Minister
Minister
Overview
Leicester City Council are only able to undertake the Putney Road Link due to funding obtained from the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF). We have a number of concerns with the bid that was made, but the bid was successful and the funds awarded to the council by the Department for Transport (DfT).
Chris Grayling MP is the Secretary of State for Transport and announced which bids won funding form the NPIF, so he's the person we're targeting.
Why contact the minister?
You might be wondering why we are suggesting that you contact the Minister for Transport directly about this road scheme. The reason for this is that we are not confident that the City Council consultation alone will have the desired effect on the Council. They have already stated that regardless of the results of the consultation the link road will be created. Therefore the main chance of making a difference to this scheme might lie in an intervention form a higher authority.
What you might want to raise with the Minister
These are some of the things you might wish to say to the minister:
- That you have a lack of confidence in the City Council consultation as they have already said the scheme will go ahead regardless of the results of the consultation
- The Council consultation itself does not satisfy the legal requirements for a public consultation and does not provide sufficient information for the public to make an informed decision
- There was no consultation of any sort before it was decided to bid for this scheme
- There was no public knowledge that the bid was being made – even local councillors were not informed until the funding had been awarded
- This scheme is controversial and has been successfully resisted by the public in the past, and is being resisted again
- The associated Evesham Road link scheme for a further link road referred to in the bid is even more controversial, will meet fierce resistance, and will likely face legal challenges
- The Putney Link Road scheme on its own will not will not do what is claimed – most of the claimed benefits rely on the further link being built
- The decision to proceed with this road scheme subverts the local planning process
- The scheme itself is not consistent with other wider local transport and air quality policies
- We do not object to improved access to the business area in the scheme, but we are strongly opposed to using this access to create a new middle ring road through residential areas of the city which already have considerable traffic flows through them
Emailing the minister
You can send an email to the transport minister, Chris Grayling MP at:
