And another accident causes chaos on the A53 in Baldwins Gate

At around 4pm on 30th May 2014, the main A53 road in Baldwins Gate, Newcastle-under-Lyme, was blocked by an accident at the junction of Gateway Avenue.  This is the latest in a string of many accidents on this stretch of road and occurred at the very spot where developers, Richborough Estates, have submitted plans for a pedestrian crossing.

Residents protested vigorously against a planning application which, if it had succeeded, would have seen half the vehicles in the village being forced to access the busy A53 from this single junction. The application was refused by the Newcastle Borough Planning Committee but Richborough Estates have now submitted an appeal which is yet to be heard.

The scene was attended by two ambulance crews and police were forced to divert westbound traffic through a small housing development in order to keep the traffic moving.

   

      

Yet another Accident closes A53 in Baldwins Gate

Wednesday 30th April saw the A53 through Baldwins Gate, Staffordshire, completely blocked yet again by another serious accident with tailbacks stretching over a mile in each direction. This is the latest in a long list of accidents on the A53 in the area, ranging from minor to fatal.

Baldwins Gate Action Group successfully campaigned against a development of 113 houses on prime agricultural land in the village which would only add to the high volume of traffic which is faced daily by the residents.

Councillors on the Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Planning Committee visited the site and concluded that everything we had said about this dangerous road was true. With the village's lack of infrastructure and facilities, they agreed that such a development was totally unsustainable and not in the interests of the residents or the Borough. 

UNANIMOUSLY, the councillors rejected the application by Richborough Estates, a company which did not intend to develop land the land but rather sought to obtain planning permission in order to share in the increased value of the land once sold to a developer. Some would class these as simply land speculators trying to cash in on the current confusion in the planning system caused by poorly drafted legislation in the National Planning Policy Framework - NPPF. 

Despite their development being shown as unsuitable and against the interests of the village, they have stated that it is their intention to appeal and this is currently awaited.

Is this the first accident caused by HS2?

Saturday 26th October was never going to be an ordinary day in Whitmore and Baldwins Gate. It was the day that HS2 were coming to the village hall to explain why we should support their £42,600,000,000,000 expenditure on a high-speed line that was no longer going to be that much quicker than the ordinary lines and that would be financially detrimental to most of Staffordshire.

One major impact (in more ways than one) that the event had, seems to be yet another road traffic accident on the A53 in the village ... the fourth in two months! Once again the village and the A53 were clogged. Fortunately it was not for 8 hours on this occasion. Rumour has it, though this is not to be relied upon as evidence, that a car was waiting to turn into the HS2 exhibition, causing a small tail-back, and another motorist failed to stop causing one vehicle to shunt into another and another.....

For the villagers, traffic is a MAJOR issue and now, with the proposed construction of a MINI_ROUNDABOUT, they are all up in arms.

Highway engineers and Traffic Management Designers can say what they like but the facts speak for themselves. The village keeps being the location of accidents, both minor and serious.

Adding 113 extra houses, increasing the village population by 50%, will supposedly do nothing to make matters worse, at least once we have our new roundabout and extra Puffin crossing. There's no doubt that these obstacles will slow traffic but the designers don't see traffic speed as an issue anyway. What they will do is clog up the village at peak times, blocking exits from other side avenues, and seriously limiting the access and egress of properties in the vicinity.

The proposers of this development and associated engineering works are missing the point that the village is NOT stagnating, has NO NEED for this development, has no MARKET for these houses, and HAS NO INFRASTRUCTURE to support such an increase in population. The development is UNSUSTAINABLE!

Simply because the Newcastle Borough Council has failed to demonstrate that it can meet its 5-year housing targets, it is now being preyed upon by parasitic land developers taking advantage of its predicament like vultures pecking at an injured animal.