Road Clippings Nov-Dec '98Road Clippings Nov-Dec '98Sinking feeling over Bingley road plans (Letters - Aire Valley target 31/12/98)
Relief road to start by 2002 (T&A 11/12/98)
Bingley road chaos (Letters to the Editor, T&A 11/12/98)
Anger at councillor (Letters to the Editor, T&A, 18/11/98)
High-handed attitudes (Letters to the Editor, T&A, 18/11/98)
They never listened (Letters to the Editor, T&A, 18/11/98)
Eco-warriors not to blame for camp mess (T&A Letters to the editor 11/11/98)
Glad protesters left (T&A Letters to the editor 11/11/98)
What really happened? (T&A Letters to the editor 11/11/98)
Trees are felled as protesters leave site (T&A 5 Nov 1998)
Why our green tree camp was a flop (T&A 6 Nov 1998)
T&A 5 Nov 1998
Tree protestors have been criticised for leaving a Bingley beauty spot in an appalling state.
Bradford Council had to send in a team to clear up the site on land near Wagon Lane, Bingley, which has now been abandoned by the protestors.
Officers moved on to the abandoned Rye Loaf camp on land near Wagon Lane after branding it a "major health and safety problem". The clean-up operation included the felling of about 16 trees as officers picked out such debris as wire meshing and oil drums, which they claim was left by protesters.
The move comes on the same day Transport Minister Glenda Jackson was visiting the district to talk to a regional conference about problems caused by traffic congestion.
Bradford Council's deputy leader, Councillor Mohammed Ajeeb said: "We are concerned that the site is becoming a magnet for local children and we have already received reports from the police that youngsters are trying to climb into the tree houses and are using ropes to swing across the River Aire.
"We do not take lightly the felling of trees, but, after appropriate consultation, we felt that in this instance the health and safety issues were of paramount importance."
Council officers added that four of the trees were dead elms and within the working space which will have to be cleared by the Bingley Relief Road.
Shipley Labour MP Chris Leslie today said: "I'm very pleased indeed that action has been taken by Bradford Council in conjunction with the Highways Agency to clear this site, which was a major health and safety hazard."
The cost of clearance will be met by the Highways Agency, which is compulsory purchasing the land from the Council for the Bingley Relief Road plan.
T&A 6 Nov 1998
Bingley residents' backing for the relief road scheme finally defeated anti-road protesters, a former tree-house dweller said today.
Gunta, a member of the Rye Loaf Camp at Bingley, was speaking after the abandoned settlement was cleared by Bradford Council.
He said the camp, near the River Aire off Wagon Lane, could never attract the local support it needed to survive because so many local residents approved of the £64 million road scheme.
The Council swooped on the deserted camp after the last surviving protester left the site. Although Rye Loaf Camp had been home to about 20 protesters in the past, numbers dwindled over the summer.
The Council said it had to fell 16 trees at the riverbank site in order to destroy several tree houses, aerial walkways and rope ladders.
The camp had been left in an 'appalling state', they said, and their actions had been taken on health and safety grounds after reports of children playing on the aerial walkways.
Today Gunta, who has now joined the fight against the Birmingham Northern Relief Road, said: "If there was no one left on site, I can see how it may be unsafe for children.
"In the future, there may be opportunities for us to devise a way of getting a camp going again.
"The problem was that public support in Bingley was extremely low. The people of Bingley do actually want this road and I am disappointed with them. They do not realise the environmental impact the road will have on their town."
The Rye Loaf Camp was established in June 1996 and celebrated its second anniversary this summer - weeks before the Government announced it would press ahead with the road scheme, one of just a handful to win endorsement from Labour ministers.
"We did have some support, and I'd like to thank the local people who did help us," said Gunta.
"But on the whole the people of Bingley felt the relief road was coming from heaven and would solve all their problems. It is different here in Birmingham, where no one seems to want the road."
Several protesters, including camp spokesman Oliver Robinson, became disillusioned and left Bingley in the summer.
A second camp set up by four protesters on a railway embankment at Crossflatts last year lasted only weeks before being set alight when the quartet quit.
Six youths were arrested and appeared in court in relation to the incident, but the case was discontinued by the Crown Prosecution Service.
The Bingley relief road will go ahead, Transport Minister Glenda Jackson pledged after a late arrival in West Yorkshire due to train failure.
But despite calling for an early start to work, those backing the £59 million plan are still waiting to hear when construction will begin.
