TRAFFIC will regularly be backing up onto the M1 as people queue to get into Barnsley by 2023 unless drastic action is taken, the leader of Barnsley Council told those campaigning against plans to turn a popular park into a giant roundabout.
More than 1,400 people have signed the petition against the £4.3m plan for a gyratory system to relieve traffic on Dodworth Road and Pogmoor Road which will see a huge swathe of Penny Pie Park lost.
Coun Sir Steve Houghton and several council officials met with five of the campaigners on Monday.
Tom Storey, of Dodworth Road, who was among them said it was obvious to him that the scheme would be going ahead regardless of all the opposition.
“We really dug into them about lots of issues, including the poor public consultation,” said Tom, a retired council officer.
“I said that having been involved in previous Barnsley Council consultations, including on the biggest project Barnsley has ever seen (Building Schools for the Future), I think this has been an absolute shambles.
“We went to one meeting with two councillors who came with a piece of paper with an aerial photograph on it, and some lines drawn on it in black pen.”
The residents were told that by 2023 there will be standing traffic on the M1 due to the anticipated numbers of people trying to drive into Barnsley.
“He said they were under increasing pressure from the Highways Agency.
“The answer was basically that if it’s a question of standing traffic on the M1 and standing traffic on Dodworth Road it’s going to have to be Dodworth Road,” said Tom.
Peter Giles, of Lancaster Street, said campaigners would not ease up their pressure and were exploring all possible options to stop the plan.
“It was a very amicable meeting, Steve Houghton is clearly very diplomatic and an astute politician who gave us a listening ear. But it was clear to me that as far as he’s concerned, it’s going ahead anyway.
“We have challenged the plan on a number of counts, as a number of the surveys and documents are inaccurate and misleading, and they have promised to go away and look at that before we have another meeting.
“They’ve assured us that the planning process is all being carried out properly, it’s all above board, but it is difficult to see how the planning board can be bold enough to stand up to the weight of Barnsley Council and its cabinet when it comes to turning down its own plan.”
Donna Billingham, of Longside Way, Pogmoor was among those protesting outside the town hall on Monday.
She said: “My kids use that park all the time, and my son goes to Horizon so he will have to cross all of this to get to school.
“Traffic is only an issue at peak time, and it really isn’t that bad. I live with it and I am more than happy to wait the few minutes it takes, especially when this doesn't solve the problem. So they're going to spend £4.3m so we can queue in a circle rather than queue in a straight line. It’s such a waste of public money.”
Unpopular gyratory plans are ‘least worst option’
TRAFFIC lights may be needed on Town End roundabout in the coming years according to the leader of Barnsley Council who admits plans for a £4.3m gyratory will not completely solve the problem of traffic congestion between the M1 and the town centre.
Coun Sir Steve Houghton met with residents campaigning against the plan to turn Penny Pie park at Pogmoor into a gyratory system to deal with traffic at the Dodworth Road, Broadway and Pogmoor Road crossroads.
Campaigners say the plan is flawed because the gyratory plan does nothing to ease traffic at Town End roundabout, and any increase in traffic flow at the Broadway crossroads would only lead to more queues at Town End.
Sir Steve said installing traffic lights at the roundabout was one option which may have to be considered in the coming years.
“Whatever we do, whether we do this gyratory scheme or not, traffic is going to be coming down Dodworth Road to Town End, whether it goes round a gyratory, or whether it goes through the crossroads we’ve got now.
“What we know is traffic flow is increasing and we’ve got to do something. Town End roundabout is something we’re going to have to look at going forward.”
During the meeting on Monday Sir Steve told the residents there had been more than 30 different options explored before coming up with the current plans which he described as the ‘least worst option’.
“It was a very amicable meeting. The residents very articulately made their points they wanted to make.
“They asked a lot of questions, some of those were answered, some of those we’re going away to look at in more detail before we have another meeting.
“We’re trying to allay some of their fears about this scheme.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to dissuade them from opposing the plan, but we do feel we can answer a lot of their questions.
“In the end the point I keep having to come back to is there is no ‘do nothing’ option.
“By 2023 we’re going to have traffic backing up onto the M1 as people try and get into Barnsley. All of the modelling is telling us that with the growth of traffic and the development that is happening.
“Clearly we’ve got to do something, and this is in some ways the least worst option. The choices we face are to take away people’s homes and gardens, or to take away some of this green space.”
He said there had been six main alternatives considered, with six ‘sub options’ to each of those, meaning more than 30 different schemes in total.
“What we have in this option is something which is going to deal with it for 25 years,” he said.
“There were other options that might have bought us time, maybe deal with it for four or five years. But traffic is going to keep growing and this is the option which deals with it in the longer term.”
