A45 Daventry Development Link Road - Statement of Community Involvement November 2014 A45 Daventry Development Link Road Submission on behalf of Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) Town and Country Planning Act 1990 QM Issue/revision Issue 1 Revision 1 Revision 2 Revision 3 Remarks Draft Final Date November 2014 November 2014 Prepared by Lee Kirby Lee Kirby Signature Checked by Adrian Hames Adrian Hames Signature Authorised by Adrian Hames Adrian Hames Signature Project number 70005677 70005677 File reference MGWSP Northamptonshire Highways Brixworth Depot, Harborough Road, Northamptonshire, NN6 9BX DDI: +44(0)1604 883415 Web: www.mgwsp.co.uk Author: Lee Kirby May Gurney Ltd, Registered Office: Holland Court, The Close, Norwich, NR1 4DY Registered Number 00873179 England WSP Management Services Limited Registered Office: WSP House, 70 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1AF Registered Number 02454665 England Contents 1 Introduction 4 1.1 BACKGROUND 4 1.2 DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCHEME 4 2 Public Consultation 6 2.1 PUBLIC EXHIBITION EVENTS 6 3 Stakeholder Consultation 16 3.1 STAKEHOLDER DISCUSSIONS 16 4 Conclusion 20 4.1 OVERVIEW 20 Appendix A – Route Options 22 Appendix B – Public Exhibition Leaflet and Questionnaire 23 A45 Daventry Development Link Road – Statement of Community Involvement 3 [ 1 Introduction 1.1 BACKGROUND 1.1.1 Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) has instructed MGWSP to prepare a Statement of Community Involvement for the A45 Daventry Development Link Road or New Link Road, in Northamptonshire, to accompany a full planning application to be submitted in November 2014. 1.1.2 The involvement of the community has been, and continues to be, an integral part of the development work associated with the scheme, and throughout the process of moving the scheme forward. NCC has consistently sought to ensure endorsement and consensus at all stages from a wide range of stakeholders and interested parties. 1.1.3 Engaging the community has been a crucial element in gaining acceptance and ‘buy-in’ of the road proposal, and an interactive approach with directly affected land owners, key statutory bodies, local councils, and the general public continues to take place, and has greatly assisted in the advancement of the scheme, as concerns raised by the key stakeholders and interested parties are acted upon, as far as practically possible, and amendments incorporated which has led to evolution of a scheme with strong on-going support. 1.1.4 The New Link Road is a scheme that has been developed in recent years by NCC. It will improve transport links between the towns of Northampton and Daventry, and improve access between Daventry and the M1 motorway. The scheme will facilitate and support the growth of development within Daventry District and relieve the A45 through the villages of Flore and Weedon of through traffic. In Weedon, it will significantly reduce traffic congestion at the existing signalised junction of the A5 with the A45, and reduce the number and severity of road accidents providing a high quality route for through traffic 1.2 DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCHEME 1.2.1 In the early 1990’s as part of their trunk road network the Highways Agency (HA) agreed a preferred route for the A45 Weedon, Flore and Upper Heyford bypass. However, in July 1998 the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions reviewed their trunk road schemes and announced that the A45 Weedon, Flore and Upper Heyford bypass would be withdrawn from the national trunk road programme. 1.2.2 In 2001, NCC appraised six major road schemes in Northamptonshire including the A45 Weedon, Flore and Upper Heyford bypass. The outcome was the County Council agreed that no scheme be submitted to the Government Office for the East Midlands as part of the Local Transport Plan in 2001, but that work should be carried out to develop other schemes. A45 Daventry Development Link Road – Statement of Community Involvement 1.2.3 The HA detrunked this section of the A45 in July 2001, and their trunk road schemes, including the A45 Weedon, Flore and Upper Heyford bypass, were handed over to NCC. 1.2.4 In June 2002 the County Council decided to continue to protect the HA former A45 trunk road bypass scheme to the north of Weedon and Flore. There was at this time strong local support for a northern route and this route is protected as NCC’s Preferred Route. 1.2.5 NCC’s Northamptonshire Arc is a locally developed spatial concept covering the whole county and it represents an integrated approach to economic development, the environment and connectivity. The main arteries for economic growth in the County are formed by strategic road connections including the proposed A45 Daventry Development Link scheme. It recognised that the Link is crucial for future development at Daventry and the wider area up to and beyond the current Core Spatial Strategy timeframe of 2026. 1.2.6 It is also acknowledged that this scheme is important to the competitiveness of Daventry for attracting inward investment. Therefore, in 2009 and 2010 a full appraisal of alternative transport solutions for the corridor between Northampton and Daventry was undertaken which considered many forms of infrastructure improvements. This appraisal was used to inform a series of Stakeholder Meetings held with the County, District and Parish Councillors within the study area, and re-confirmed the strong preference for a northern bypass solution on the corridor between Northampton and Daventry. A45 Daventry Development Link Road – Statement of Community Involvement 5 2 Public Consultation 2.1 PUBLIC EXHIBITION EVENTS 2.1.1 After a number of previous attempts to promote an A45 bypass for the communities of Weedon, Flore and Upper Heyford over ten years, NCC resolved to progress the scheme more vigorously from 2012, and as an initial stage of community involvement, sought to confirm the consensus reached at previous consultation exercises whereby a route bypassing all three communities to the north had consistently been shown to have the strongest support from the local population. 2.1.2 This exercise was deemed to be important in re-establishing a baseline position from which to promote a scheme, conscious that several years had elapsed since the bypass was previously consulted upon and circumstances and priorities may have changed. A full and comprehensive public consultation process was undertaken during the summer of 2012. As part of this public consultation three public exhibition events were held in July 2012 at a number of locations in the vicinity of the scheme study area as summarised below: Ŷ Flore, Millennium Hall, High Street – Thursday 12th July 2012, 14:30 – 18:30; Ŷ Weedon, Village Hall, West Street, Friday 13th July 2012, 13:00 – 21:00; Ŷ Daventry, The Abbey Centre, Market Square, Saturday 14th July 2012, 10:00 – 14:00 2.1.3 The purpose of these three public exhibition events was to seek views of the public on the traffic problems along the A45 corridor between Northampton and Daventry, and to exhibit a number of route options. A map showing the route options is included in Appendix A, and these are described as follows: Ŷ Northern Route Option A (Red Route) – at an estimated cost of £40-45 million the proposed 5.9km long single carriageway runs west from M1 junction 16 passing to the north of Upper Heyford, Flore and Weedon Bec rejoining the existing A45 east of Dodford. With a design speed 70mph this route would be suitable for converting to a dual-carriageway in the future. Approximately 50% of this route would be on embankment and 5% would be in the flood plain; Ŷ Northern Route Option B (Blue Route) – at an estimated cost of £30-35 million the proposed 4.1km long single carriageway runs west from M1 junction 16 passing to north of Upper Heyford then rejoins the existing A45 before passing to the north of Flore and Weedon Bec, rejoining the A45 east of Dodford. With a design speed of 50mph this route would not be suitable for converting to a dual- carriageway in the future. Approximately 35% of this route would be on embankment and 5% would be in the flood plain; A45 Daventry Development Link Road – Statement of Community Involvement Ŷ Central Route (Pink Route) – at an estimated cost of £50-55 million the proposed 4.8km long single carriageway runs west from M1 junction 16 passing to the north of Upper Heyford, south of Flore and then north of Weedon Bec rejoining the existing A45 east of Dodford. With a design speed of 70mph this route would be suitable for converting to a dual-carriageway in the future. Approximately 90% of this route would be on embankment and 40% would be in the flood plain; and Ŷ Southern Route (Green Route) – at an estimated cost of £45-50 million the proposed 7.6km long single carriageway runs west from the M1 junction 16 passing between Upper and Nether Heyford, south of Flore and Weedon Bec rejoining the existing A45 west of Dodford. With a design speed of 70mph this route would be suitable for converting to a dual carriageway in the future. Approximately 85% would be on embankment and 15% would be in the flood plan. 2.1.4 Prior to the three public exhibition events leaflets, which included a questionnaire, were delivered to houses and shops within the scheme study area. The details of the public exhibitions were also advertised in local newspapers and parish newsletters, as well as being included in letters to Councillors in the scheme study area. Information and an online questionnaire were also included on NCC’s website. 2.1.5 The three public exhibition events were well attended with a total of approximately 335 people attending over the three events, with 129 at Flore, 172 at Weedon, and 34 at Daventry.