New hospital will now double traffic danger
I WRITE in response to the first stage of consultation with the residents of East Cramlington and the NHS since the new proposed hospital site has been identified publicly and positioned off the B1236, opposite the estate of Lanercost Park.
Residents of East Cramlington and Klondyke were invited to drop-in sessions at Shankhouse Club.
Having followed the process of consultation for more than a year I was interested to hear well thought out explanations why the site was to be positioned on an over-used B road, with access only fit for agricultural vehicles.
Once in the club I viewed the plans, showing one access via this B road and one off the existing fly-over slip road.
Upon asking the NHS planner alternative access routes, he denied no other were available.
The overview from the public within the club at that time was amazement.
I attended a south Northumberland community meeting on Wednesday, February 17.
The question of the access points for the new hospital was brought up and answered by a senior member of the highways department.
His reply was that unless major infrastructure was to take place the existing access routes were not acceptable.
The local highways will have input now in terms of access for the hospital, so why does the NHS planner insist that access at present is not an issue?
I can only assume that we may be buying a red herring in terms of the hospital not being solvent and the NHS going through the motions.
I hope that is the case, although in this process many hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money have already been spent.
A petition has already been signed by hundreds of residents of the Klondyke estates and received by the county council prior to the hospital site being publicly announced.
The petition was to reduce the traffic flow from a seriously dangerous level, when in fact it will be double as a consequence of using the existing road structure for the proposed new hospital.
HENRY POVEY
Cramlington.
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Monday 21 May 2012
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