Doubts raised on link road benefit
Community council’s Bridgend traffic worry
A Perth group has again questioned whether the provision of the proposed Cross Tay Link Road (CTLR) will significantly reduce the amount of traffic that passes through Perth following a week-long public inquiry.
Perth and Kinross Council has frequently referred to the recommended new link road between the A9 and the A93 and A94 in official documents as “essential” to its strategy to cut queues and air pollution in places like Bridgend and the city centre.
However Bridgend, Gannochy and Kinnoull Community Council (BGKCC) have been sceptical over its supposed effectiveness since it examined traffic modelling carried out in support of two major planning applications which significantly underestimated current queue lengths.
The group were so alarmed by the miscalculations they wrote to all four city centre
The Cross Tay Link Road has proved to be a controversial project councillors last year asking them challenge transport officers over assumptions made that drivers will choose to traverse the new link road once it is in place, rather than continue to use the routes through the city they are used to.
Now in their closing submission to the Scottish Government’s recent inquiry into councillors’ failure to determine the same two planning applications involving the proposed redevelopment of the old Murray Royal Hospital, the group has reiterated its concerns about the local authority’s expectations.
The submission reads: “The community council would be prepared to support [further] development once it has been established that the CTLR has resolved traffic congestion at Bridgend.
“We have detailed our many concerns that the developments spawned by the proposed CTLR system have the potential to maintain or even aggravate the status quo.
“PKC’s assurances that the CTLR will be delivered to the current revised schedule and that it will relieve congestion are built on hope rather than science. PKC has been unable to show the basis or the thought that has gone into their CTLR traffic modelling.
“We need to measure for a suitable period of time the full effect of the actual changes resulting from the new road system before deciding upon the wisdom of permitting further development in our area.
“In conclusion, the community council heard nothing during the inquiry that changed its view that the transport assessment submitted in support of this application is sub-standard.
“The community council heard much that reinforced its views.
“The reporter is respectfully requested to conclude that both planning applications should be refused.”
The PA asked PKC for a response to the group’s comments concerning the CTLR, but had not received one by the time we went to press yesterday.