BATTLE CRY OVER LINK ROAD FIGHT
Planning meeting rallying call
Controversial plans for a link road through Stirling are to go before councillors on Tuesday morning.
And community councils are urging fellow objectors to turn up at the Stirling Council planning panel meeting in a show of strength against the plans. A total of 166 individual objections have been submitted to the proposal, which would also see 31 trees removed, 28 of which are within a Conservation Area.
The new route would run through Viewforth between the St Ninians Road junction with Snowdon Place and the Linden Avenue roundabout near Waitrose and create an inner city ring road which council officials claim will help reduce unnecessary traffic in the city centre.
However objectors, many of them in Kings Park, say the route will cause thousands more cars to go through their Conservation Area every day and increase pollution.
Their stance has been backed by Stirling MP Stephen Kerr.
Wider concerns have also been raised over issues such as impact on wildlife and the green corridor, road safety, and the potential for new “rat run” routes to emerge.
Braehead and Broomridge Community Council and Kings Park Community Council issued a joint plea this week asking people from their areas to show up at the meeting to demonstrate their opposition to the road and ensure councillors gave their concerns a fair hearing.
They added: “To date council officials have shown no inclination to listen, or to seriously ask (or adequately answer) questions about the wisdom of pressing ahead with this dated plan. Why do we need this road? Why are we facilitating an increase in traffic into the centre of Stirling when we could focus investment on sustainable transport, education, social care etc? Why fell significant numbers of trees, damage wildlife habitats, and cause irreparable damage to the green spaces around one of the city’s main conservation areas?
“Projections show that traffic volumes will increase by 2020 on all the major roads under these plans, both the VLR itself, but also the very roads it is meant to be relieving?”
The Scottish Greens also called on the panel to reject the link road next week.
Stirling Green councillor Alasdair Tollemache said: “We
as Stirling Council should not be building new roads to encourage vehicles into the city. All of our limited resources should be used to encourage people to leave their vehicles outside the city, helping to reduce vehicle pollution and investing what resources we have into successful park and ride schemes.
“There are many other ways we could create walking and cycling infrastructure and this proposed road is not appropriate for this because of the gradient. The site could be used for recreational purposes to enhance the green space close to our city centre. I have not spoken to any member of the public who supports this expensive road scheme.”
Green MSP Mark Ruskell said: “The site which the proposed road cuts through could be used for much needed housing, with an enormous opportunity to provide some impressive landscaped greenspace alongside.
“Instead the council seem obsessed with pursuing this enormously expensive road, despite the concerns of local communities and the need to reduce traffic into the city centre.”
The proposed distributor road would cut through the site of the now demolished New Viewforth building which lay vacant for a number of years.