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Why is Tommy mistaken?

A new road tunnel would:

• bring more traffic and congestion to our roads, making journeys by essential services, buses, taxis and goods vehicles more difficult.
• increase car dependency by promoting new journeys including leisure journeys we don’t make now.
• increase road accidents and pollution due to the greater number of vehicles.
• pose safety questions due to its proximity to the present road, pedestrian, cycle and water-service tunnels. The needs of local industry and cut-and-cover tunnelling through urban areas also pose risks.
• encourage dispersed demographic patterns contrary to the Government’s requirement that local councils plan for reduced car use.

Some statistics:

In 1999, 143 children were killed and 4,264 were seriously injured while walking or cycling in Britain. A government study in the mid-1990s showed that death rates for British child pedestrians were worse than in France, Germany, Italy and Sweden.

According to the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, between 12,000 and 24,000 people a year die prematurely in Britain due to air pollution to which road traffic is a major contributor.

Road transport is the second fastest growing source of carbon dioxide, the main climate-changing gas. An increase in childhood asthma is associated with the ingestion of traffic fumes.

What would be the effects of Tommy's digging?

Regional outcomes would include:

• attracting long distance traffic and creating an industrial "A19 Corridor" north and south of the River Tyne giving rise to new traffic. This outmoded “ribbon development” could have major impact on greenfield land.
• The cost of new roadworks required to accommodate the extra traffic is not considered part of the “project” by the tunnel promoters and is additional to the claimed tunnel budget.

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Local outcomes (some at taxpayers’ expense) would include:

• further clogging up of our roads and residential pavements with yet more vehicles, and increased noise and fumes.
• severe loss of amenity for residents during the construction works.
• demand for extensive road “improvements”. Demand for new roads could put at risk open spaces such as the Hebburn-to-Pelaw Riverside Park, a unique two-mile long semi-rural enclave that is free from traffic noise and which has spectacular river views.
• further long term damage such as new rat-runs to avoid bottlenecks created elsewhere.

We need to:

• reduce unnecessary journeys by locating shops, work, health, education and leisure centres next to housing in future planning policies.
• discourage out-of-town and in-town hypermarkets and leisure centres that attract car traffic.
• create a public transport network, with vehicles that are reliable, frequent, pleasant and convenient for people to use, including in the evening and at weekends.
• discourage workplace parking.
• shift freight away from roads to rail and water. This would require new sidings and safeguarding of waterside land for marine industry.

• improvements to the pedestrian and cycle tunnel, with regular bus services to the tunnel entrances at both ends.
• priority access for bus and emergency services (possibly HGVs) to the present road tunnel, with separate approach lanes.
• enhanced combined bus-and-ferry services with more landing points.
• The riverside must be dedicated to employment as a priority. The above measures would enable residents to get to jobs across the river when they can’t find employment nearer home.

The Timetable

The Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority (PTA) will have to submit an application to the Secretary of State under the Transport and Works Act (1992) - not to any Local Authority. The timetable is as follows:

Autumn 2001 - An application for an Order must be made to the Secretary of State.

Everyone has 42 days in which to register objections.

The Secretary of State then has 28 days in which to decide whether to call a Public Inquiry. This will depend on his view of the strength of the case against the tunnel and the extent of public concern.

Approximately September 2002 - a Public Inquiry will be held if required by the Secretary of State.

What you can do

Write a letter

• Objecting to the proposal.
• Asking for a public Inquiry.

The Secretary of State, c/o Transport and Works Act Processing Unit, Zone 3/11, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London, SW1 4DR.

Please also write to: the editor of your local paper explaining why you object to the construction of a new road tunnel.

For more information contact:

PO Box 101, South Shields, NE33 2YQ.