South Newsham and South Blyth residents in anguish regarding indicative rail-crossing proposals?

 

With the release of indicative plans to develop a new road layout at South Newsham designed to keep traffic flows moving up and down Laverock Hall Road when the AB&T Northumberland Line is reopened has created a myriad of questions on social media.

Many focus on the stoppage two years ago of the Cowpen Road bypass by Tory led Northumberland County Council who reportedly sent the project back to Highways England and haven’t publicly raised the matter since. Commentators from the South of the Town demand to know if this released indicative plan for a rail line crossing is the County Council’s cheapskate version of an access and egress road to take a greater share than it already does of the traffic flows into and out of Blyth.

As well as being the home area of Ian Levy MP, South Newsham, South Beach and South Blyth doesn’t suffer the amount of pollution from highways and industry as do its neighbours in Cowpen and Kitty Brewster so the question of placing additional traffic on this road and levelling up pollution across the Town is valid indeed.

We also noticed pressure building from residents of Seaton Valley, particularly Seaton Sluice who believe the plan may place additional traffic to North Tyneside via their village settings as it may be easier to enter North Tyneside through the ‘Sluice’ than travelling through Seaton Delaval to reach neighbourly destinations in their adjoining borough.

Northumberland Tories need to come up with some answers for residents as they can’t hide behind network rail after the flurries of radio, TV and press media stories they have run out regarding their involvement in this project!