Issue - meetings

Flintshire County Council’s response to the Welsh Government A55/A494/A548 Deeside Corridor Consultation Document

Meeting: 16/06/2017 - Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Expired 13/07/20 (Item 7)

7 Flintshire County Council’s response to the Welsh Government A55/A494/A548 Deeside Corridor Consultation Document pdf icon PDF 86 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

That the Council’s options appraisal for the two possible routes and the formal Council response to the Welsh Government consultation be supported.

Minutes:

The Chief Officer (Streetscene and Transportation) introduced the Council’s response to the Welsh Government (WG) A55/A494/A548 Deeside corridor consultation document.  The consultation process began in March 2017 on 2 possible options to improve the A55/A494/A548 corridor and a number of public consultation exhibitions had taken place in the local area, which provided residents and businesses with details on the two options which had been developed and assessed by WG.  Details on the two routes (blue and red routes) could be found on the WG website and a copy of the consultation document was attached at Appendix 3 of the report.

 

            Details of the Council’s response and preferred option were shown at Appendix 2 of the report.  The Council considered that on balance, the most beneficial route to the Council and North Wales would be the red route option but considers that in order to maximise benefit from the overall project, additional elements (some of which were contained within the blue route option) should be included within the final proposals.

 

            Councillor Marion Bateman stated that she could not support the Council’s response to the consultation document and outlined her concerns around the ‘divisive’ choices being proposed by the WG neither of which, she felt, would address the issues on the A55/A494/A548 Deeside Corridor.  She questioned the additional income projected for the economy from the red route given that businesses on the Deeside Industrial Park were in support of the blue route.  She asked where the increased traffic would go once it had reached Northop and questioned whether the red route went against planning policy in terms of development in the green barrier.

 

            Councillor Vicki Perfect spoke against the proposed red route and the negative impact this would have on the rural area of Flintshire.  She reported that Flint Town Council had responded to the WG as part of the consultation process in support of the proposed blue route.

 

            The Chief Officer responded that businesses on the Deeside Industrial Park had raised concerns around the disruption that would be caused during the improvement works being carried out.  He had advised them to forward their concerns to the WG directly as part of the consultation process.

 

            In response to comments made by Councillor Clive Carver, the Chief Officer advised that if WG implemented the red route option, the A548 would become a trunk road and future maintenance costs for Flintshire Bridge would become the responsibility of the WG.

 

            Councillor Paul Shotton said that he had attended a number of consultation events where there had been consensus for supporting the red route which he felt would provide improved access to Deeside Industrial Park. 

 

Having enquired about the green route, Councillor David Evans was advised thatthere were no details as this was an aspirational route intended as an alternative to the red and blue routes.

 

            Councillor Bateman proposed the Committee consider the green route which had been proposed by Northop Community Council and Flint Town Council prior to the Council’s response being submitted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7