Mr Paul Holdsworth examined by Mrs Matthews
- sections 1916-1935
MR PAUL HOLDSWORTH, Sworn
Examined by MRS MATTHEWS
1916. MRS MATTHEWS: You live in the
village of Flore?
(Mr Holdsworth) I
do.
1917. MRS MATTHEWS: How long have you
lived there?
(Mr Holdsworth) Twenty
seven years.
1918. MRS MATTHEWS: Flore have been
campaigning for a bypass for how long?
(Mr Holdsworth) In
broad terms 50 years.
1919. MRS MATTHEWS: It is 50 years.
(Mr Holdsworth) Yes.
1920. MRS MATTHEWS: How long have you
served on your parish council?
(Mr Holdsworth) Five
years, shortly after I retired from gainful employment.
1921. MRS MATTHEWS: Is your home close
to the A45?
(Mr Holdsworth) It
is close but it is not actually on the A45, but within about 100
yards. I can see it, I can hear it, I can monitor it.
1922. MRS MATTHEWS: But to get out of
the village you would have to get on to the A45 in one direction
or another?
(Mr Holdsworth) There
are minor roads out but basically one is going onto the High Street,
the A45, yes.
1923. MRS MATTHEWS: Would you explain
to their Lordships, as we are constrained for time, exactly what
the problems are with the Flore part of the A45, especially the
Flore Bends and up to Junction 16?
(Mr Holdsworth) My
Lords, we really do want and need a bypass. I am actually on the
Flore Bypass Action Group, not that we are terribly active because
we do not seem to get very far. We were at the top of the pile
in 1987 and we were top of the pile in July 2001 and then we disappeared
off the list. There is a reserved route but we no longer figure
on the latest local transport plan or anything. On average, we
have about 17 to 18,000 vehicles per day, probably 1,500 to 2,500
are HGVs, and a very high proportion of those would in fact be
maximum weight vehicles - 40 tonnes plus - going through a village
with 15 listed buildings which are shaken and rattled and loose
ironwork which we can never get repaired, so we are all sleepless
in Seattle now - it is becoming a living hell. There are no signs
of any improvement. What Mrs Matthews has said with the emphasis
on Weedon applies equally only more so to Flore, and indeed to
the next village towards Junction 16 of the M1, which is only
half a mile from the M1, which is Upper Heyford. So we have three
villages which really are very badly affected.
1924. MRS MATTHEWS: If this extra development
in Daventry went ahead at the pace it is likely to if the UDC
is set up, how do you see that impacting on the problems we suffer
with that road and you in particular suffer?
(Mr Holdsworth) It
will come to a grinding halt, won't it? We spend two days a week
grid-locked already. We are known as the M1 bypass. Whenever the
M1 comes to a halt, which it does frequently, it is diverted through
Flore from Junction 16 and back-tracks and it is a log-jam. So
we think that the extra development, the extra vehicle movements
and all the rest of it, and at the moment I question whether the
Daventry development could actually happen because you would not
be able to get access to it. What I would contend, and the Action
Group and the Parish Council, is that we need a bypass before
there is any further development. Even if it went ahead this year,
I have heard on excellent authority it would be 2011 before it
would be in place. So we have another problem, another factor,
to consider.
1925. MRS MATTHEWS: It is a never-ending
conundrum.
(Mr Holdsworth) Conundrum,
that is the word.
1926. MRS MATTHEWS: Are there any other
problems, apart from the structural damage to the buildings which
have occurred?
(Mr Holdsworth) Well,
safety, of course. I should have highlighted that. We have had
a couple of deaths in my time on the Flore Bends, where heavy
trucks have hit lampposts and what have you. There have been quite
a few minor accidents, shunts, but only two fatalities in my time.
But it is early days yet, as the situation gets worse, frustrations
get worse, more and more commuters use rat-runs and there is very
little policing now at all - in fact we have not got a policeman
in West Northants, he has gone. It is becoming embarrassing and
dangerous.
1927. MRS MATTHEWS: You live close enough
to the A45 so you must hear the emergency vehicles whipping through?
(Mr Holdsworth) It
averages four or five a day.
1928. MRS MATTHEWS: That is just what
I was going to ask.
(Mr Holdsworth) I
see them flashing by and, believe it or not, the occasional police
bell. The UDC, which is the purpose as I understand it of this
representation, we were consulted on but being amateurs really
and most of us working we really had not got time to analyse it
and weigh the pros and cons and really comment sensibly and authoritatively.
We did give a comment which was inadequate but the more we have
learned since the more worried we have become. We have this total
figure of 167,000 houses scheduled for Northampton by 2031, a
chunk of that is in West Northants, this is a rural county, it
is not an urban county but at this rate it will become an urban
sprawl, and we are very opposed to that.
1929. MRS MATTHEWS: Is there anything
other than that that you can see which would assist the situation
that you and your village find yourself in? They have done works
on the Flore Bends, I know, to straighten them out because of
the accident rate. Is there any other thing which your council
has discussed with Highways to alleviate the problem?
(Mr Holdsworth) We
have tried to get speed cameras but all we have got is flashing
warning signs, and I have a horrible fear that if we had speed
cameras it would be mainly the villagers who would get pulled
because of their frustration. There is not a lot more which can
be done. The road is a major improvement on the A45, where in
fact they re-angled the bends to slow things down because they
broadened the road and that would have been about 1978, something
like that, but it is now totally inadequate, there is no alternative
in our view - the parish council and the residents and don't forget
88 per cent of the population responded to the survey we carried
out, an independent survey - to a bypass.
1930. CHAIRMAN: That might be a happy
or unhappy note on which to end.
1931. MRS MATTHEWS: I have finished
now.
1932. CHAIRMAN: That is excellent. We
can undertake the cross-examination tomorrow.
1933. MR DRABBLE: I was not proposing
to cross-examine, I was proposing to take this fairly shortly
and deal with it by way of submissions.
1934. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much,
that is most helpful. Any question by members of the Committee?
Thank you very much. We are very grateful to you, Mr Holdsworth.
That is a particularly convenient moment then to adjourn.
(The witness withdrew)
1935. CHAIRMAN: Members of the Committee
will meet at 25 past 10 tomorrow morning for a private deliberation.
The Committee is adjourned.
(Adjourned until 10.30 tomorrow morning)
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