Monday, May 17, 2010
The County Council Must Come Clean Over What Lies Behind the Funding of the Stafford Western Access Road
I real do think the County Council should come clean about how they are intending to fund the proposed Stafford Western Access road if they failed to get money from developers of new housing in the area.
While I agree that the final decision as to where new houses are to be built in Stafford lies with the Borough Council I really do think that County Council should admit that they are planning to build this new road with the intention that it will open up a large area of land for house building.
Indeed they even hinted at this fact in the local press when they said the new road should not be though of as a bypass but instead, as the named suggests an “Access Road”. By its very nature and “Access Road” must provide access to something!
While the County Council are making a bid to Central Government for £36illion of funding, this will fall short of the real cost of building the road with its two new bridges over the railway and river. While in the short-term the Council might fund this shortfall themselves they will no doubt be expecting to recoup this cash sometime in the future. I suggest that this can only mean one thing - they expect developers whose sites will benefit from the new road to contribute towards its costs. Indeed the County Council are already using this funding model in Rugeley where developers are now paying back money the Council spent to build the towns new bypass.
If this is their plan in Stafford then naturally the Burley Fields area of Castlefields seems a likely candidate to provide the cash as this site would certainly benefit from the road and also be large enough to generate the money needed to repay the County Council in full.
I believe the County Council are being totally unfair with the way they are presenting the proposal to build this new road and they should admit it will provide access to Burley Fields, which when developed would make a considerable contribution which would off-set original costs.
While I agree that the final decision as to where new houses are to be built in Stafford lies with the Borough Council I really do think that County Council should admit that they are planning to build this new road with the intention that it will open up a large area of land for house building.
Indeed they even hinted at this fact in the local press when they said the new road should not be though of as a bypass but instead, as the named suggests an “Access Road”. By its very nature and “Access Road” must provide access to something!
While the County Council are making a bid to Central Government for £36illion of funding, this will fall short of the real cost of building the road with its two new bridges over the railway and river. While in the short-term the Council might fund this shortfall themselves they will no doubt be expecting to recoup this cash sometime in the future. I suggest that this can only mean one thing - they expect developers whose sites will benefit from the new road to contribute towards its costs. Indeed the County Council are already using this funding model in Rugeley where developers are now paying back money the Council spent to build the towns new bypass.
If this is their plan in Stafford then naturally the Burley Fields area of Castlefields seems a likely candidate to provide the cash as this site would certainly benefit from the road and also be large enough to generate the money needed to repay the County Council in full.
I believe the County Council are being totally unfair with the way they are presenting the proposal to build this new road and they should admit it will provide access to Burley Fields, which when developed would make a considerable contribution which would off-set original costs.
# posted by Barry Stamp @ 7:16 PM 
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