Press Releases |
| Tunnel dirty tricks A local transport campaign group is challenging the Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Authority (TWPTA) to come clean about the real reasons behind the delays to the evidence it has at last provided in support of the proposed second Tyne road tunnel. The Tyne Crossings Alliance, which is campaigning against the road tunnel construction, says there are grounds for suspicion about the motives for the TWPTA's sudden changes to the application for the tunnel. TWPTA had planned to obtain all of the land that it needed for the tunnel through compulsory purchase orders under the Acquisition of Land Act 1981. This Act permits the compulsory purchase of public open spaces only under 'special parliamentary procedures', requiring a local inquiry to be held. Further, the Act contains specific requirements about parliamentary scrutiny that would allow members of the public to lay petitions against the Order. However, the TWPTA has now decided that areas of 'open space' will be acquired by private agreement with South Tyneside Council, which would avoid the requirements set out by the Act. Tyne Crossings Alliance spokesperson Brian Paget said: "It may be legally acceptable for the PTA and South Tyneside Council to come to an arrangement over the open green spaces they claim are needed for the tunnel project. However, since there was already a plan in place for the PTA to acquire the land through a Compulsory Purchase Order, we feel we are entitled to ask why the PTA and South Tyneside Council have felt the need to use another route at such a late stage in the proceedings. "The route now proposed would deny the public an opportunity to petition Parliament over a project that would have serious negative social and environmental impacts on the area. "If this was found to be the real motive behind the change in process, then it amounts to two public bodies colluding to avoid public accountability and Parliamentary scrutiny. " Notes 1. Tyne Crossings Alliance consists of: CPRE, Friends of the Earth (FOE), Living Streets, North East Railway Development Society (railfuture NE), Roadpeace, The Green Party, Transport 2000, Tynebikes. 2. For further information on the campaign to stop the second Tyne road tunnel see the Tyne Crossings Alliance website: www.tyne-crossings.org/ or Stop the Tunnel at :http://www.stopthetunnel.tk/ |