The project was put on hold after being placed in the 'second division' of priority schemes, having won the backing of the previous Government in the early 1990s.
But Ms Jackson said the five-kilometre A650 relief road would be completed by 2005 and promised an announcement on the start date soon.
On a visit to Leeds she met representatives of the region's councils, businessmen and environmentalists.
While in West Yorkshire the former actress - who arrived in the city ten minutes late after a train broke down - addressed the inaugural meeting of the Regional Transport Partnership, a talking shop on traffic problems.
Ms Jackson said: "The money is there for the completion of these schemes. The Bingley Relief Road will be completed over the seven-year period."
Shipley MP Chris Leslie said he expected an announcement on the start date within the next few weeks but warned that putting out the contract to tender was likely to be a lengthy process.
The relief road was finally given the go-ahead by the Government in July, following a 30-year campaign by local people.
Supporters say the lack of a relief road has been slowly choking the town and the bypass between Crossflatts and Cottingley will improve the environment, help regenerate the town centre and contribute to an integrated public transport system.
Opponents, including the Rye Loaf eco-warriors, say it would increase pollution and congestion in the Aire Valley.
T&A Letters to the editor 11/11/98
SIR - It is with great regret that I pick up my pen one last time to write on the subject of the Bingley Anti-Road Protest.
On Halloween, while Ryeloaf Camp's residents were attending a party elsewhere, the site was razed to the ground by fire. Before it could be re-established, Council workers came and felled all the mature trees.
Whatever state they found the place in was due to vandals, not protesters.
The Council have claimed that they were motivated only by concern for health and safety (T&A, Nov 5).
Why then were buildings, left derelict by the Department of Transport, that did indeed pose a danger to local children, allowed to fester for years?
My own tree house, which could not be reached without use of a climbing rope and harness and which posed a danger to no-one, was also felled.
I consider this a malicious act by people too cowardly to admit their true intentions.
Ofiver Robinson, formerly of Ryeloaf Camp, now of Colne.
T&A Letters to the editor 11/11/98
SIR - I am very pleased to see that the Bingley people backing of the relief road have persuaded the road protesters to move on. I am sad that public money has been used to clean up after the camp but it is a small price to pay compared with the millions of pounds of public money it would have cost to move the protesters on.
I am glad that the small minority of middle-class militants at Sandy Lane, who sought road protesters' help, stayed true to form and only thought of "self ".
Heaven forbid if we had another Manchester Airport situation. Then the bill for moving the protesters could have topped £10 million.
We have to do land planning in a world that is not as we would wish it to be. If people took part in the planning process instead of waiting until their comfortable bubble bursts, then more progress would be made - Plus a lot less Council and tax payers' money would be wasted.
Councillors make many hard decisions on the information available and to the best of their ability
Councillor Jack Womersley, Hainsworth Moor Garth, Queensbury.
T&A Letters to the editor 11/11/98
SIR - Trees can survive hurricanes and lightening strikes.
What, then, did those Ryeloaf Camp protesters do to damage 16 trees so badly that they had to be felled?
If I were cynical 1 might think it was more expedient for the Council to destroy the trees than go to the trouble of dismantling the tree houses.
Of course the Council are not partisan concerning the relief road or green protesters, so the propaganda value of blaming New Agers for tree destruction was never an issue either.
It would also be paranoid to think that felling the trees was a precondition set by the Highways Agency prior to "picking up the tab" for the clean-up, wouldn't it?
M C Kilburn, Parkfield Road, Bradford.
Letters to the Editor, (T&A, 18/11/98)
SIR As an elected representative for the Heaton Ward may I express my outrage and disgust that Councillor Jack Womersley (Labour, Queensbury) has dismissed my constituents at Sandy Lane as a "small minority of middle-class militants" who "stayed true to form and only thought of self." (T&A, November 11).
Has Coun Womersley not heard the saying that "God helps those who help themselves?" Haven't the people of Sandy Lane the right to fight for their village? If they hadn't, who else would have fought for them? Certainly not Bradford Council!
Just remember - Bradford belongs to Bradfordians, not the other way round.
Councillor Stanley King, Heaton Road, Heaton.
Letters to the Editor, (T&A, 18/11/98)
SIR - If Councillor Womersley and his colleagues on the Planning Committee had given us the courtesy of actually listening to our representative when he was speaking on our behalf in January instead of chatting among themselves, then maybe the "Middle Class" of Sandy Lane would not have felt the need to be militant!
