Laura Fiske, Planning Officer for Friends of the Lake District, argues that Kendal does not need a Northern Relief Road

IN MAY, in my capacity as Planning Officer for Friends of the Lake District, I attended The Westmorland Gazette’s Westmorland and Lonsdale election debate to hear what the prospective candidates had to say on the issues that matter to our organisation.

I was encouraged by the discussion on the wonderful and unique landscapes of our county, the need to ensure prosperous rural communities and better funding for the countryside.

However, it was the discussion surrounding the desire for a Kendal Northern Relief Road (KNRR) that really grabbed my attention. All three of the parties represented (Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats) were unwavering in their support for this project. Conservative James Airey even said he had been assured that funding for the project was ready and waiting.

As a resident of Kendal walking to and from work daily I cannot deny that the town is congested with traffic. The number of HGVs sharing the roads with the commuters and those doing the school run leads to queuing traffic and the associated impacts of air pollution and frustrated drivers. None of this makes for a pleasant experience as a pedestrian.

So you may well think that I would be championing this planned development and that the politicians’ promises would be music to my ears. This is not the case.

I believe that this road building project would be a short term ‘sticking plaster’ solution, which would not adequately tackle the problems of rush hour traffic in Kendal.

In addition the negative impacts of such a scheme would be far reaching. It will come as no surprise that high on the list of my concerns would be the adverse landscape impacts of the scheme. Any potential northern relief route will impact upon the important role that the landscape surrounding Kendal plays in the setting of the Lake District National Park, which is now a World Heritage Site.

Studies show that increasing road capacity simply encourages higher levels of car usage with additional air and noise pollution, without any guarantee of significantly reducing traffic in Kendal.

Given the devastating floods of recent years any new road building project would have to be unequivocally proven not to exacerbate flood risk. It is difficult to see how this would be achieved given that all options utilise land which plays an important role in terms of water storage.

As previously mentioned much of this traffic is made up of commuters and school-run traffic, a considerable amount of which starts and finishes within Kendal.

Therefore, building a new road will have minimal impact on the current Kendal congestion hotspots such as Aynam Road.

That is why I am in favour of resources being focussed towards enabling and encouraging sustainable transport methods in order to reduce the growth of traffic, rather than simply extending capacity.

The benefits of sustainable transport are all encompassing. Encouraging people to walk or cycle for short journeys through town will have additional health benefits for the individual as well cutting the number of vehicles on the roads, subsequently reducing air pollution and the impacts upon infrastructure.

I realise that it will take time and investment to make walking and cycling a favourable and safe option in Kendal. I understand that there needs to be improvements in linking public transport options across the county and making those options affordable and viable.

But something needs to be done. The situation will not improve by itself or overnight and, of course, a road could probably be built in a shorter timeframe, but if building a Northern relief road would truly be a solution, surely it would have been done by now.