North Wakefield Gyratory

We the undersigned petition Wakefield Metropolitan District Council not to create the North Wakefield Gyratory.

June 2009

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Joanne Snowden,

Tim Schofield,

M.Schofield,

Sally Holmes,
I have no idea why Wakefield Council are doing this. The current system ain't broke: why are they fixing it? It will seriously inconvenience people coming to any of the four schools in the St John's area, not to mention Clayton Hospital. It will add extra rush-hour traffic to Belgravia Road, which already has a congestion problem at school time.

As well as going to the meeting I would like to urge residents to write to our councillors. They can drop letters to Councillors Betty Rhodes, Keith Rhodes and Margaret Isherwood at Wakefield Town Hall, no stamp required.

Isabel Holmes,

Julian Snowden,

Jane Becker,

Teresa Johnston,
I thought St Johns was a conservation area not the North Wakefield Gyratory System and what about the decrease in values in our houses will we be compensated?

Michael Johnston,
Have the residents that this will affect be consulted before this gyratory system is passed and sneaked through by the council.

Jonathan Sampson,

Steven Birch,

garry birmingham,
We see no benifit at all that the Gyratory will bring.Why change? 10 hours rush hour per week?And this will address this? Is it really that big a problem? Why not have all the school coaches drop all the private school childeren of at the bus staition im sure that would assist.Our Daughter will be attending St Johns school within the next 18 months and Belgravia Road will be used as a short cut.The pedestrian crossing looks like it will be outside our house which will no doubt keep our daughter awake plus the re-sale vaule if we decide to sell? If we can every find a buyer as i would not have choose this house 8 years ago if the pedestrian crossing was outside then!What about deliverys and guests? I would like to know what the cost is for this work? In this economic climate is this what we tax payers need? Its not what we want and it seems my wife daughter and i are not alone.

Dennis Belk,
1. School entrance on Belgravia Road, if the access only status is lost this will endager the children
2 A potential increase in traffic along Belgravia Road which is narrower than a main road, and gets very congested at school times. This will create absolute chaos
3 There are three big schools, a hospital and three churches which will be affected by this, making acess more difficult

Finally these proposals can only make congestion worse not better.

Paul Thomas,
1. School entrance on Belgravia Road, if the access only status is lost this will endager the children
2 A potential increase in traffic along Belgravia Road which is narrower than a main road, and gets very congested at school times. This will create absolute chaos
3 There are three big schools, a hospital and three churches which will be affected by this, making acess more difficult

Finally these proposals can only make congestion worse not better.

k.kelly,
we totally agree with what people have wrote, what happens when you need an emergency services, elderly people catching buses cannot walk very far were would you catch the bus,

t.kelly,

Mrs J Jameson,

suzanne shater,
I have contacted the elected members of East Wakefield ( I live just off Barnsley Road) in relation to this proposal as I travel through North Wakefield every day, twice per day, and this will affect me. Evidently the residents of North Wakefield will have a range of issues to consider which are specific to them, but the proposed changes will affect Wakefield residents city-wide to one degree or another and their views should also be considered, yet we have not been directly notified of the potential changes nor consulted. I am sure that many residents in the wider areas of the city will certainly support the residents of North Wakefield in opposing the proposal. I see no specific benefit of these extensive and expensive changes to the smooth running of city traffic. As such, I must wonder what the reasons are behind the proposal?

Dave Jones,
You would think the council had better things to spend money on......

Mark Allison,
This is simply part of a hair-brained scheme to reduce traffic in the city centre (where few people live) and push it out the the immediate suburbs (where many people live). The result will be a city centre which looks good on paper (low traffic, low noise, low pollution etc.) whose legacy (the same traffic, noise and pollution) will have been inherited by the suburbs. Utter madness! Reminiscent of the kind of schemes championed in the 1960's and 70's.

pamela shater,
This is an unnecessary waste of money. It will cause great inconvenience to the local community quite apart from people travelling into the city from Outwood and Wrenthorpe. Have these people been informed of the great changes about to take place. I live here and only found out last week. Apart from the school traffic we do not have a congestion problem and the school traffic does not justify such a huge expense.

Nick Shields,
Can someone, somewhere tell me.... WHY?

