Tuesday 22 December 2015

Higher Fraddon latest ... meeting with Highways England

Following the deferral of the planning applications for the biogas plant at Higher Fraddon – partly to explore an alternative access to the site from the A30 – a meeting was held with Highways England at the Cornwall Council Offices at Bodmin on Monday.

Present at the meeting were two representatives of Highways England (Alexis Field, Sally Parish) and one from their contractors Kier (Dave Ewings), three representatives from Cornwall Council (Nigel Doyle, Jeremy Edwards and Jim Holt) as well as Steve Double MP and his wife Ann, Dan Johns from the pig farm (plus a planning consultant for JMW Farms Ltd; Russell Dodge), David Manley (Greener for Life) and two representatives from the Higher Fraddon Residents Group; Anne Woolcock and Bella McCarthy.

Anne and Bella are pictured below, just before the meeting, with a petition of over 700 names calling for a new access off the A30.



I was also there and chaired the ninety minute session.

At the meeting, the representatives of Highways England made it clear that they considered the A30 to be an important corridor to promote economic growth, which they wished to turn into an “expressway.” They also made clear to us that they were not keen for additional junctions to be created.

They did however acknowledge that new junctions could be allowed in very exceptional circumstances, but advised that any justification would be very, very difficult to achieve.

In spite of the Highways England view on a new access, they agreed to send additional information about its approach to the trunk road network to local representatives.

Attendees at the meeting also discussed a range of issues relating to traffic and the biogas plant, and we will be reporting back in detail at the next meeting of the Higher Fraddon Community Forum.

This will take place on Wednesday 13th January at Kingsley Village and all are welcome.

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