any dynamic campaigning on the part of the City Council in regard to the link road and in reality they will be glad that it has been scrapped.
Any serious politician will need to campaign for the Government to change their minds and pressure needs to be directed towards the Cabinet Member for Transport at Councty Hall, I thnink his name is Keith Hill but I am not sure. In my opinion it might have been better if the previous M.P had been more suppotive of the link road as oppose to listening to the nimby brigade.

[RedRedWine1]

Pass the peace pipe and take off the tribal labour hat, you knew somebody would blame this on the incoming government. This project has failed to get off the drawing board for the last 30 years due to local objections. Now it has failed because collectively as a country we can't afford it due to the fiscal deficit the previous incumbents have left behind (again). How is any of that the fault of the Conservative Party?

It is a shame really, as the link round could have proved a catalyst for the regeneration of Morecambe and the surrounding areas. As it is, it'll continue to plod along. The real people to blame are the NIMBYs and vote-mongering Politian's like Geraldine smith, whose short-sightedness has cost everybody in the long-term. Blancmange!

[alwaysright]

Hmm i wonder who you voted for in the general election ???????

[Richard Head]

Brilliant news

[thegentlegiant]

Useless Government, Useless Council, Morecambe will remain in the dark ages and poor businesses will continue to struggle in tough financial times, shame on this country!!!!!

[Gnasher]

Brilliant news

You've never actually said why you are against it. If you are within the impact zone of the link road i.e. going to be affected by it AND you have lived in your current property since 1960 then I have some sympathy for you. I know from personal experience that the path of the link road has been known since about 1960 and anyone who has bought a house within the impact zone should have been informed of this when they bought their house. Blame solicitors if they didn't tell you what the local search produced.

One prime example of this is Broadoak, they moved into Torrisholme long after I did and when I moved in I knew the road would be going that way. I still decided to move there knowing what might appear.

Anyone who bought property knowing the road might be built has no right to object.

[Christies Child]

Useless Government, Useless Council, Morecambe will remain in the dark ages and poor businesses will continue to struggle in tough financial times, shame on this country!!!!!

I assume you mean the previous Government who through there willingness to increase the country's debt created the environment in which this was inevitable. In fairness they would have done exactly the same as the present lot(s).

[thegentlegiant]

Useless Government, Useless Council, Morecambe will remain in the dark ages and poor businesses will continue to struggle in tough financial times, shame on this country!!!!!

I assume you mean the previous Government who through there willingness to increase the country's debt created the environment in which this was inevitable. In fairness they would have done exactly the same as the present lot(s).

All governments current and present!!!

[Posh]

Useless Government, Useless Council, Morecambe will remain in the dark ages and poor businesses will continue to struggle in tough financial times, shame on this country!!!!!

I assume you mean the previous Government who through there willingness to increase the country's debt created the environment in which this was inevitable. In fairness they would have done exactly the same as the present lot(s).

I actually think the opposite. A Labour government would have pressed ahead as the capital involved would have been spread over a five-year build period, would have created a great deal of jobs and would have been a catalyst for investment in Morecambe, Port of Heysham, White Lund and the new recycling park at Middleton. We need jobs and growth.

Last night a lorry shed it's load alongside Ryelands for three hours the road was blocked and the police operated a stop go system with one lane of traffic. Result queues on to the motorway, gridlock past Pointer in Lancaster and a 15 min journey turned into an hour. Situations like this will only continue and investment will cease.

If true the end of the road scheme is a disaster for Morecambe. This scheme, a Northern route, was planned in 1949 and is the only part of the Lancashire road network that was planned then not to be completed. The main blame though lies with the unprincipled opposition of the MBI and their former MP Geraldine Smith. Without their opposition and backing for a route that never could have gone ahead this scheme would have been under way by now. The tens of millions of pounds worth of economic benefits this would have brought have been lost. And that damages our football club too.

[Heysham_Shrimp]

I think the link road will still go ahead.

