Great News on the M6 Link Road

[Heysham_Shrimp]

The Government has just given the go ahead for the building of the link road from Heysham to the M6

[Posh]

Almost every person I spoke to feared the worst when it wasn't mentioned in the comp spending review documents. Great news it's got the go ahead.

I think it is almost certain that Heysham 3 will go ahead too as that must have been a major part of any considerations.

[Keith]

Good news for the whole of the Morecambe area. If Heysham 3 does now get the nod, then it will be superb news, bringing many thousands of jobs both directly and indirectly. Bad news for Geraldine Smith and the rest of the MBI's who wanted Morecambe to remain a desolate wasteland with high unemployment!

[P/T Indie]

Has our new MP played his part in this? Don't know much about him but he seemed to be campaigning heavily for the new power station from an article I read about him campaigning for it at the Tory party conference as one example.

If he has fair play because if Geraldine was still hear I don't think we would have had the same result.

[Gnasher]

Good news for the whole of the Morecambe area. If Heysham 3 does now get the nod, then it will be superb news, bringing many thousands of jobs both directly and indirectly. Bad news for Geraldine Smith and the rest of the MBI's who wanted Morecambe to remain a desolate wasteland with high unemployment!

A good guess would be the link road and 3rd power station need each other so hopefully more good news to come. Good to see the decision going against our town council's wishes, shows how much they know about the people they serve.

[HALMA 1983]

Finally!!!!! All those years of wing mirror damage at Denny beck and travelling over that turn of the century pack horse bridge at Skerton are coming to a close

Living in Heysham and having to get to the outlaws in Blackburn and my own family in Oldham via Lancaster has been a living hell for as long as I can remember, Shame that it's taken another phase of the power station to make this happen when in reality it should have been there from the very first on safety grounds

[casey jones]

Can it still be blocked by those who have campaigned against it for so long, i.e the people of Torrisholme, whom I do have some sympathy for, noise, house prices etc.

[morecambe mick]

From what I remember when the first power station went up they offered to build a direct road to the motorway, but were knocked back - by the local council

[P/T Indie]

The thing is I nearly bought a house in April on Hyde Road which is 2 streets away from the new road and talking to a few people we know who live round there noone was bothered at all by it.

[Christies Child]

Although I don't live in the Morecambe / Lancaster area, I still have to travel through Carnforth which will benefit by taking traffic away from the area.

A spokesperson for the local Council has just been on Radio Lancashire saying that this is the best news for the Lancaster and Morecambe area for years. He's also indicated that the 3rd Power Station is almost certain to get the go-ahead and that the new raod was fundamental to its construction.

Could this be the long awaited catalyst that will finally see the re-birth of the town?

It could also mean that players who may have had concerns about the geographical location and ease of getting to MFC will now look at it with more positivity.

Excellent news.....

[P/T Indie]

Just been reading the full statement what are the best and final offers from the local authorities?


The following local infrastructure projects – the ‘supported group’ - have been confirmed, subject to a best and final offer from local authorities as a result of the spending review settlement:

- Thornton to Switch Island Link
- Taunton Northern Inner Distributor Road
- Heysham to M6 Link Road
- Leeds Station Southern Access
- East of Exeter Package
- A57 M1 to Todwick Crossroads
- Mansfield Public Transport Interchange
- Ipswich Fit for the 21st Century
- Mersey Gateway Bridge
- Midland Metro Extension

Subject to these offers from local authorities being acceptable, funding will be confirmed in January 2011.

[HALMA 1983]

From what I remember when the first power station went up they offered to build a direct road to the motorway, but were knocked back - by the local council

Sounds about right as they've had a decent track record on making very dodgy decisions concerning the wellbeing of local people but saying that it's no wonder as Lancaster control everything that happens in the district

[Plain Peter]

Start to completion - one week?

[Christies Child]

Start to completion - one week?

If Globe Construction get involved, it'll be delivered late.......

[Posh]

The thing is I nearly bought a house in April on Hyde Road which is 2 streets away from the new road and talking to a few people we know who live round there noone was bothered at all by it.

The tyranny of the minority. Geraldine always did things for people who shouted loudest and not the great majority who didn't feel the need to shout quite as loud.

The scheme for the Morecambe Link, as it was called in 1947, ran exactly the same route as the current plan and it's been a feature of everybody's house buying process for anyone living near the route in Torrisholme since then. If you weren't legally informed of the plans then theoretically you could sue the seller or the solicitor. No one has any excuse.

I'm sure those next to the road will have problems with noise but if you live just over the hill then you won't. You'll also be able to access the motorway in five minutes instead of 20. The likelihood is that house prices in Skerton, Torrisholme, and large swathes of Morecambe and Heysham will undoubtedly see a lift as a new corridor of industry and opportunity opens and Morecambe becomes 15 minutes more accessible to the nation.

[red dwarf]

Will they allow mobility scooters on the link road? Cos if its been going on since 1947, I'll be on one before its finished! Seriously though, is there any time scale for a completion? Power station first, link road first or both at same time.

[Gnasher]

The scheme for the Morecambe Link, as it was called in 1947, ran exactly the same route as the current plan and it's been a feature of everybody's house buying process for anyone living near the route in Torrisholme since then. If you weren't legally informed of the plans then theoretically you could sue the seller or the solicitor. No one has any excuse.

A point missed by many, including the likes of Broadoak who have been quite vocal about the new road and the college who have continued to expand knowing exactly where the road could go. They all gambled and they lost.

I bought a house in the centre of Torrisholme, next to the Post Office for those that remember it, in 1979 and I was told then about the link road going via the college. I took the decision to buy knowing what might appear. The only people I have sympathy with are those who have lived in their present house since 1947 of which I doubt there are many, if any.

[bigreddog]

The time scales are unclear right now, but we're looking at a budget proposal put forward by the county council to the department for transport, that has to include some savings, before they get the money. but it's now a bartering process more than anything to ensure that national government doesn't ending up paying more than they have to, which is fair enough. there will be a small public inquiry into the compulsory purchase orders, but nothing like the first six week long one to get the planning approval that happened in 2007. The objections also need to be on planning grounds, not "I don't like it" or "nimby" grounds.

all in all ( and discounting the strategic planning for the decomissioning of heysham 1 and the building of heysham 3) we're looking at the first spade in the ground in the spring of 2012, any earlier is a brucie bonus.

as you can tell, I'm more than delighted with the result.

[seasonsinthesun]

When they were talking about starting to build the road until it got stalled, I think if they had started in 2010, it was stated to be ready October 2014, so on that basis maybe 2016 for completion? Just guessing...

[marky]

I read the press release on the DfT website which suggested that funds would not be available for any of these projects until tax year 2012/13 at the earliest, but the coalition will want building to at least start by the time we have another election. My guess is an early 2013 start date. Nevertheless, it is good news, though also an excellent bit of politicking given most if not all of these projects had already been approved by the previous administration...

[Heysham_Shrimp]

On Radio lancashire tonight the Lancashire County Council cabinet member responsible for the link road said it was likely likely that the first sod would be cut in early 2012 but with luck it could be even earlier.

[P/T Indie]

[quote="bigreddog"]The time scales are unclear right now, but we're looking at a budget proposal put forward by the county council to the department for transport, that has to include some savings, before they get the money. but it's now a bartering process more than anything to ensure that national government doesn't ending up paying more than they have to, which is fair enough.


so will we be able to do this or could it be a stumbling block?

[shrimper]

I reckon uncertainty about timescales may be because they haven't quite worked out deals with EDF yet about when their wad will be making its way into our national coffers.

There was so much uncertainty about the budgets and whether this road would make it to the final list, then would any of them be built? then all the talk about budget cuts..... then WHACK, it's definite. The new power station permissions will have been sealed and deals done for them to contribute. And fair enough, should have got the first lot to pay for it decades ago and we could have been reaping the benefits for years.

[thegentlegiant]

Absolutely brilliant news about bloody time should ease some traffic problems!!

[Plain Peter]

Good news for the whole of the Morecambe area. If Heysham 3 does now get the nod, then it will be superb news, bringing many thousands of jobs both directly and indirectly. Bad news for Geraldine Smith and the rest of the MBI's who wanted Morecambe to remain a desolate wasteland with high unemployment!

Might be a good idea to issue a few hundred Enforcement Orders on landlords to tidy up their desolate and decaying properties.
Is anything in the pipeline about getting frontierland sorted, and getting shut of that awful polo tower?
Sorting the 'estate' out will take as long to achieve as the link road, and is just as important to the future prosperity of the town!!