Letters of Objection

Dear Sir

NEW TYNE TUNNEL

We wish to register our objection to plans for a new Tyne Tunnel. We believe the full extent of its impacts have not been explored, and it would be right to call a public inquiry.

You will already have received many comments emphasising the negative local impacts of such a tunnel on the area around it. They include

• the increase in gross traffic levels (with the corresponding rise in pollution, accidents, etc)
• Increase in car dependency for local journeys; corresponding isolation of those without access to cars, and
• quality of life losses as 'quiet' space goes under traffic

We have further concerns here, some thirty miles away in Teesside. We fear that the promised (threatened?) development on the Tyne, consequent on the construction of a tunnel, will not be confined to Tyneside; Teesside will be drawn more deeply into the same car-based commuter belt, linked by the A19 artery.

We already have more than enough traffic problems of our own on Teesside, without a new Tyne Tunnel making things worse. In an unhappy echo of the Tyneside experience, our local planners are looking to build a new down-river crossing of the Tees, similarly spun in the name of easing congestion and 'development'. It won planning approval in principle primarily as a rail crossing in the local Structure Plan last year, but already it's being represented as a road crossing ! On Tyneside, the lack of any clear multimodal study to justify a road crossing looks like a similar abuse of the planning system, of public consultation, and of every core strategy that relates to 'sustainability'.

If the Tyne Tunnel proposal goes through without a thorough inquiry, it will not only be to Tyneside's disadvantage; it will create unwelcome problems and precedents at the southern end of the region too.

That's why we need a public inquiry.

Yours sincerely

Peter Goodwin
on behalf of Teesside Green Party