LATEST:

February 2012 - Cornwall Council Planning Committee approve the plans, with only the proviso that traffic number be monitored.

They approved it on the basis that the previously granted for industrial units covered use of the the bridge. They completely ignored the fact that the new traffic profile of constant HGVs is not the usage on which the original application was granted.

None of our questions relating to traffic assessment and safety assesment for the brdge have ever been answered.

At present there seems little more that can be done other than continue to ask these questions.

BACKGROUND

November 2011 - A planning application has been submitted application for a waste transfer plant at Hallenbeagle just NW of Scorrier. The adjacent bridge (opposite Mitchell and Webber) is a vital and only crossing for horses over the A30 and is part of the horse route of the Coast to Coast Trail.

The proposal if it goes ahead will see a continuous stream of HGVs back and forth from early morning until night. It is proposed to modify the bridge and make it a major road connection to the new industrial complex.

This development would effectively close that crossing to horses. Horses have not been considered and cyclists and walkers are being given a 1.25 metre shared path on either side of a widened carriageway which in itself is ridiculous.

The facts relating to the bridge are:

A width of only 1.25 metres is being provided for shared cycle and pedestrians either side of the carriageway,
A 1.4 metre external bridge parapet is being provided
Each carriageway width for HGVs is 3 metres
The carriageway is to be whitelined
There are bridleways and access to major promoted cycle and horse trails on both sides of the bridge
No provision is made for horses to cross the modified bridge
The current bridge is regularly used by horses as it is the only safe crossing point over the A30
The motor traffic which currently uses the bridge is very light.
It is proposed to convert this route into a major highway for HGVs confirmed by the current planning proposal

I have asked the following immediate questions:

1. Why has the BHS not been consulted over this highways scheme?

2. Why have horses not been considered and especially in view of its location and connecting bridleways?

3. I have grave concerns over the the safety of shared use (cycles/pedestrians) inside 1.25 metres. Is 1.25 metres the recommended safe width for such a provision?

4.The carriage way width of 3 metres is the absolute minimum to accommodate 2.5 metre wide HGVs and with only around 1 foot to spare on either side. This again raises grave safety concerns with so little margin for error. How can you justify this arrangement of a narrow shared use path immediately adjacent to such an HGV highway?

5.Is the required Vulnerable User Audit available for inspection?

It would appear to me that the HGVs and cyclists and walkers have been shoe-horned in with no adequate provision, purely for expediency and minimum cost and with no regard at all to comfort and safety of the vulnerable users. Horses clearly have been given no thought what so ever.

I ask that the plans for the bridge are immediately reconsidered so that adequate provision can be made for both HGVs and all Vulnerable Users.

Ideally full bridge widening or separate bridge is required to enable vulnerable users to be accommodated.

Without such widening a possible solution could be to provide a 2.5 metre multi-user track on one side, with full equine parapets or higher.

Answers are awaited from the planners and Cornwall Council Highways.

The Planning Officer dealing with the application is Tim Warne twarne@cornwall.gov.uk