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25/03/08 : Labour attacks Tory transport plans
The centrepiece of the Tories’ transport plans, the new version of the deeply unpopular Cross-Town Route which they have renamed an “East Reading by-pass”, has been greeted with unabashed hostility by Reading Labour Party, which submitted its own much more comprehensive transport plans to the Transport Commission back in January.
Park Ward Councillor Jon Hartley says: "Whatever their denials, the Tories are planning, just like they did in the early 1990s, a bridge to carry motorised traffic, including cars, across Kennetmouth. This scheme will devastate a green lung highly prized by Newtown residents and would likely mean the destruction of the historic Horseshoe Bridge. It looks like the Cross-Town Route, it sounds like the Cross-Town Route and it will ruin Kennetmouth, just like the Cross-Town Route.
"As a Newtown resident, I’ve always been determined to protect Kennetmouth, and am amazed that a Tory Party which got its first Councillor elected in Park Ward last year, should now seek to dump this scheme on local people. Labour led the successful campaign against the Cross-Town Route last time round and will be campaigning hard to make sure the Tories don't have the chance to get this scheme under way either."
Labour, whose plans were designed to cut by half the 155,000 cars that come through Reading town centre every day, is appalled that the Conservatives are proposing a scheme designed to make it easier for people to drive from Woodley into the town centre. And they add that Tory plans to rip out the Kings Road bus lane open another route for driving in from Woodley, and would make the bus journey into town longer and less reliable for many people living in East Reading.
Reading Labour Party press officer Pete Ruhemann adds "These proposals show just how hollow and insincere are the Tory claims about wanting to achieve a “modal shift” away from the private car. These plans just bring more cars into town, with no indication as to where they go when they get there.
“But several of their other ideas are nicked from Labour’s plans, including those for Sidmouth Street, the junction of the A33 and the IDR, the weight restriction on the A4074 and a pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Thames, and for a pedestrian and cycle bridge at Cow Lane. I am glad the Tories agree with us about giving more priority to pedestrians and cyclists, but again their proposal for a cycle route along the A4 is a cut-down version of one in the Council's cycling strategy which is now out for consultation. I don't mind the Tories being copy-cats, but an acknowledgement would have been nice.
"More seriously, " he reflects, "the many local people and organisations that have taken the trouble to give their views to Sir Brian Briscoe and his Commission will I think be rather offended by Cllr. Willis' cavalier dismissal of its work. Labour has always said we don't have all the answers, and that we wanted the Commission to look at our proposals alongside those of others and come up with the best set of answers it can for the town. It is real arrogance for the Tories to say they don't want the Commission to look at their plans and furthermore that they don't want to pay any attention to the over 540 submissions the Commission has received. I can tell the Tories something though: very few of those submissions called for the return of the Cross-Town Route! That one's a no-no."
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