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ELMBRIDGE COURT: LISTEN TO ELECTORATE |
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1st June 2007
I
Wish to take issue with comments in The Citizen of May 10 about the
Elmbridge Court "integrated transport" plan.It was claimed by one
councillor that all political parties in
Gloucestershire
supported the scheme. Wrong, the Green Party has always questioned the
need for this new railway station in the middle of a green field site.
What
is required is for local councillors to promote the wishes of the
people they claim to represent and get the rail service restored to
it's previous standard.
They could at least put pressure on the Strategic Rail Authority which
"advised" Virgin trains to remove Gloucester from its timetable.
Claims
that the scheme would alleviate road traffic congestion seems to be
based on spending most of the plans costs on capacity enlargement on
Elmbridge court roundabout.
Most traffic experts now agree that this is a discredited concept.
Your
editorial claims the park and ride facility is needed to facilitate
movement in and out of the city, but as traffic surveys would suggest
that a higher percentage of road traffic is coming from west of the
city that would put the park and ride in the wrong place.
The
assertion that the absence of a new station will somehow adversely
affect the regeneration of the southern Docks area I find confusing.
It
is most unlikely that a factory outlet or any other type of retail
development would encourage people to use trains, I think it would have
the reverse effect.
What does everyone else think?
By the
way the council didn't fail to explain the plan, the council taxpayers
could see it wasn't a very good idea and so could the ministers.
Jenny Hume, Gloucester Green Party
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