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West Berkshire Liberal DemocratsWorking for you |
Road safety and noise fears as controversial new waste site opens in Greenham
October 13, 2008 9:41 AM
Greenham's Councillors today responded angrily to the announcement from West Berkshire Council that the much-vaunted new waste site at Abbotswood, off the A339 Newtown Road, is set to open for business on Wednesday.
"I was against the site when the plans were forced through by the Tories 18 months ago, and I am against the site today. Now it looks like my worst fears are in danger of coming true", said Greenham Councillor Julian Swift-Hook, one of the two Liberal Democrat West Berkshire Council Ward Members for the area.
"I have already witnessed the struggle that just the odd car has had trying to get out of the new site and in to the fast-moving traffic on the A339 - I dread to think what will happen when the site opens for business properly. It won't take long before the build-up of cars try to get out gridlocks the site itself, and if that happens then cars and vans will be queuing along the A339 to get in to it."
West Berkshire Council's Liberal Democrats have always maintained that Pinchington Lane was the right place for the waste site.
"I'm happy to have a new state-of-the-art waste site - but not on a busy main road where cars go zooming by at speeds in excess of 60mph," said Councillor Swift-Hook. "This is just an accident waiting to happen."
"I still don't understand why the Council couldn't have built their new facility at Pinchington Lane," he went on. "There is plenty of land there, and a new purpose-built site there would have sorted out the traffic hold-ups. But now the land is going to be used for luxury private housing, and meanwhile West Berkshire residents will have to struggle with the traffic on the main road in order to leave their recycling."
Greenham's councillors have been against this development from the outset. "I've said from the start that this new site is going to cause big problems", said Councillor Billy Drummond. "The noise from the site and from the traffic going in and out will blight the lives of local residents. Their lives will be a misery from Wednesday onwards."
Residents of the Deadmans Lane development live directly opposite the new site. "Taking up the noise-reducing road surface that was put down in 2003 has just made matters worse," said Councillor Drummond. "I am trying to get a sound-proof fence put in to protect residents from the worst of the noise, but this will only mask some of it."
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