Name revealed for new Gedling Access Road
THE long-awaited Gedling Access Road could be called something entirely different when it opens next year.
The Gedling Access Road, or GAR, is set to open to the public in or around March following a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It is expected to take a great deal of pressure off the Gedling village while opening up opportunities for the building of hundreds of new homes as well as boosting the economic growth of the area.
On top of the delay the project was also hit with soaring costs, estimated to be in the region of an additional £8.6m, with some councillors fearing this will be pulled from the taxpayer pot.
Some councillors feared the cost was “getting out of control”.
Now, according to a Gedling Borough Council document, a plan to rename the GAR has been submitted.
If it is approved, the 3.8km route, from the B684 Mapperley
Plains to the A612 Trent Valley Road and Nottingham Road, will be called “Colliery Way”.
The inspiration for the name is quite obviously drawn from the Gedling Colliery, which served as the life-blood for the area, employing thousands of workers in the 1950s.
Coal was mined there for the last time in 1991.
Today, remnants of the area’s mining heritage remain in the form of “pepper pots” – or ventilation shafts – which sit above the old Mapperley railway tunnel.
The tunnel runs directly beneath the huge new embankment which holds up the GAR.
Other names were considered, including Pepper Pot Way, All Hallows Way, Mercury Way, Gedling Park Way, The Pit Road, Gedling Pit Road, Gedling Pit Way, Gedling Way, Mapperley Wharf Way, Old Pit Way, Top Hard Way, Main Bright Way, High Hazels Way, Wharf Way (or Wharfs Way), Chase Farm Way, Gedling Colliers Way, Harvey’s Way, Ghellenge Way, Gedling Village Bypass and Five Rings Way.
The final decision is yet to be made.