THE deletion a relief road around Barnard Castle from the County Durham Plan has been described as unbelievable.
The plan is due to be discussed by Durham County Council’s cabinet next month before being put to a full council meeting for final approval. The plan determines all future development in the county until 2035.
A HGV action group, along with the town’s county councillors, had campaigned successfully to have a corridor of interest, which would protect the proposed route from any development, included in early drafts of the plan.
They say a relief road is necessary to prevent heavy wagons from unnecessarily passing through the town and causing damage to its infrastructure, including the Market Cross. However, a review by Government planning inspector William Fieldhouse this year recommended a number of modifications, including the removal of the corridor. This is despite county councillor Richard Bell making a representation in support of it during Mr Fieldhouse’s public hearings in February. In a report to cabinet, portfolio holder for economic generation Cllr Carl Marshall, confirmed the corridor, along with two other relief roads around Durham City, had been removed from the plan so that it could be “capable of being found sound” .
Cllr Bell said the exclusion of the corridor of interest would make it extremely difficult to attract Government funding for a future relief road.
He added: “It is an indictment of the system when an unaccountable planning inspector can overrule the wishes of the council, and the hundreds of local people and organisations who supported the inclusion of this corridor in the plan.
“I am told by Durham County Council that his criticism is fairly mild, such that there is not a total planning block on the idea, but it is a huge setback to the hopes of getting any government funding.
“All you can say in his favour is that he is consistent in his anti-roads bias. He is permitting 3,000 new houses on greenbelt in Durham City, and he has deleted two relief roads there, despite the developers promising to pay for them. Unbelievable.”
The relief road route would have connect the A688 and A67 with Westwick Road, allowing vehicles to cross the River Tees using Abbey Bridge and then join the A66 eastbound.
