Connecting Bradford Airport:

I write to confirm the formal response of Rawdon Parish Council to the current consultation on options for an airport link road.

In formulating this response the Parish Council has reviewed what information is available and carried out extensive further survey work to assess traffic flows and sources

It is the Parish Council’s view that and Combined Authority are still trying to force a choice between their three options for an airport link road. Other options, if considered, have still not been included in the consultation.

Rawdon Parish Council opposes all three options.

The stated aims of the Link Road are:

• To reduce journey times to the airport by car and bus.

• To improve journey time reliability for the bus service from

• To facilitate increased patronage of the bus service from Leeds City Centre.

Rawdon Parish Council believes that, all three proposals would fail significantly on all three aims.

Leeds City Council’s website also states:

“Apart from improving road access to the airport, which is likely to generate more traffic as it continues to grow, the options aim to reduce existing issues caused by peak-time congestion by helping to filter vehicles either along the new link road or more effectively along a wider and improved A65/A658.”

Rawdon Parish Council does not believe that this will be a significant effect as the route in question does not suffer from significant congestion caused by traffic using the A65 and, as concluded by Scott Wilson, flow volume on the link would be low.

Rawdon Parish Council believes that the proposals offer very poor value for money. The needs of the airport and Leeds as a whole could better be met by addressing the problems of the wider road network, particularly Leeds Ring Road. This is especially pertinent to bus journey times and reliability.

Leeds City Council describes Option C as “Upgrading existing junctions on the A65 and A658 in Rawdon and Yeadon along with localised road widening” Option C is summarised as “a wider and improved A65/A658.” Rawdon Parish Council notes, however, that the route proposed for option C also incorporates the B6152 whilst neglecting the A65/A658 roundabout which is used by airport traffic from a much wider catchment than the A65 (south)

Rawdon Parish Council believes the proposals attempt to fix a problem at a point at which the problem is minimal or non-existent.

1

Rawdon Parish Council believes that even with the current minor proposals on the A6120 between Roundabout and Fink Hill, the dependence on that junction, for the small amount of airport traffic that would use it, negates any potential benefits.

Rawdon Parish Council believes the proposals do nothing for 90%+ of airport traffic.

Rawdon Parish Council believes that introducing an additional junction into the A65 would have potentially catastrophic effects on traffic flow in that location. There is potential for those delays to have a knock on effect back to Horsforth Roundabout.

Rawdon Parish Council is aware that traffic modelling, based on higher passenger numbers than currently exist, was undertaken by Scott Wilson as part of their report, delivered to LCC in 2005, which led to the conclusion that the Link Road was not viable.

Rawdon Parish Council believes that the inclusion of a junction with Layton Road increases the likelihood of rat running along Town Street and Brownberrie Lane.

Rawdon Parish Council acknowledges that junction improvements at Bayton Lane and Old Rd are desirable and would be of benefit to the road network in general and would reduce congestion for local road users.

Rawdon Parish Council believes that Leeds City Council has no coherent strategy for transport infrastructure in the City, it focuses on one high profile project at a time and as a result it fails to properly consider where problems actually exist or all available solutions. This leads to expensive white elephant proposals that would fail to deliver on their stated aims. The Tram and Trolley bus schemes were dismissed as a result. Rawdon Parish Council believes the Airport Link Road would fall into that category.

Parkway Station

Rawdon Parish Council has an adopted policy of support for a rail halt to serve the airport situated on the and referred to as the Parkway Station in the proposals.

However Rawdon Parish Council has serious reservations about the site of the parking and the route of the access road.

Rawdon Parish Council supports in principle the provision of a rail station at Tunnel to service . This support is only offered provided the following criterion are adequately considered.

2

1. The access road and route for connecting busses should not depend on Scotland Lane.

Access should use as little of Scotland Lane or Dean Lane as possible.

Access should be designed to have as little impact on existing residents as possible.