I would also point out, as a member and supporter of the Labour Party, that one of the reasons Councillor King was elected in May could be the high-handed attitude of certain Labour councillors.
Carol Simpson, Cottingley Road, Sandy Lane, Bradford 15
Letters to the Editor, (T&A, 18/11/98)
SIR - I see Councillor Womersley still has a way with words (Letters, November 11) "Glad the Protesters have Gone".
Those protesters believe in a lot of good things, one being the green and pleasant land of our country. Somebody has to stand up and shout about what the Government and the local councillors are doing to our green land. We the minority of Sandy Lane residents young and old (and it's not a small minority as Councillor Womersley suggests) tried very, very hard to get the Council to listen to reason about the land off Acacia Drive, but no, they would not listen.
Mrs Jean Jones, Acacia Drive, Sandy Lane, Bradford 15.
By Heather Bishop, T&A 11/12/98
Work on the long-awaited Bingley Relief Road will start within four years, it was announced today. The Department of Transport has proposed that the £64 million scheme will go ahead in the year 2001 to 2002.
Jubilant supporters welcomed the news and said it was a mile-stone in the 30-year fight by local people to ease the town's choking traffic.
Shipley and Bingley MP Chris Leslie said this was the first time they had ever got a firm start date from the Government.
"I'm really pleased that we've finally managed to get this far," he said. "We were told that work could have started as late as 2005 so 2001 is a real improvement.
"This is the first time in the 30year battle that we've ever had anything concrete from the Government. I'm as keen as anyone to get the road up and running and get ,the work started as soon as possible.
"I would get out there with my spade and shovel tomorrow if I could. The scheme is high up in the region for priority but it could take some time to plan and contract out the work. I'd like to see the construction period kept as short as possible."
The relief road was finally given the go-ahead by the Government in July after it was one of a handful of schemes in the country saved from being axed.
Transport Minister Glenda Jackson pledged that the five, kilometre A650 relief road would be completed by 2005 when she visited the region last month.
Bingley Councillor Margaret Eaten said: "It's an improvement on the year 2005 but it has still been delayed a considerable amount of time.
"All we can hope for is that the work will finally start and I will be watching with eager anticipation. The sooner they get if off the ground, the better."
Lord Whitty revealed the plans -for the relief road as a result of a parliamentary question. He gave the start dates for 24 schemes as well as the details of 13 remaining schemes.
Supporters say that traffic is choking the town and the bypass between Crossflatts and Cottingley and that the relief road will improve the environment, help regenerate the town centre and lead to a better public transport system.
Critics claim it will increase congestion and pollution in the Aire Valley
Letters to the Editor, T&A 11/12/98
SIR - 1 trust that Mr Plumbe is aware of the continuing chaos on the present route, (and only route) through Bingley As one who obviously uses only public transport, this work must be affecting him as well. Without the relief road, public transport will continue to be affected for some time. The train may be quicker but until, or should I say "unless", more carriages are provided at busy times, this method of travel leaves much to be desired. It has been clearly stated that the A650 is one of the most snarled-up stretches of the district even without roadworks. Is that not an admission how much a relief road is needed? It was a bad choice of route, but it is the only route on offer, thanks to the activities of the previous generations of protesters. The flora and fauna may be important, but so are homo sapiens who cannot relocate as easily as the former. M Cook, Hall Bank Drive, Bingley.
Letters - Aire Valley target 31/12/98
SIR - I note that our MP has stated that he feels like getting his spade and shovel and starting to dig the next section of the trunk road which is apparently designed to ensure that traffic speeds through Bingley before reaching the new bottleneck which would be next to the Bankfield Hotel.
May I suggest that he starts at the North Bog.
That way, he may discover the railway engine which was engulfed during the tenth unsuccessful attempt to take the line over this morass and ponder on the unstable nature of this part of the valley.
On second thoughts, perhaps he should forget the idea; a by-election to replace an MP, who ventured into a deep bog would be an embarrassment to the Deputy Prime Minister, who has given the go-ahead for this ill-conceived route.
I myself have walked down the field at the foot of the Five Rise Locks towards the North Bog until my foot started definitely sinking; I then abandoned the attempt to venture further in case I lost my shoes, my balance, my nerve or anything else.
But the idea of trying to run a road across this sort of terrain fills me with apprehension. I can only think - oh, no!
Keith Thompson, Priestthorpe Road, Bingley.