Bradford District Plan: Fancy decoration around a poisoned chalice?

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The District Plan includes policies on transport, the environment, and a section on the ‘Canal Road Corridor’. So Bradford Shipley Travel Alliance commented with our focus on that ‘corridor’ and our concerns on health, safety and averting climate catastrophe. We made it clear that our response did not distract from comments that any of our supporting organisations may make.

We applauded the policy for 15-minute neighbourhoods with all services close to housing developments. We welcomed the policies favouring housing developments without increasing car traffic, and the policy for carbon neutrality by 2038. All were all positive and necessary. But there seem to be major contradictions between these strategic policies and the current plans for Canal Road, which were drawn up a dozen years ago under different priorities.

We said that “The Plan’s strategic priorities should be defended against contrary measures in current plans, not tucked around them like fancy decoration around a poisoned chalice.”

The District Plan does not temper or alter the Canal Road scheme in order to meet the new priorities. The housing developments in Bolton Woods have no conditions to reduce car travel, no conditions to insist on car clubs, active travel (bikes and walking), or buses. The plan protects a route for creation of extra traffic capacity between Bradford and Baildon (the Shipley Eastern Relief Road). It sees Canal Road and Valley Road becoming “a streamlined high-capacity route”. These plans fly in the face of the Council’s support for Carbon Emissions Reductions that require a significant reduction in car traffic. The scheme incorporated into the District Plan puts more pressure on the traffic bottleneck of Shipley rather than reduces it.

Isn’t it poor planning to declare the destination is one place, traffic reduction and sustainable development, but accept without comment projects that will instead take us to somewhere else? 

The full responses from BSTA are at https://bsta.cleanairbradford.uk/wp/wp-admin/upload.php?item=105. 

Shipley Town Council’s gave an extensive response to the District Plan, which can be read here: https://shipleytowncouncil.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/draft-local-plan-response-final-ja.pdf. It included a comment on the road plan between Bradford and Shipley: “We are concerned about the impact of the Bradford-Shipley Route Improvement Scheme on Shipley. This road scheme is designed to increase road carrying capacity on Canal, Valley and Otley Roads and as a result will, through induced demand encourage more traffic onto the roads. This increase in traffic is highly likely to have a specific negative impact on Shipley. It will increase congestion, air and noise pollution as well as rat-running and will have a negative impact on community wellbeing through community severance caused by wide, congested roads.”

BSTA ways of working – proposal for comment by 21 March 2021

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Bradford-Shipley Travel Alliance (BSTA) is made up of (a) organisations joining it, which each have a member who passes news between the organisation’s members and BSTA, and (b) individuals who have signed up for the BSTA newsletter, for example on the website.

BSTA will work by consensus, based on its founding statement:

Any new road scheme between Bradford and Shipley must result in:

  • Significantly improved air quality and safety in all residential areas affected by the proposed scheme, including for all schools.
  • A response to the climate emergency including reduced carbon emissions, increased investment in public transport, walking and cycling, and less motor traffic overall.

We request that no further consultation goes ahead without information that shows how the intended benefits of the scheme will be guaranteed.

Actions within the founding statement can be made in the name of the Alliance by its organising team. That team currently is in practice Ludi Simpson, Dave Robison and Kath Jackson. The team will be added to by anyone who wishes to volunteer from member organisations or individuals who have signed up to the Alliance.

Actions that go beyond the founding statement will be necessary to respond to the progress of the road scheme. Proposals for such actions will be made by the organising team, and circulated to member organisations with a deadline for comment, usually at least a week but this may depend on the nature of the proposal. Lack of comment will be taken as approval. Any proposed changes to a proposal will be negotiated by the organising team.

Please comment below, or by email to admin@bsta.cleanairbradford.uk. Thank you!

Notes:

BSTA is not an organisation with a constitution and elected officers. It would need to be constituted in this way if it were to handle money, apply for funding and so on, though it could also do these things at the moment by relying on the facilities of any one of its members.

At 4th March 2021 there were 13 organisations in the Alliance as listed below, and 22 other individuals signed up to the newsletter.

Shipley Veg on the Edge, Friends of the Earth Baildon & Shipley, Clean Air Bradford, St Paul’s Church, Shipley and Saltaire Living Streets, Saltaire Women’s Institute, Norwood Neighbourhood Association, XR Shipley & Bradford, Shipley Town Council, Shipley Ward and Shipley Constituency Labour Party, Green Party Shipley, Keighley and Shipley Liberal Democrats. All three Shipley councillors to Bradford District Council (Vick Jenkins, Martin Love and Kevin Warnes) support the Alliance.

Bradford Shipley Travel Alliance has twenty organisations and is growing

David Robison 1 Comment

Shipley Town Council, Norwood Neighbourhood Association, Bradford and Shipley XR and Saltaire Women’s Institute are the latest to add their voices to the concerns on how the Bradford-Shipley traffic scheme is unfolding.

Please sign up as an individual and think whether your community organisation might also. You will get occasional newsletters and can add your views and weight to the consultation with Bradford Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

The currently ambiguous aims of the road scheme mean a likely increase in urban traffic, encouraging extra travel by car at a time when all levels of government have declared a climate emergency that calls for less traffic. Safety issues including high air pollution levels in residential areas and especially around schools trouble us too. The BSTA will shortly be repeating its request for much more information about these aspects of the scheme, calling for guarantees of considerably less pollution than at present.

The organisations joining the Alliance so far are Shipley Veg on the Edge, Friends of the Earth Baildon & Shipley, Clean Air Bradford, St Paul’s Church, Shipley and Saltaire Living Streets, Saltaire Women’s Institute, Norwood Neighbourhood Association, XR Shipley & Bradford, Shipley Town Council, Shipley Ward and Shipley Constituency Labour Party, Green Party Shipley, Keighley and Shipley Liberal Democrats. All three Shipley councillors to Bradford District Council (Jenkins, Love and Warnes) support the Alliance. The Alliance is not affilated to any political party but welcomes wide support and involvement.

UPDATE JUNE 2022

Additional organisations joined the Alliance to bring the total to 20: Friends of Northcliffe; Wycliffe Neighbourhood Association; Access for the Disabled Bradford; Bradford and Shipley Trades Union Council; Shipley CE Primary School board of governors; Heaton and Baildon Branches of the Labour Party.

The new Bradford Local Plan – how is it connected to this traffic scheme?

David Robison Leave a comment

Bradford Council published its draft Local Plan for the whole district in early February. It divides the District up into area mini-plans, including for the ‘Canal Road Corridor’, ‘Shipley’, and ‘Bradford North-West’ which includes Manningham Lane and Keighley Road. Much of the public discussion will be about where new housing should be built, but the plan also covers transport and the environment.

The draft Local Plan says that Canal Road / Valley Road ‘would become a streamlined high capacity route’ (Section 5.6.15). Responses to the consultation are required by 24th March. BSTA will consider how to further our concerns about air quality and climate through this consultation.

You can read each section of the draft Local Plan at https://www.bradford.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy/bradford-district-local-plan. On that same page are invitations to Zoom consultations on the broad policies in the plan, including Transport, the Environment and Housing. They are all from 1st to 12th March, and you have to register.