2. Parking should be arranged to have as little impact on Green Belt as possible.

Parking should favour land already ear marked for that purpose.

Ideally parking on Green Belt should be avoided wherever possible.

Parking must be designed and located to have the minimum impact on the visual amenity of existing residents within the Green Belt and other Green Belt users

Land for Parking should not adversely affect agricultural activity in the area.

Land for Parking should only be used if it is available and compulsory purchase should not be used to acquire it, instead alternative sites should be considered.

3. The design for the station and access should not pre-suppose the existence of Option A of the Link Road Proposals

4. Conditions must be placed on any land that is used that requires it to revert to its current state and status in the event it becomes no longer required.

Rawdon Parish Council considers that the current design significantly falls short of these requirements and that considerable work to rectify them must be undertaken before the proposal can be considered acceptable.

Details of the basis for Rawdon Parish Council’s conclusions are provided in the following pages

3

Rawdon Parish Council bases its comments on the following data and reasoning.

The LBIA Connectivity Survey, 2014, identifies the following periods as the times during which airport traffic makes the maximum impact on local roads as:

• traffic to LBA: 0500-0600 and 1700-1800; • traffic from LBA: 0900-1000 and 1900-2000.

Of these periods, only 1700-1800 coincides with rush hour congestion and hence it was identified as the key period of study by Rawdon Parish Council and the figures quoted relate to this time of day.

Rawdon Parish Council’s traffic survey demonstrates that:

The percentage of traffic on the A65 (south of Harrogate Road) which is bound for LBA is 1.95%

The percentage of airport traffic using the A65 and Rawdon Cross Roads is 5.17%

The percentage of traffic on Bayton Lane which is bound for LBA is 1.98%

The percentage of LBA traffic using Bayton Lane is 3.5%

The percentage of LBA traffic using Bayton Lane and the A65 south of Harrogate road combined is 8.67%

The percentage of traffic arriving on Harrogate Road at Bayton Lane Traffic Lights that originates from the A65 south of Harrogate Road is 15.73%

The full survey and methodology are appended to this submission

Rawdon Parish Council is also able to draw on extensive first hand knowledge of the area.

Details are set out on the following pages of the reasoning behind Rawdon Parish Council’s conclusions.

Specific Aims - Summary:

To reduce journey times to the airport by car and bus.

4

• The routes proposed do not affect at all the journey times for traffic that does not and would not use them. That is over 90% of airport traffic. • They do not reduce journey times for the majority of bus routes which do not and would not use it. • They by-pass a section of the route which does not suffer from significant congestion related delays, minimising any benefit. • Whilst shortening the route would potentially reduce journey times for the small proportion of airport traffic that does or would use the route, it also introduces an additional junction into a route with a very high traffic flow. The need to interrupt that traffic flow at that junction will introduce additional delays that are likely to negate any advantage gained and that will further delay the vast majority of traffic on the A65causing a significant net increase in journey times for all traffic. • They are still wholly dependent on Horsforth Roundabout.

To Improve Journey Time reliability for the bus route from Leeds City Centre.

• The section of the bus route the Link Road routes replace does not suffer from significant congestion related delays. The average journey time at rush hour is less than three minutes longer than in free traffic. Little improvement in journey time reliability is, therefore possible. • The variations in journey times are caused along sections of the route that are not positively affected by the link road. (For example the queue for Horsforth Roundabout along New Road Side.) • The introduction of an additional junction into the A65 will introduce additional delays for the traffic in which the bus route is part of and which determines the reliability of bus times. This is certain to have a detrimental effect on journey time reliability.

To facilitate increased patronage of the bus service from Leeds City Centre.

• As no significant improvements in the factors affecting bus patronage are likely, there is no reason to suppose bus patronage would be improved. • The provision of a railway station at the airport operating directly from Leeds City Centre and beyond with significantly shorter journey times than is possible by road along the A65 means that the bus service along this route is likely to suffer a reduction in patronage, all be it to the overall significant benefit of airport users and commuters.

To reduce existing issues caused by peak-time congestion by helping to filter vehicles either along the new link road or more effectively along a wider and improved A65/A658.

5

• As demonstrated in the typical traffic examples from Google Maps – the route the Link Road proposals replace does not suffer from congestion caused by traffic on the A65. There would be no benefit to traffic flow on the affected section of the A65 whatsoever. • Rawdon Parish Council traffic study shows that only 15.73% of traffic arriving at Bayton Lane traffic lights originates from the affected section of the A65 and would gain only a very marginal benefit as a result. Improvements to that specific junction, however would be beneficial as it is the junction itself which causes the congestion. • Rawdon Parish Council believes that the inclusion of a junction with Layton Road increases the likelihood of rat running along Town Street and Brownberrie Lane. It also increases the likelihood of the use of Over Lane, Well Lane, Carr Lane and Layton Lane as vehicles ‘switch’ between parallel routes.

Do the proposals fulfil their aim of improving journey times to LBA?

6

Rawdon Parish Council believes that none of the proposals will have a significant impact on journey times to LBA for two reasons. 1) There is little delay on the current network the route replaces. 2) The delays that actually are currently being encountered are elsewhere on the wider road network.

The proposals fail from the start by proceeding without accurate evidence based consideration of any of the following:

1. The conclusions of the study previously undertaken by a widely recognised major infrastructure consultants (Scott Wilson)

2. The amount of Airport Traffic that uses the route for which all three options provide. i.e. The percentage of Airport traffic that would benefit from any advantage conferred by the Link Road

3. Where Congestion actually exists on the routes which could include the Link Road. i.e. The source of existing delays in accessing the airport. Plus the effect the link road junction would have on the existing traffic.

4. How much of the traffic on the roads that Link Road traffic currently uses is airport traffic. i.e. how much does Airport traffic contribute to existing congestion.

5. What directions airport traffic approaches the Airport from To assess where improvements would have a significant Impact.

6. They appear to be based on false assumptions about existing problems. In Connecting Leeds’ document

Each of these points is covered in detail below.

This failure has led to an arbitrary selection of a route rather than one which is driven by a demonstrable requirement or where any significant benefit can be delivered.

The proposed Link Road routes fail to deliver all of the stated aims.

7

Detailed consideration of the 6 points already raised.

1. The Scott Wilson report to Leeds City Council delivered in 2005

This report concludes:

“It is evident therefore that future year trip generation associated with the airport is relatively minor and that any infrastructure provision would need not only to serve the airport but also the wider network.

It is evident from the modelled flows above that the airport link road is not providing a major benefit to the wider network.

The proposed airport link road links the A65 north-west of Horsforth Roundabout with the A658 at the Whitehouse Lane Roundabout thus providing a shorter and quicker alternative for A65/A658 traffic. However, analysis of the model demonstrates the principal movement corridors in this area to be A65 - Yeadon-Rawdon-Horsforth and the A658 Pool-Yeadon-Bradford thus reducing the potential for diversion onto the airport link road. Consequently, flow volume on the link is low.”

These Conclusions are based on 4.5 million Passengers per year.

These Conclusions are born out in full by Rawdon Parish Council’s own extensive traffic survey.

2. The percentage of airport traffic that would use the proposed Link Road

This is very low.

Under 6% of airport traffic uses the A65 (South) (5.17% from RPC’s study) Under 4% of airport traffic uses Bayton Lane (3.5% from RPC’s Study)

A total of under 9% of airport traffic would gain any benefit from the Link Road options A and B.

3. The proposals serve a route which is itself not subject to significant congestion delays.

The journey time from Rawdon Crematorium to the airport terminal is less than three minutes longer at peak hours than it is in free traffic. (10 minutes on average at rush hour as opposed to 7.5minutes in free traffic)

Significant congestion delays encountered by traffic that would finish its journey via the Link Road are all prior to the point at which the traffic would join the link road.

8

All traffic using the Link Road (For example the 757 bus route) would still be forced to use Horsforth Roundabout to access or exit it. Delays of up to 18 minutes are currently experienced at this one single point on the journey.

Inserting the proposed junction into the A65 would undoubtedly create significant delays for the high volume of traffic using the road.

It seems likely that these additional delays would cancel out any gains made to Link Road users and would significantly add to the journey times of the vast majority of road users on the route who would not benefit from the Link Road.

This junction has the potential to create queues that would prevent traffic exiting Horsforth Roundabout, further adding to the grid lock effect on the A6120.

(See Typical Delays in accessing LBA.)

It is not sensible to attempt to reduce delays by replacing a section of the route on which significant delays do not exist

4. The routes would have no significant beneficial impact on the traffic on the A65, on Bayton Lane or even on Scotland Lane / Dean Lane.

Under 2% of traffic on the A65 (South of Harrogate Road) is Airport Traffic (1.9% from RPC’s study) Under 2% of Traffic on Bayton Lane is Airport Traffic (1.98% from RPC’s study)

Even if a combination of increased passenger numbers and the proposed business park lead to a doubling of vehicle movements they will still constitute an extremely small percentage of traffic on those routes.

The majority of traffic at rush hour on Scotland Lane and Dean Lane, from either direction, carries straight on at the Whitehouse Lane Junction.

A large proportion of traffic that does use Scotland Lane to access the airport constitutes private hire vehicles and would be unlikely to divert to the Link Road as doing so would extend their journeys and delays caused by other parts of the road network.

Rat running on Both Bayton Lane and Scotland Lane are caused by traffic avoiding the Ring Road and its congested junctions. The Link Road does nothing to address this and would have a consequential minimal impact on rat running.

Rawdon Parish Council notes that in option A there appears to be a proposal to close Scotland Lane which would have a significantly detrimental effect on residents.

Traffic arriving from other directions that would benefit from option C also only experiences significant delays earlier along the route than the portion covered by the proposed junction improvements.

Right turning traffic on the A65 does not proceed to the jct600 roundabout to turn on to

9

the A658 but universally turns at Harrogate Road doing so without any delay of more than one traffic light cycle.

as stated by Scott Wilson “It is evident from the modelled flows above that the airport link road is not providing a major benefit to the wider network.”

The airport contributes only a very small percentage of traffic on the roads the Link Road replaces and so it has a very small potential for general improvements on those roads.

This would remain the case even if airport traffic doubled

5. The vast majority of airport traffic would gain no benefit from the Link Road

91.32% of airport traffic (from RPC’s study) uses other routes that could not easily be translated to the Link Road.

Traffic from Bradford could not be sensibly diverted via Leeds Ring Road to the Link Road.

Traffic from North of the Airport from all directions would not benefit from the link road.

Traffic from East and South East of the airport would not extend its journey time to the airport in order to access the Link road.

The proposed route fails the vast majority of airport traffic.

6. Assumptions made by ‘Connecting Leeds’

Connecting Leeds’ document states that ‘The A65 North of the Outer Ring Road has the highest traffic flows of all the routes near the airport’

Whilst this is true, it does not cause congestion along the section that would be by- passed by the Link Road proposals. The sections of the A65 which suffer delays are:

From Rawdon Crematorium heading South to Horsforth Roundabout which can be up to 18 minutes.

Along New Road Side towards Horsforth Roundabout.

At lights, back in to Leeds City Centre.

At JCT 600 Roundabout – after Harrogate Road.

The section of the A65 between Rawdon Crematorium and Harrogate Road is rarely congested in a northerly direction and travelling south the congestion is all as a result of the queue for Horsforth Roundabout.

