This page details the objectives and process behind the bypass funding bid that was recently submitted by Simonstone & Read Parish Councils.
Overview
With all the publicity about the reallocation of funding for the cancelled HS2 route money is being made available over a 7-year period for projects that impact transport across the North.
Lancashire County Council will get their share of funding for this, as will the respective departments in Highways England.
Therefore, we have submitted a funding bid for a bypass to alleviate the horrendous traffic we are facing daily in Simonstone and Read.
Rather than start any new ideas with them, we chose to remind them of the bypass that has long been promised to us, way before the volume of daily traffic we now suffer.
This is a starting point, it’s obviously a long time since the original plans which may not even be feasible now. But we thought it better to start with a reminder of a bypass already owed to a community, than try to start from nothing but justifications for a totally new project.
Let’s restart where LCC and Government left off.
Objectives
- Reduce the amount of traffic using the A671, especially heavy goods vehicles.
- Reduce the impact of traffic on residents by reducing the noise of traffic and its air pollution too.
- Make the A671 a safer road so that residents can cross it and walk along it safely. Especially for younger residents and residents with mobility problems.
- Unite both sides of the village currently separated by fast-moving heavy traffic.
Process
Cllrs Duckworth and Hampson were given the go-ahead to form a working group to do this, and to also invite two Read parish councillors, Cllrs Neary and McKelvey to join them.
It was agreed that time was of the essence to submit a bid because obviously communities across the north and wider UK are bidding for the same pot of money.
Data was gathered from official government and commercial sources that already accepted and therefore not disputed. This was then compiled into a funding bid with some additional commentary at the start to provide context and focus.
The bid document was then put before both parish councils and agreed.
Current Status
The document has been received by Lancashire County Council and has been added to their pot of projects under consideration for the reallocated funding money.
LCC are currently waiting to receive more details from Government about when the money will be made available in the next 7 years and how much will be available at each stage. Only after that will they be able to start planning what projects to proceed with.
Reading the ‘Bypass Funding Bid’
You can view the submitted document by clicking on the document title below:
Joint Parish Bypass Funding Bid
If you have any problems accessing the document please contact the parish clerk via SimonstoneParishCouncilClerk@gmail.com for assistance.
Other factors to consider:
- The proposed bypass in the document largely refers to the bypass as it was originally proposed in the 1980s & 90s.
- The tweak to the original bypass is an alternative entrance to the bypass proposed by the relevant landowner that would be cheaper.
- Any final choices about route will be down to engineers, planning officials and budget constraints.
- No work would be starting without public consultation.
- An alternative bypass connecting the A59 to the M65 is in the early stages of consideration, this might run from Portfield Bar to the Altham Industrial Estate and then up to the M65. It may also connect the Ribble Valley to a new rail freight terminal being proposed for the old Hapton Power Station land. This would probably attract additional funding from multiple directions and achieve a better result for traffic impacting Simonstone and Read.
- If a better alternative route becomes available we will put that to SPC for backing, and if agreed SPC would then work to getting that accepted instead by LCC and Government.
Ongoing road safety work
We are constantly drawing attention to our village’s need for road safety improvements and this work has not stopped whilst we have completed the bypass funding bid.
Author: Cllr Hampson