Basic facts of the proposed bypass

• Bradford Council is proposing to alleviate traffic on the A650 through Shipley by spending £140 million on a bypass.
• There is only one plan being considered at present though there are over ten Airedale traffic management options that Bradford Council could consider.
• The plan proposes a tunnel under both Shipley town centre and Saltaire Village, designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
• The plan proposes a road through the Heritage Site’s buffer zone, through the Leeds/Liverpool Canal conservation area and running alongside woodland designated ‘Ancient and Semi-Natural’.

The proposed plan's impact on Saltaire

• There will be damage to the environment, damage to tourism and damage to local businesses.
• There will be damage to the view from Shipley Glen.
• There will be increased traffic noise which will ruin the peace of Roberts Park.
• The principle of a bypass is to pass by a certain area. Businesses in that area therefore no longer benefit from passing traffic - they become invisible to those who elect to use the bypass. There is therefore a measured impact on local business (though it supports the needs of business further up the line in Keighley etc.)
• Tourism - A mill with a road next to it, or a park with the noise of a road in it, or a glen with the view of a road are less attractive than those without. One need simply walk up the towpath towards Bingley, or between Keighley and Steeton, to hear the drone of traffic that will invade the village. With local businesses hit, and moving out or closing down, there is less to attract tourists, which in turn hits business further, which in turn hits tourism further. With a risk to tourism, there is less argument to get grants to support and improve facilities such as the park, with the inevitable downgrading of those facilities over time, again causing a decreased tourism.

The flaw of the proposed plan

• The single-carriageway road, which is being proposed, will not alleviate the traffic on the Saltaire and Bingley Roads and will therefore multiply the air and noise pollution from traffic and not reduce it.
• Tunnel legislation currently insists that for a single tunnel of over 500 metres (which the council concede is needed in the current plans) there should be a through traffic of no more than 10,000 units per day.
• The current statistics from the Bingley bypass by far exceed that.
• Where statistics exceed those figures, the legislation requires a two-tunnel/dual carriageway approach.
• There is no room for a duel carriageway on the current proposed route through the village. This means that any single carraigeway route would need to restrict traffic to under 15k per day (i.e be a toll road or shut at ten in the morning - the toll road route is the only sensible one).
• Nonetheless, this throughput would not ease the congestion on the Saltaire and Bingley road. In effect, pollution would be spread into the village by the village being surrounded by congested roads, instead of just fringed by one.
• Therefore the plan does not offer a sustainable traffic solution.
  

Creative thinking needed to find a solution

• The SVS wants to see a solution that avoids adding to congestion and pollution.
• The Saltaire Village Society are not traffic experts, so they are not equipped to make alternative proposals, though we support greater public transport initiatives, the forthcoming Saltiare car share scheme and so on.
• Many people are interested in a tunnel that starts in Shipley and ends at the Bingley bypass - there was even a letter campaign in the T&A about it - but it's by far the most expensive alternative, so won't get much credence.
• We are campaigning for a home zone in Saltaire to address the traffic, and are petitioning for measures such as reinstating cobbles to slow people down, or creative thinking such as one-way streets (Caroline street between Exhibition Road and the playground, for example, as a one-way street would drastically cut the potential of the village as a rat-run). Other measures, such as making Saltaire road into a two-lane one-way street with lights that switch the direction of the one-way at five minute intervals, for example, could ease through-put. The council need to think more creatively, and they aren't.

Saltaire Village Society campaign - join us!

The Saltaire Village Society is co-ordinating a campaign against the Saltaire bypass proposal.

• Visit the SVS website for the latest news on this campaign >>
  

• Send a standard objection email to Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, through this website >>
• Email Councillor Anne Hawkesworth with your own objection >>

Do you have news on the Saltaire bypass proposal? Please keep us informed.

E. webmaster@saltairevillage.info

Submit your bypass questions

We will try to answer your questions about the Saltaire bypass proposal.

E. webmaster@saltairevillage.info

Click on the image below for a larger, detailed map of the proposed bypass.