Ok the public enquiry has been cancelled. There has already been a Public enquiry and these are very expensive so thats a saving !

I believe that most if not all of the land has already been compulsorily purchased.

The new Morecambe MP is very much in favour of it going ahead.

[marky]

It will go ahead. Just not as quickly as most might have hoped. This isn't a cancellation of a single project in North West Lancashire, it's a national freeze. Up here, two essential upgrades on the A19 are to be delayed which means the second Tyne Tunnel is going to be totally ineffective for the first 2 or 3 years.

[Richard Head]

Brilliant news

You've never actually said why you are against it. If you are within the impact zone of the link road i.e. going to be affected by it AND you have lived in your current property since 1960 then I have some sympathy for you. I know from personal experience that the path of the link road has been known since about 1960 and anyone who has bought a house within the impact zone should have been informed of this when they bought their house. Blame solicitors if they didn't tell you what the local search produced.

One prime example of this is Broadoak, they moved into Torrisholme long after I did and when I moved in I knew the road would be going that way. I still decided to move there knowing what might appear.

Anyone who bought property knowing the road might be built has no right to object.

By the same argument anyone who chose to live in Morecambe when they need to travel south for their work or business doesnt deserve any sympathy either

[Vinny]

Brilliant news

You've never actually said why you are against it. If you are within the impact zone of the link road i.e. going to be affected by it AND you have lived in your current property since 1960 then I have some sympathy for you. I know from personal experience that the path of the link road has been known since about 1960 and anyone who has bought a house within the impact zone should have been informed of this when they bought their house. Blame solicitors if they didn't tell you what the local search produced.

One prime example of this is Broadoak, they moved into Torrisholme long after I did and when I moved in I knew the road would be going that way. I still decided to move there knowing what might appear.

Anyone who bought property knowing the road might be built has no right to object.

By the same argument anyone who chose to live in Morecambe when they need to travel south for their work or business doesnt deserve any sympathy either

To the contrary Richard, anyone who chose to live in Morecambe, could have expected a link road to have been built before now.

[Keith]

Brilliant news

You've never actually said why you are against it. If you are within the impact zone of the link road i.e. going to be affected by it AND you have lived in your current property since 1960 then I have some sympathy for you. I know from personal experience that the path of the link road has been known since about 1960 and anyone who has bought a house within the impact zone should have been informed of this when they bought their house. Blame solicitors if they didn't tell you what the local search produced.

One prime example of this is Broadoak, they moved into Torrisholme long after I did and when I moved in I knew the road would be going that way. I still decided to move there knowing what might appear.

Anyone who bought property knowing the road might be built has no right to object.

By the same argument anyone who chose to live in Morecambe when they need to travel south for their work or business doesnt deserve any sympathy either

I think you'll find that is exactly what has happened and partly explains why Morecambe is in economic decline. If people could easily get in and out, there would be more money being spent in the town. You don't find that many people moving in to the town knowing that they have to commute south of the Lune unless they have 'other' connections to the town.

[Gnasher]

Brilliant news

You've never actually said why you are against it. If you are within the impact zone of the link road i.e. going to be affected by it AND you have lived in your current property since 1960 then I have some sympathy for you. I know from personal experience that the path of the link road has been known since about 1960 and anyone who has bought a house within the impact zone should have been informed of this when they bought their house. Blame solicitors if they didn't tell you what the local search produced.

One prime example of this is Broadoak, they moved into Torrisholme long after I did and when I moved in I knew the road would be going that way. I still decided to move there knowing what might appear.

Anyone who bought property knowing the road might be built has no right to object.

By the same argument anyone who chose to live in Morecambe when they need to travel south for their work or business doesnt deserve any sympathy either

As has been said, I bought property knowing there might be a link road and that was one of the attractions, a quick way out of Morecambe. Still no explanation of RH's objections to the link road. I share RH's view that people should use other means of transport, unfortunately it's a long f'ing way on a bike to Birmingham and then Uxbridge this week.

