Comment

Representation ID: 22519

Received: 16/03/2020

Respondent: Broadland Green Party

There is very little substance regarding the improvement and expansion of public transport to reduce car use and offer a convenient alternative. We would expect, however, that further funding of the kind that central government has recently announced for the expansion of bus transport will be made available to transform the existing road system to efficiently use any additional bus fleet. Such a pledge needs to be included in the future plan.
The NDR was designed, as the name states, as a “distributor road” and to service the North East Growth Triangle. The quickest route from the NE Growth Triangle to the A47 Westbound is via the Postwick junction and so a “Western link road” is not necessary to accommodate traffic from the North East. The NDR was designed to work without the Western Link. Way back in 2006 a Western Link was not included in the design for environmental reasons. Nothing has changed to alter this view. Before construction of the NDR was started Mott MacDonald were asked to look at upgrading a route from the A47 to the A1067 Fakenham Road “to B-road standard”. In practice we believe this meant wide enough for two trucks to pass each other easily. The route is now classified as the B1535. There has been a problem of “rat running” through areas such as Western Longville, Ringland, Drayton, Costessey and Taverham which has been made worse by the NDR which channels traffic through these areas. The answer to “rat running” is not more roads, and especially not the proposed Wensum link road which will irrevocably damage the environment and biodiversity. The solution is hugely improved public transport and a culture change in traditional forms of commuting and working. The plan should address how this culture change and the improved public transport is to be achieved. Currently, it does not.
There was supposed to be bus priority work in Norwich, reallocating road space freed up by the NDR. This has not happened. If it is not done soon that road space is likely to be taken up by new traffic expanding to fit the space available. Most of the so called “bus priority work”, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), on Dereham Road, for example, employed measures that helped all traffic, which does not help modal shift.