Road Clippings Apr - Jun 2001Road Clippings Apr - Jun 2001Prescott sees why we need relief road (T&A 26 May 2001)
That's Better! (Aire Valley Target, 17 May 2001)
Bid to cure snarl-ups at Fox Corner (Aire Valley Target, 19 April 2001)
Foxed by traffic (Editorial, Aire Valley Target, 19 April 2001)
This isn't going to bring 'relief' (Letters, Aire Valley Target, 19 April 2001)
Ideas sought as town looks to new road (T&A 6 April 2001)
by Kathryn Kittley, T&A 6 April 2001
A major public consultation is planned for ideas for a Bingley town centre renaissance, now the contract has been signed for the long-awaited relief road.
Traders and the public will be invited to submit ideas for the development of the town centre at workshops arranged by Shipley Community Area Panel. Suggestions include promoting the town as a tourist attraction, with an integrated transport system and carefully-designed car parking scheme to attract more shoppers.
The floodgates for change were opened when the Highways Agency announced that Amec Capital Projects had secured the £47.9 million tender to build the relief road which will bypass Main Street.
Businesses don’t want potential customers passing by on the new road, so Bradford Council is co-ordinating a consultation in June to outline potential improvements.
Town Centre Manager David Dinsey said: "We want to give people who live, work shop and enjoy leisure here chance to have their say about the options and priorities for Main Street early in the design and planning process."
People who are unable to attend in June will be able to complete a questionnaire.
Businessman Andrew Burke, who owns Andrew’s Electrical in Bingley called on organisers to include the Myrtle Walk precinct as part of any regeneration package.
Mr Burke said: "We are at a crossroads and need to start making decisions now or we’ll regret it for years to come.
"It can become a thriving market town if some simple steps are followed. There should be more car parking on the main road because, if people drive through and there are no cars parked, it looks like a ghost town and they won’t stop."
Norman Roper, chairman of Bingley Civic Trust said: "What was going to happen to Bingley in terms of development has been held up because people were waiting for the road to be completed. The nearer we get to completion of the road, the less excuses people have for not getting on with it.
"There will be changes in Main Street parking, which will bring people back to shop. It will have a new lease of life." Andrew Robertshaw, chairman of the Bingley Town Centre Partnership who runs a motorbike clothing and accessory shop in Main Street, said the consultation should be a coordinated effort between traders and public.
"We want to make Bingley an attractive destination for people. There are some really nice walks around here to make it a hub of tourism where people can come and make purchases before and after their trip."
Aire Valley Target, 19 April 2001
Council transport chiefs are to launch an investigation into traffic gridlock at one of the Aire Valley's busiest junctions.
Councilors say action is urgently needed to ease congestion at and on the approaches to Shipley's Fox Corner and to promote economic growth in the area.
They fear the traffic problems will worsen when the Bingley relief road is completed.
Moves to ease congestion at Fox Corner, could include a study on the feasibility of a bypass. A motion by Councillor Phil Thornton (Lab, Shipley East) calling for an urgent investigation into snarl-ups at the A6038 Otley Road junction with the A657 Commercial Street/ Briggate was passed by members of Bradford Council.
Coun Thornton said the junction was one of the worst in the district, operating at 20 per cent above its capacity
It has seen 38 injury accidents in the past five years and a recent council survey revealed 50,000 vehicles passing through the junction in the space of just 12 hours.
Coun Thornton said: "The sheer volume of this traffic leaves little doubt why the approach roads leading to Fox are often gridlocked, causing tremendous delays and a subsequent negative impact on the environment and viability of Shipley town centre.
"Signals on the approach roads are deliberately set to hold the traffic back to ensure Fox Corner runs freely hence the delays on the approaches."
Counciilor Thornton said the only option to reduce the traffic congestion would be to introduce diversions to relax the pressure on Fox Corner. He added:
"If we are really serious about the development of a hi-tech corridor for the Aire Valley we should be committed to ensuring the infrastructrue is in place to deliver it.
"To leave this junction to deteriorate further will have a devastating effect on the whole area."
He said while he acknowledged people should be encouraged to use their car less it would be "an almost impossible task to completely remove their attractiveness from most of our lives".
Councillor John Carroll (Con. Shipley West), chairman of the Shipley Town Centre Development Partnership, said: "It is a major traffic hub where something is urgently needed and once we get the results of a study we can look at what to do."
Some form of bypass to Fox Corner could ease congestion, he said. And he believed "pinch points" - such as the Carnegie Library junction in Windhill and points on Otley Road at Baildon were the "major culprit" in causing traffic congestion and needed looking at.
He added: "There are 11 carriageways going into and coming out of Fox Corner but only three of them have any facilities for people crossing, so any improvements at that junction must include better pedestrian facilities."
Editorial, Aire Valley Target, 19 April 2001
Traffic at Fox Corner in Shipley has been renowned for its congestion for a while now. Finally an investigation is about to take place into how to stop the gridlock at what is being labelled one of the worst junctions in the district. As Councillor Phil Thornton, who has put forward a motion calling for urgent action, quite rightly points out - it is not just a matter of inconvenience to motorists, but also has far-reaching implications for the environment, safety of pedestrians and the economic development of the~ area. Let s hope the investigation will lead to a reduction in injury accidents of which there have been 38 over the last five years. The sooner the investigation the better.
Letters, Aire Valley Target, 19 April 2001
Sir - When will the media, stop referring to the proposed Bingley Relief Road as a by-pass, as in your report on April 5?
This road will carve right through the heart of Bingley and split the town in two.
Your report also states that 'it will take up to 20,000 vehicles out of the town each day'. Out of the town? To where?
Far from taking traffic away from the town, it will merely move it a hundred or so yards to the north.
