Councils have no strategic plan for the future of the area
Opposition to the National Rail Freight Interchange, ‘Leicester Mercury, 11th February, is a textbook case of why Britain, UK Ltd., has not grown since 2010. ‘All’ are in favour of ’growth,’ but not in their area, ‘Not In My Back Yard-ism’ indeed.
Blaby and Hinckley and Bosworth District Councils must take a more positive and strategic approach to the NRFI development. First, as a National Strategic Transport objective it is going to happen anyway, so why not try to get the best deal out of the developer? - rather than waste time, and council tax payers money, on opposing it.
Second, this development has been coming for a long time and district councils have been equally aware of it. Prior projects include the new, higher, railway bridge in Whetstone allowing bigger trains to travel under it. The recent railway overhead loop in Nuneaton allows long, slower, freight trains to cross the West Coast Main Line without delaying that traffic. The National Freight Interchange is an essential part of the Felixstowe (container port) to Birmingham freight line.
The councils should be taking a strategic, long term, view of employment in the Hinckley area. Already Hinckley and its surroundings has lost substantial jobs in hosiery and knitwear. Coventry car jobs have decreased and will decrease more as production switches to electric cars. The National Freight Exchange will bring substantial employment with up to 8,000 jobs and should reduce Hinckley unemployment to the very low levels in Lutterworth and Rugby, from the Magna distribution centre area.
The scheme should be improved; the developer offers various schemes but these are a minimum the proposed road improvements should have been provided already. Why not push for the A47 and the site access road to be dual carriageways. Why not push for a ‘site specific’ M69 access? The adjacent public open spaces need substantial investment to raise their standard, why not ask for that?
By blindly opposing the National Rail Freight Interchange, both Blaby and Hinckley and Bosworth Councils show they have no strategic view of future local employment, have no idea of getting the best environmental improvements out of the development and are not serving their resident’s interests. They should be replaced.
Malcolm Fox, Leicester Forest East