RESIDENTS fighting against a proposed £4.3m gyratory system which would cut through a popular park have completed their latest ‘hands off’ warning with the help of local children.
Campaigners invited children to join them in a protest at Penny Pie Park’s wildlife area, which could be carved up if Barnsley Council’s plan to create the one-way system off the A628 Dodworth Road is passed.
Almost 3,000 people have signed a petition against the plan, which could be decided by the council’s planning board before the end of the year.
Lyndsey Darren, of Pogmoor Road, who started the petition, urged the council to re-think its proposals given the widespread opposition.
“The size of the petition and the public meeting in the park shows the strength of feeling there’s been about what the council is wanting to do,” the 44-year-old told the Chronicle.
“We had no consultation on this before the cabinet announced the plan and I do believe they will go ahead and do what they want regardless of what we say. A consultation should have happened before they decided on this option. If anything, the proposed gyratory a plan which has been created by supposedly intelligent highways officers will add to the traffic issue and does nothing but reduce pedestrians’ safety.”
The planning board’s targeted decision date of October 26 has now passed and campaigners are waiting to hear whether the application’s fate will be decided at its next meeting at Barnsley Town Hall on November 20.
The council wants to divert town centre-bound traffic from the motorway around the new system from a left turn at Broadway’s traffic lights, with vehicles coming out of town using the existing but improved Dodworth Road, which would be made one-way into a four-lane section past Horizon Community College.
The new road would bypass a section of Pogmoor Road cutting through the park and prohibit vehicles from the motorway turning right onto Broadway, with motorists having to go around the
gyratory and back up Dodworth Road.
The finalised plan was the ‘best solution’ of about 35 options, according to highways bosses, after research showed it took an average of 26 minutes for peak time commuters to get from the M1 to the town centre almost treble the ten minutes it took in 2000.
Parts of the park have been cordoned off this week while consultants carry out assessments on what is underneath the greenspace.
Specialist equipment was used, according to the council, to install monitoring pipes and engineers made a number of pits and bore holes into the ground, which had formerly been used for a number of purposes including mining, brickworks, domestic waste landfill and in later years a recreation area.
Campaigner Peter Giles added: “We’re expecting the planning application’s outcome to be decided before the end of the year so I’d urge everyone affected, whether they’re residents, park users or commuters, to voice whatever concerns they may have as it will all help towards our goal.”