10

It acknowledges that ‘ The A65/A6120 Horsforth Roundabout is a congested junction particularly at peak hours’

This is also true – but the propose Link Road routes do not by-pass Horsforth Roundabout but rather take the flawed strategy of dependency on that junction. If the Link Road did attract extra traffic it would add significantly to that congestion.

Leeds current plans’ to improve that section of the Ring Road are restricted to formalising the two lane queuing which already occurs between the roundabout and Fink Hill and would not have a significant beneficial impact on Link Road bound traffic.

Rawdon Parish Council is aware that WYCA is making statements to the effect that Leeds’ has plans to deal with congestion at Horsforth Roundabout.

A wider review of the Ring Road has not yet been commissioned and no proposals which would improve congestion at Horsforth Roundabout currently exist.

Support for a Link Road which is gained on the basis of solutions to Horsforth Roundabout being in the process of implementation should be dismissed.

It states that “The most congestion on the A658 occur at Bayton Lane and Otley Old Road”

It reports queues on the A658 of “up to 450 metres at Bayton Lane traffic Lights”. This is true and is responsible for the principle delays on the route from Rawdon Crematorium to the airport. These delays are still under three minutes at most.

Its own figures attribute a rush hour delay from Rawdon Crematorium to Otley Old Road as only 4 minutes.

It states that “queues at A658/Otley Old Road junction can be up to 1km and extend back to Whitehouse Lane Roundabout.”

Rawdon Parish Council saw no evidence of delays of that extent during its traffic surveys but acknowledge that it is a very congested junction. Even if it is true it is further evidence that the Link Road route does not address the true sources of congestion as it is inconceivable that anyone using that route would undertake the substantial diversion via heavily congested roads to use the Link Road.

It states “These routes are heavily congested leading to drivers seeking alternative routes such as Scotland Lane and Bayton Lane”

RPC’s traffic survey noted that the majority of traffic on both Scotland Lane and Dean Lane go straight on and do not use Whitehouse Lane at all. If traffic is rat running there, it is local traffic as opposed to airport traffic and would not benefit from the proposals.

The main cause of rat running in the area is the congestion on and caused by junctions with the Ring Road. The Link Road routes all depend on the same congested feeder routes and would do little to reduce rat running.

11

Rat running occurs on Bayton Lane and West End Lane and Hall Lane because people use this route to shorten the time they spend in the queue at Horsforth Roundabout. The Link Road would not achieve that as it also feeds directly onto Horsforth Roundabout.

Rat running occurs on Scotland Lane and Dean because people use it to avoid the Ring Road between and Horsforth and to access the local area.

Rawdon Parish Council was surprised by the low number of vehicles using Scotland Lane and Dean Lane to access the airport which was significantly lower than anticipated – however Rawdon Parish Council can see no likelihood of significantly reducing that traffic by the Link Road proposals.

Rawdon Parish Council noted that of those vehicles accessing the airport from Scotland Lane and Dean Lane, a high percentage were Private Hire vehicles but do not foresee that changing significantly by the Link Road proposals as they also use it to avoid the Ring Road.

Reducing traffic on Scotland Lane and Dean Lane would be better achieved by a further reduction in speed limit to 30MPH and 20MPH in the residential sections. A full HGV ban would also be beneficial.

Bayton Lane is not itself residential but a 30MPH limit and an HGV ban would also benefit this route.

Rawdon Parish Council notes that in option A there appears to be a proposal to close Scotland Lane which would have a significantly detrimental effect on residents.

Rawdon Parish Council believes that the inclusion of a junction with Layton Road increases the likelihood of rat running along Town Street and Brownberrie Lane. It also increase the likelihood of ‘Route Hopping’ using roads like Well Lane and Carr lane to switch between parallel routes. (This can readily be seen between Burley Road and Kirkstall Road / Abbey Road further down the A65 where traffic frequently uses the various roads which join the two to switch between one road and the other to try to avoid traffic queues.)

