It should not be necessary for ARRC to exist. Ambleside, in the heart of the Lake District, qualifies for a relief road by any normally applied criteria. Its traffic flow is huge (19,000 vehicles per day peak times), its streets are narrow and it is a popular tourist destination, its pavements crowded. It sits on the A591, the only north/south route through the Lake District. All traffic on this route must pass through the town centre. Delays to through traffic occuralmost daily and can be long on busy weekends (1 hour). The efficiency of emergency services is in jeopardy, public transport schedules are frequently chaotic and pollution levels caused by crawling or standing traffic are high.
The reasons are fairly simple. Cumbria is a hybrid county formed in 1973 by the amalgamation of Westmorland & Cumberland. The majority of its population live in the conurbations of Barrow, Whitehaven, Workington & Carlisle, mostly areas of high unemployment and all except Barrow in the former Labour controlled Cumberland. These areas elect mainly Labour councillors who form a majority.
By contrast the central Lake District, (which includes Ambleside), in the safe Conservative heartland of former Westmorland, has a smaller population, thus fewer seats, and habitually elects a Conservative or Independent councillor. Although for at least the past 20 years Ambleside`s councillors have been strongly pro-relief road, they have not enjoyed the support of the Labour majority.
So the politics begin to show.
Add to this the somewhat jaundiced view of the Labour majority that Lakeland enjoys a high income from tourism and is therefore in little need of scarce public resources, or sympathy, and the reasons for the lack of a relief road become clearer.
If we then consider the increasing national pre-occupation with "environmental" concerns, the rise of anti-car/anti-road protest groups and the fact that Ambleside is in England`s most beautiful National Park, then the County Council`s continual ducking of the issue is understandable. It is in our view nevertheless evading its responsibilities.
Of course the County would not have to pay for a relief road. This would be at national expense. However, the County would have to fund the Public Inquiry which would inevitably be forced upon it by the combined forces of those concerned to "protect" the Lake District from "development",even at the expense of the health, safety and economic well-being of the people of one of its larger communities. The possible high cost of such an inquiry is the latest reason given for shelving the scheme. The claim is also made that Ambleside itself is divided on the issue, although ARRC has proved beyond doubt that the great majority of its people want the relief road.
That this issue represents a classic dilemma is without doubt. Unfortunately, we do not have a County Council willing to grasp the nettle.
Many consider Ambleside a noisy, vulgar place. It is
inevitable that in so great a coaching centre there should be a bustle of
vehicles all day. The fact is that the traffic which in most towns takes place
in the railway station is in Ambleside transacted in the main street.
The
English Lakes, F.G.Brabant, 1902
The Board accepts in principle the need for a relief road
for Ambleside.
Lake District Planning Board report, 1973
. . . before deciding whether an Ambleside relief road is
needed, a comprehensive traffic management scheme should be devised and
implemented for a trial period.
Department of the Environment report,
January 1975
The above scheme was implemented, and the trial period has lasted over 20 years! And it hasn`t worked.
In the long term, if an Ambleside relief road were
constructed, or at least the section bypassing Waterhead, the traffic problems
of Waterhead would disappear
Windermere - A Management Plan for the
Lake, 198I
Most of all, however, the by-pass is about people, and it is
an added advantage that it has been achieved with a minimum of damage to the
landscape.
Report and Newsletter, Friends of the Lake District, Spring
1989 (referring to the Staveley bypass)
Traffic congestion problems within Ambleside are acute,
deriving in part from the conflicts between traffic carrying visitors to the
town and through traffic movements.
National Park Officer, March 1992
There is no doubt in my mind - I experienced it directly, and
the planning authority provides figures in support that traffic conditions in
Ambleside are severe. In the season the congestion from a mixture of pedestrians
in narrow streets is great, and capable of leading to inconvenience, even
danger.
DoE planning inspector's report, January I993
Traffic volumes continue to grow and the environment of the
village will continue to deteriorate under increasing volumes of traffic.
Chief
Executive, Cumbria County Council, July 1993
As far as the National Park Authority is concerned, we were in
favour of it 20 years ago when an application for a bypass was called in. Of
course, that does not prejudge what stance we might take at the moment but it
would be wrong to assume that we would be in opposition.
National Park
Officer in a letter to the Rt. Hon Michael Jopling MP, July 1993
To download this file as an MSWord document click here (includes detailed map) (total 262Kb)
To download this file as a text file click here (12Kb)
Top of this page | ARRC Reasoned Case | Ambleside Online Front Page | Ambleside Clubs and Groups