Road Masterplan is unworkable- Rick Martin Bacon

It has been interesting to see those who are campaigning to get the proposed road changes to Leek stopped. They include the scare-mongers who claim that if Sainsbury's are not allowed to remove the monument they will get in a huff and remove their ball of 350 jobs  unlikely they are here to make money, not change the landscape; attempts to label campaigners as dinosaurs- unfortunately the writer of the letter that included a fictional dinosaur in the letter title and another claimed that we were a "noisy" minority need to look at that referendum result again.

Now we have a claim from Cllr hart that unless we sit down and shut up we will destroy the Leek Masterplan.

Now call me an old cynic, if you will, but I think that this argument is the most hollow of all. For one, having not been consulted on the said masterplan I could not care two hoots about retaining an iconic feature of the Leek townscape allowing traditions to go on  without the inclusion of the Green Cross Code and actually asking  people who have to live with the consequences what they think it means then its back to the drawing board. Such considerations have to be included  from the start

But a more pertinent question must be what masterplan?

There isn't one.

Yes there is a draft one, but just how sacrosanct  that is can be judged  by the fact the plan  includes a draft multi storey car park on the High St car park, a site that will serve the town centre and ease parking problems for those who wish to park within a reasonable distance from where they intend to shop.

That all changed when a person decided that they wanted land to put up a privately owned cinebowl. Our leaders fell over themselves to change the masterplan

Now call me an old stick in the mud but that does suggest to me that the plan is amenable to change? Or does one man's business scheme trump the wishes  of the 6,000 people who signed the petition who have signed  the petition calling for road changes to be shelved. I would be interested in seeing how this relates to democracy

In short the road changes which includes cutting off the alternative route through the town , using the residential  West End of Leek  as traffic calming measures and stopping the people going about their business are unworkable  and potentially catastrophic.

As in integral part of the masterplan then the masterplan is unworkable and needs to be changed. As as has been shown this can happen. The only obstacle is the council, and even though they may have forgotten this, they work for us. Time for them to be reminded.