Talk:A494 road

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[edit] Removed Text

I moved this text here as it is full of POV. This needs a rewrite to go back into the article IMHO, but I do not know the details to do so effectively. Can someone help?

During April 2006 residents around the streets of "Old Aston Hill" -a critical area of this phase (and the old-time highway which the A494 in its present form was designed to bypass) discovered detailed plans, backed by the Welsh Assembly Government, which would greatly prejudice the safety and amenity of "their" road. The plans, part of a new scheme entitled, "A494 Drome Corner to Ewloe Improvement" were drawn up by "design & build" contractors McAlpine. They revealed a clear intent to recommission Old Aston Hill as a full-blown feeder route for hi-volume shopper traffic bound for the newly expanded Queensferry superstores.

Persistent enquiries by residents for comprehensive information -including critical traffic counts- met with reluctant cooperation from official sources until the intervention of local Assembly Member, CARL SARGEANT. Subsequent research revealed that the proposals would result in a 40 fold increase in vehicles using Old Aston Hill -peaking at some 6500 vehicles per day!

Residents, who up to this time had acted in low-key isolation, quickly formed a coherent community action group, "Old Aston Hill Says NO!". A vigorous campaign to broadcast their findings and concerns for safety, pollution and unjustified capital expenditure swung into action.

Throughout the next weeks meetings and forums were arranged to seek opinion and formulate and concert further group action. These were attended by leading politicians -and hundreds of concerned residents. Vital and commendable footwork by a small army of resident volunteers was, possibly for the first time in N Wales community circles, augmented by the enthusiastic adoption of, "new-media" resources. A dedicated website was set up [1] which, within days, became a focus of attention by news-hungry local and National Press.

Teams of residents set to making banners, car-stickers and tee shirts. The windows and gardens of virtually every home on "the Hill" displayed colourful billboards stating clear opposition to any plans to incorporate this cherished road system into any new scheme.

With the school holiday season imminent, residents succeeded in leveraging a timescale for a full-disclosure of latest proposals by way of a public exhibition. A date was fixed for 4 days commencing 19 July 2006 at Deeside Leisure Centre. The first day was reserved for VIP councillors and senior politicians. As they arrived they were greeted by a concerted and good-natured resident's demonstration. At the close of the meeting the demonstrators were handed information dossiers. Significantly, they contained a hastily-printed addenda in the form of a plan for an alternative option that would NOT require the intensive use of the present "Old Aston Hill" roads.

The effectiveness so far, of the resident's campaign, has given a new dimension to "People-power" and fresh optimism to those who feared that, despite their best hopes for the new devolved Government, what was about to be thrust upon them was just another variant of the old ways of detachment from reality and the real needs of ordinary taxpayers.

Much is still to be decided. As the exhibition closed, a common thread of general concern to emerge was to question the actual need to relinquish the present 50mph speed constraint which nowadays is considered a perfectly acceptable compromise when sections of trunk roads run close to mature, semi-rural communities.

Whatever the outcome for the current phase, the events of April/July 2006 have shown that, henceforth the views and concerns of the ordinary people of N Wales from now on must be the keystone of future road network policies.

{At the time of writing (July 2006) nothing has been settled and a Public Enquiry will almost certainly follow. One thing is clear. With the Assembly Government's authority and resolve weakening daily, it could be that a newly assertive "people-power" could scupper the whole "Improvement" project. Unless the concerns of the newly-formed community groups along the A494/A55 corridor, in respect of pollution, safety and need are properly addressed by planners and their political masters, there is now a real prospect that similar grandiose "motorway" road projects in N Wales will grind to a halt.}

Regan123 17:16, 22 October 2006 (UTC)