12

Public Transport

The Connecting Leeds document notes: “the frequent bus services along the A65 with the 757 service linking LBA… Buses serving the airport have similar journey times to private cars and suffer the same delays”

Rawdon Parish Council agrees with this. The buses therefore will also lack any significant benefit from the Link Road proposals as their delays are also far more significant elsewhere along the route – such as at Horsforth Roundabout.

It is very likely that the use of the 757 will be reduced by use of trains serving the proposed new station.

It is unlikely that a Link Road would significantly benefit other bus routes which do not run along the proposed routes.

Walking and Cycling Rawdon Parish Council has done no research in to cycling or walking but it would seem that neither is likely to significantly benefit from the proposals.

The assumptions and conclusions made by ‘Connecting Leeds’ cannot be relied upon to justify the Link Road proposals.

13

Typical delays accessing Leeds Bradford Airport:

It is easy to use Google Maps ‘typical’ traffic information to get a rapid overview of congestion.

Google Traffic works by analyzing the GPS-determined locations transmitted to Google by a large number of mobile phone users. By calculating the speed of users along a length of road, Google is able to generate a live traffic map. It also offers the facility to view typical traffic for any road at any time, generated from the large volume of data it gathers. It uses a huge volume of data to collate this information and is probably the most statistically valid source of traffic data available.

We have chosen Tuesday at 5pm as this is the most congested of the ‘typical’ results on Google Maps.

Horsforth Roundabout and A65 Tuesday 5.20pm

14

A 65 Harrogate Road Junction Tuesday 5.20pm

15

Bayton Lane and Whitehouse Lane Junctions Tuesday 5.20pm

Woodside and Junctions

16

Dawson’s Corner to Rodley Roundabout:

17

Greengates to JCT600

18

LEEDS, BRADFORD, LBA Overview

What can be seen from these is that the stretch of the A65 the ‘Link Road’ proposes to by-pass and the junctions used to access the airport are uncongested at 5.20pm on a typical Tuesday.

Roads along every other route to the airport and roads required to access the Link Road, however ALL suffer from congestion.

The ONLY delays encompassed by the route are caused by Bayton Lane / A658 traffic lights – these delays are not significant in terms of time either in isolation or in comparison to delays elsewhere on the wider road network.

Traffic bound for the airport universally turn right at Harrogate Road. None progress to JCT600 to use Green Lane.

Similar results are obtained during rush hour on other days.

The Link Road proposals involve huge expenditure to by-pass the least congested roads used to access the airport.

19

Effect of Business Park on traffic in the area.

Rawdon Parish Council believes that the proposed business park would attract traffic from a similar catchment to the airport itself.

It is likely businesses will also benefit from rail connections via the proposed parkway station.

Traffic accessing the business park would suffer from all the wider issues that airport traffic currently encounters and which are not being addressed by the Link Road proposals.

Rawdon Parish Council therefore believes that the business park does not add significantly to the business case for the link road.

Effect of Parkway Station on traffic in the area.

If the rail halt is also to serve as a Park n Ride or Parkway station traffic will clearly need to access the facility.

As is currently the case with Horsforth Station traffic doing so would be most likely to originate from further outside the area and not along the A65 away from the city centre.

Traffic is unlikely to access it from Bradford as there is already a park n ride station at Apperley Bridge.

Traffic is unlikely to access it from the A65 (south of the ‘ Link Road’) as there is already a park n ride station at Kirkstall forge and it would also have to negotiate Horsforth Roundabout to access it.

Traffic is unlikely to access it from the A65 north of Harrogate Road as there is a Park n Ride station proposal at Guiseley.

It is very likely that the main source of users of the Parkway Station would originate from North and East of its location.

Horsforth Station is already used by commuters from that area using it as an unofficial railhead. City Councillors for Horsforth wards deal regularly with problems caused by rat running and inconsiderate parking as a result.

It is therefore very unlikely that cars accessing the Parkway Station would gain any benefit from the proposed link road route and nor would it add any traffic to the current network the Link Road would by-pass.

20