[Richard Head]

I had to travel south on the M6 today and setting off at 8.30 this morning it took me 10 minutes to get from Torrisholme to junction 34. How much quicker would the £140 million proposed to be spent on the link road make that journey, 5 minutes at the most. Hardly value for money.

I regularly have to travel from Scotforth to Torrisholme about 4.30 in the afternoon. This never takes more than 15 minutes by car (25 minutes by bus and 40 minutes if i walk). That doesnt seem an excessive amount of time to me.

[scar]

When the MBI's came to be I liked their ideology and what they proposed.... unfortunately over time this changed from the general good of the town and the area's businesses to one of pandering to themselves and their friends.

The stance they took for the link road differed from that when they first formed and showed a clear lack of understanding of the majority of people in the district, in particular those commuting to/from Morecambe & Heysham daily and the transport industry as a whole.

The debate will rumble on for a good while no doubt and the front pages of the papers will once again be filled with the same headlines as has been over the previous decades when the link road once again comes up for construction, which it will - they have to remodel junction 34, they've just delayed when they're going to do it, not scrapped it altogether.

There is hope, it's just that it's a few more years away than previously thought. Get the national debt under control and i'm sure it will be once again back on the cards.

[Keith]

I had to travel south on the M6 today and setting off at 8.30 this morning it took me 10 minutes to get from Torrisholme to junction 34. How much quicker would the £140 million proposed to be spent on the link road make that journey, 5 minutes at the most. Hardly value for money.

I regularly have to travel from Scotforth to Torrisholme about 4.30 in the afternoon. This never takes more than 15 minutes by car (25 minutes by bus and 40 minutes if i walk). That doesnt seem an excessive amount of time to me.

Good enough to cancel the whole project then!

If they went ahead with the road, there would be an increased chance of Heysham Three being built. Both projects would bring much needed jobs to the area, some temporary, some permanent. Certainly it would bring many millions of pounds in to the local economy. If the MBI's & their MP had got behind the project it may already have been beyond the point where it could be stopped. Instead they opposed the key element to rejuvenating the area. Watch the power station go somewhere else now too. Still, at least you can all follow Richard and walk to work.

[mrpotatohead]

heysham 3 wll happen regardless of the link road, we dont really need it at the moment due to a massive drop in business traffic, due to us becoming a third world country, our forward thinking government has provided us with a second to non cycle track system, so when the oil runs out, our yaks and rickshaws can move to and fro at ease, taking our produce, grown in our former gardens, to market, i mean car boot.

[Gnasher]

I had to travel south on the M6 today and setting off at 8.30 this morning it took me 10 minutes to get from Torrisholme to junction 34. How much quicker would the £140 million proposed to be spent on the link road make that journey, 5 minutes at the most. Hardly value for money.

I regularly have to travel from Scotforth to Torrisholme about 4.30 in the afternoon. This never takes more than 15 minutes by car (25 minutes by bus and 40 minutes if i walk). That doesnt seem an excessive amount of time to me.

That would be a perfect run then, not slowing down for roundabouts, corners or traffic lights assuming you stuck to speed limits. Somehow I doubt that at 8:30am. It takes me longer than that at 6am, same route. When I'm working in Lancaster, it takes me a good 20 minutes around 8am to get to Kingsway. That's not the worst case, that's the average. Journey home around 5pm, at least another 20 minutes but more often 30.

I look forward to driving towards the M6 to get on the link road and back to Morecambe.

[Sammy h]

I had to travel south on the M6 today and setting off at 8.30 this morning it took me 10 minutes to get from Torrisholme to junction 34. How much quicker would the £140 million proposed to be spent on the link road make that journey, 5 minutes at the most. Hardly value for money.

I regularly have to travel from Scotforth to Torrisholme about 4.30 in the afternoon. This never takes more than 15 minutes by car (25 minutes by bus and 40 minutes if i walk). That doesnt seem an excessive amount of time to me.

You must have been extremely lucky to do it in that time, do the same journey at around 8am and it can take anywhere between 15-30 mins.