Stockport Express

Warnings were ignored over the cost of relief road

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REGARDING the Stockport Express, October 10 edition ‘Cost of relief road to soar?,’ the challenges the council spokesman referred to were warned about by me, and by others, years before.

I have kept the evidence that these issues were brought to their attention, but councillor­s and senior council officers chose to ignore those warnings.

If you build a road in an area where you can’t throw a stone without hitting a great crested newt (I don’t advocate this), then there will be massive costs and time delays regarding those protected creatures.

All warnings were ignored.

If you load up a flood plain with hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete, then those flood plains can’t soak up water and you get flooding. All warnings ignored. The £250k Environmen­tal Impact Assessment exposed how much surplus soil would need to be disposed of.

Did anyone except councillor Philip Harding and myself read it? Apparently not. They moan about the torrential rain, presumably caused by climate change and previous idiots building new roads which led to increased car usage.

The irony is lost on them though.

It is not a Highways Agency road – it is a council one, so all overspendi­ng regarding the constructi­on will hit the council taxpayers of Greater Manchester.

Who will pay for the running repairs once it is open? We will. All my FOI questions on the subject of the A6 MARR were illegally ignored for the previous year until I received invaluable help from the Stockport Express in overturnin­g this.

Some councillor­s, most vociferous amongst them Lisa Smart and Julian Lewis-Booth, want to extend the bypass to the M60.

The problems experience­d by the A6 MARR will be multiplied a hundredfol­d.

Putting hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete into floodplain­s in fields above Stockport could lead to flooding in Merseyway; Underbank floods regularly already.

Why build a new road exactly along the Red Rock fault?

Who will pay for repairs to any new road as a result of the ground shifting?

The houses in Bredbury are subject to subsidence from the coal mines below.

The bypass would be putting a tunnel in a narrow gap between hundreds of houses.

Who would pay the cost of subsidence claims from those residents?

I challenge Cllrs Smart and Lewis-Booth to walk the route with us so we can point out the problems to them.

Will they take up this offer?

Are they listening councillor­s? I shall let you know. Attached is a photo from a previous Google Earth (not the current one as it has been repaired since) of a path where the road is going.

It actually looks like a broken bone.

You can see how the Earth has shifted.

At this exact point (according to the Environmen­tal Impact Assessment) the Earth’s crust is at its narrowest along the Red Rock Fault. Sheila Romiley

CAN’T AGREE OVER BREXIT

STEVEN Bullough writes: ‘MPs don’t want Brexit’ (Express October 10), and proceeds to blame MPs, ‘politician­s of all parties,‘ and the ‘opposition’ for Brexit becoming a car crash.

No mention is made of the fact Brexiters have never been able to agree what ‘Brexit’ should be.

Not before June 16, not two and half years later.

Never has anyone articulate­d a model where we don’t lose rights, jobs and sovereignt­y.

Each time the detail of Brexiters’ working is revealed, then – surprise, surprise: it turns out no deal knocked together in months can be better than one negotiated over 46 years. Perhaps, just perhaps, some MP’s did their job and actually thought this through.

Mr Bullough assures us ‘trade will continue’ – only so if agreement emerges soon, and likely on vastly worse terms.

However, if there is no deal, there will be no trade.

Planes will be grounded, ferries won’t sail, Britain will cease to operate as a modern economy and we’ll all be concentrat­ing on fighting over what food remains in the isles. Woe betide any politician who comes to my door greeting this with enthusiasm.

If you think risking this is worth it for ill-defined fantasies, at least own it.

Don’t blame those who told you so while it all goes wrong. Name and address supplied

IGNORE THE FOOLS’ RULES

WHY are people letting so-called snowflakes constantly tell us what we can and can’t do?

A more apt name for these idiots would be turnips.

The latest stupidity is we cant cheer at university or school football matches.

It’s time we told these fools where to go and get on with our lives. Jim Mcguinn Stockport

 ??  ?? ●●The photo from Google Earth showing the ‘fractured’ path - see our lead letter
●●The photo from Google Earth showing the ‘fractured’ path - see our lead letter

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