FAQ 6. New traffic
FAQ 6. New traffic
Will the scheme attract new traffic to the area?
What LCC says:
The scheme is designed to have positive localised benefits for businesses and residents in the area. Due to its scale it is not expected to attract new traffic from further afield
What we say:
We say this scheme is not designed to have positive localised benefits for residents, and it is not clear that the businesses in the Putney Road business area see any benefit in it either. Also this scheme is intended
to attract new traffic by creating a new east-west link route extending the length of Victoria Park Road to the A6 at Mayfield Road Roundabout.
This statement by the council is inaccurate and misleading and the councils own words do not support these claims. The very first description of the scheme in the application for funding states: ‘The project comprises the construction of a short section of new road and redesigned adjacent junctions to provide a new link between the A519 and A426 to improve connectivity, locally and strategically, to and between, the east and west sides of the city including to the motorway network.’
This scheme was designed to be strategic in nature from the very beginning, the bid for funding said so repeatedly, and the announcement of funding by the Department of Transport also referred to it as a strategic scheme. It may improve access for businesses in Freemans Common Industrial Estate but it was never intended nor designed to have positive localised benefits for residents. There is not one single reference in the bid for funding about positive benefits for residents in this area.
These are other parts of the funding bid which highlight the priorities of this project but which are not intended to have ‘positive localised benefits’:
‘The main problems being addressed are;
- poor connectivity between the east and west sides of the city to the south of the city centre
- poor connectivity from the area of the city that lies to the east of the project location, including the Leicester University and the southern part of the city centre, to Junction 21 of the M1 and thence to the motorway network
- congestion on the local highway network during the AM/PM peak periods and on match days (football, rugby, cricket) and festival events’
‘Relieves congestion on critical radials and orbital links within:
* 1.5kms of the city centre, De Montfort University &University of Leicester
* 750m of Leicester Royal Infirmary
* 750m of 2 major football and rugby stadiums (Leicester City FC &Leicester Tigers RFC)’
And if there is any doubt about the non-local intentions of the scheme, these are the claimed benefits the project would provide:
‘a) The businesses located in the business parks located along Putney Road would be provided with improved access to the west of the city of Leicester (which includes the M1 and M69 motorways).
b) Provide an important transport link between the A519 Welford Road and A426 Aylestone Road which would improve accessibility between the east and west of the city leading to reduced vehicular traffic movements on the main inner and outer ring roads.
c) Improve linkages to sporting facilities at Aylestone Road (Leicester Tigers Rugby Football Club), Raw Dyke's Road (Leicester City Football Club) and Grace Road (Leicestershire County Cricket Club);
d) Provide preparatory work if the Evesham Road link (new vehicular bridge over River Soar and canal) proceeds in the future; and
e) Create development opportunities to the east of Putney Road at the University of Leicester, new housing development on the St Mary's allotments and development at the Gasworks site on Aylestone Road (see attached letters of support).’
No reference here to ‘positive localised benefits’
but a great deal which would attract ‘new traffic from further afield’
because that is what the scheme is intended to do.
The Council also claim their strategic modelling shows that the area of influence of the Putney Link Road scheme covers the ‘whole southern part of the city bordered by the ‘Inner’ and ‘Outer’ ring roads, the A6 to the east and A4560 to the west.’
The A6 to the east is London Road, the A4560 to the west is Narborough Road.
There is not a lot in these objectives and benefits which provide anything for local residents except more traffic. The primary intention is the creation of a strategic east-west link using Putney Road to make the connection. Any ‘poor connectivity’ between the east and west of the city is not solved by the Putney Link Road in isolation. It only becomes a link road when it connects to the other major roads, meaning Victoria Park Road and beyond at one end, and currently Aylestone Road and beyond at the other. It is not primarily a local link, but a strategic one which extends across the southern side of the city providing an orbital route between the wider western and eastern city areas. The area of influence described above shows this.
To say it is ‘not expected to attract new traffic from further afield’
is to misrepresent the intention of this scheme completely. It will attract new traffic from further afield because that it what it is designed to do. All the documents about this bid state this clearly. It is intended to be a link road between the eastern and western sides of the city. The link to the A6 Mayfield Road roundabout along Victoria Park Road was clearly drawn in on a slide shown at the first Community Ward meeting when information about this scheme was first made public. The council will not release this slide, denies it existed, and claims it was a different slide shown which doesn’t show this extended link.