Perhaps you would like to add to this figure the 30 per cent increase which the DETR themselves predict for traffic in the area once the road is built, and ask our Labour MP and Conservative council leader how much they think the quality of life of the residents of Saltaire and Shipley will be improved by this road?
Martin Love, Prospective Green Party Candidate, Shipley
by Kathryn Kittley, Aire Valley Target, 17 May 2001
Champagne corks will be popping in Bingley when one of its hardest-working action groups marks a ten-year-milestone.
The Better Bingley Campaign, which was backed by the Aire Valley Target at its launch in May 1991, is celebrating its tenth anniversary with an event sponsored by the paper to honour its past and present members.
The organisation was primarily formed as an umbrella group to fight for the construction of the Bingley Relief Road from Crossflatts to Cottingley Bar - and it has played an instrumental role in securing the scheme.
But in its first decade, it has also played a major part in improving life for traders and residents including campaigns to keep the town’s post office and police station open and working with Bingley Civic Trust to create a much-used riverside walk. Chairman Pat Rand said past and present members of the group would be meeting for a party in the Ferrands Arms in Bingley on May 23. "We hope it will be a very happy and informal occasion to celebrate ten years of success.
"The Target was very important especially in the first couple of years when it ran a story every week.
"We couldn’t have got to where we are today without its support and I am very pleased the Target is still interested in our work."
The inaugral meeting of the Better Bingley Campaign was held at Beckfoot School on May 16 with David Wilcock as chairman.
Representatives included Bingley Historical Society Bingley Chamber of Commerce, Bradford Urban Wildlife Group and Mario’s Cafe.
One of the highlights of the group’s work was when members collected more than 12,500 signatures - totalling half the adult population of Bingley and surrounding villages - in a petition for the relief road in 1997.
The, then, chairman Philip Smith,:who has been invited to the ce1ebration, said the group had been important in the regeneration of the town, cleaning up the area and making its voice heard to Bradford Council. He said: "Organisations are there to make a noise and if they do not make a noise about things people will just ignore it."
Now work on the £47.9 million relief road project is imminent, the group has pledged to continue to monitor the situation to ensure all the work is carried out in the best interests of the people of the town.
David Dinsey, town centre manager, congratulated the group on its success saying:
"Without doubt the BBC have contributed to the town in so many ways over the years and
I hope that they are able to continue their good work. It must also be remembered that they were instrumental in bringing together the key stakeholder organisations who have an interest in the future development and improvement of Bingley Town Centre and whose representatives are members of the Bingley Town Centre Partnership."
Reporter Olwen Vasey, right, was involved with the campaign from its outset, and even came up with the name for the group. Here she gives thoughts on its first ten years in existance:
It all began with a little group of people meeting in the lounge at the Brown Cow pub. They were thinking of setting up an organisation which could help Bingley - and, above all, get things moving on the Long awaited relief road. There were founder members including Pat and Mark Rand and Don and Hllary Westwood, public spirited residents, already strongly involved in their community. I was one who came up with the name for the Better Bingley Campaign. Ten years on, I’m proud to have christened it- and prouder still that it has lived up to its name. Best of all, the main target is being realised . with a start date on the long-awaited road imminent. Unlike many other groups, the Better Bingley Campaign didn’t huddle into closed meetings. It was decided from the outset that it should be open and above board.
T&A 26 May 2001
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott experienced first hand the congestion in Bingley town centre as he arrived in the town aboard his battle bus.
Flanked by protection officers, he was 15 minutes late arriving from Shipley to visit part of the site of the long-awaited relief road behind the town's railway station.
A group of around 20 supporters greeted the grinning Mr Prescott as the tune of the Lighthouse Family's song Lifted - Labour's election tune - blared out from the Prescott Express.
The crowd counted down from five as Mr Prescott gave an official seal of approval to the £47.9 scheme by turning a traffic sign to go.
After shaking hands with wellwishers, he was surprised to be presented with a card for his 63rd birthday next week by former Bradford Lord Mayor Doris Birdsall CBE.
Mr Prescott told the crowd Labour candidate Chris Leslie was a man of action who had pestered him relentlessly to get a bypass for the traffic-choked town centre.
"You don't have to tell me you need a relief road, I have just come in that bus through Shipley and I know what you mean.
"As soon as we came in we reviewed the road programme, and I am delighted to see contracts have been signed. It will relieve the terrible situation you have got and it is also good for the environment as pollution will be a lot less as the traffic moves more freely."
Eileen Sinclair was one of the members of the Better Bingley Campaign who gathered thousands of signatures on a petition to present to Mr Prescott in 1997 and yesterday came from her Crossflatts home to thank him for getting the road through at last.
She said the road should have been underway in 1996. "The canal was moved and the bridge done but nothing else happened and a lot of people round the area suffered. There will be a bit of upheaval but I am looking forward to listening to my radio with the window open at last which I cannot do now because of the noise of the traffic."
Then the bus headed along the A650 as children were spilling out of school and walking home along the busy road, and he arrived in Keighley to a warm reception.
Mr Prescott addressed a crowd of shoppers and supporters outside the Airedale Centre, pounding out his party policies with the aid of a public address system. He signed autographs for people including first time voters Victoria Bugeja, 18, and Claire Bottomley, 20, both Keighley College Students who said they had enjoyed his visit.
Mr Prescott swapped his battle bus to get behind the wheel of public transport as he viewed the digital CCTV system on board Keighley and District Travel buses, describing them as "very worthwhile" in the fight against crime.
Ann Cryer, Labour candidate for Keighley, said she was pleased with the visit. She said: "I was a bit apprehensive and terrified that the Countryside Alliance would be here to protest but we have had nothing like that, Keighley has lived up to its reputation as being a very good town."