David Littleboy,
When I first heard about this scheme my initial reaction was to object strongly as living in St. John’s Square I could see immediately that I would be inconvenienced when either coming home from Junction 41 of the M1 or wishing to go in to the city centre. Clearly the planners and anyone considering this scheme have to make a clear choice about their priorities as they either have to implement this scheme in order to benefit people wishing to travel through the city or leave things as they are for the benefit of people who actually live in north Wakefield. I believe the two are directly opposed. Having investigated the scheme it seems that this scheme is the final part or what the council refer to as the “Emerald ring”. Given that the other 80% of the inner city ring road (call it what you will) is either complete or in progress I imagine the council will pay lip service to any consultation process and will ensure that the independent consultants they intend to employ are asked a question which is predetermined to give the answer they want because if objectors were to find a way to block this scheme the public could rightly ask the question, “ why on earth did the council begin a scheme without obtaining 100% permission to complete it” as 80% of a ring road is 100% worthless.
If after full, calm and objective consideration of this scheme people object then I think people should focus their attention of their local councillors and the planning committee as these people are directly electable and therefore accountable.
At the moment I have not reached a firm view of the proposals but I would comment that as a resident of St. John’s Square I am organising meetings directly with the local council and the local private schools in the coming weeks to try to get agreement for a pupil park and ride scheme in order to finally rid our square of the inconsiderate, rude and thoughtless parents who consistently park on double yellow lines, park two wheels on a grave yard and in some cases have smashed grave stones and who in general have a total disregard for the residents of the square. If these people had such behaviour imposed on them they would be demanding closure of the school as a public nuisance!
David Littleboy david@itsol.net

Gail Stockdale,

Andrew Hamer,

Lisa Burgess,
I feel this is an attempt to create traffic chaos in Wakefield centre to try and force the public to use other means of transport. This will not work as the buses are extremely unreliable (my partner has been left stranded on several occasions even though he usually walks and therefore does not use the bus often) and will drive custom and business away from Wakefield. I can only see the current quite back roads becoming 'rat runs' and see absolutley no benfit from this scheme whatsoever!

Ella Kemp,

Graham Barker,
Will create a massive bottleneck on the Leeds Rpad roundabout

sarah martin,
work on st johns north. agree with andrew street being made one way but not having to go all the way round to come back up - don't normally have to get stuck in the traffic as just come into andrew street and back out

Susan Kemp,

Marc Auty,
No thought or concern seems to have been made to many people worshiping or using the facilities at St Austin's Church. If parking is restricted on both Wentworth Terrace and Laburnum Rd this will make parking difficult for the able, let alone impossible for the disabled. In addition what about the funerals and weddings, all of whom need to use the Terrace.
As has already been said, why change something when there is no need or benefit?
The chaos caused by restricting parking and making the road "one way" is seen every year on Remebrance Sunday. We certainly don't need this.

John Hepton,
I agree with the comments below. I can see no reason why this should go ahead. The congestion in the morning is caused by the school kids being dropped off, you can see the difference in the school holidays. I am in favour of the park and ride system and agree with David Littleboy.
The proposals will merely drive businesses out of the centre. Why spend the money. The park and ride service is the best option!

john skidmore,

Richard Forbes,
The current system is fine apart from school start and finish times. The council should sort out the problems with parents parking on double yellow lines, grass verges, even the church grounds.

Mick Newton,
I wonder how many of the councillors who want this scheme actually live in this area? However, I have to say that if parents who drop their precious little kids off at QEGS/Girls School actually let them use the bus (shock horror) the traffic problem wouldn't be half as bad. Are these kids unable to walk? Still, a crackpot scheme anyway - another example of councillors who have nothing better to do!

Tony Smith,
This is a an ill thought scheme and will be a complete waste of money just like the new market. The traffic in Wakefield is not that bad compared with Sheffield.
The money would be better spent building a new swimming pool which is desparately needed, reducing litter, investing in our green spaces, supporting local businesses and reducing anti social behaviour.

Josie Paver,
I thought that the St John's area was supposed to be a conservation area, although nobody would realise that if they walked through St John's Square and saw how neglected it has become -potholes in the road leading from the Square around by St John's Court Flats, graveyard damage, etc.
It seems to me as if it is going to be like a motorway going past St John's Square and down Wentworth Terrace past St Austin's Church. Has anybody given any thought at all to how people are going to attend St Austin's with all that traffic and nowhere to park? And what about funerals, weddings, etc.? It would seem that the planners don't care as they have given so little thought to it. Who are these planners anyway? Do they actually live in Wakefield?
This beautiful area is just going to be trashed. What other town or city would tolerate all this traffic coming through one of its prettiest areas? If this was York or Harrogate or the like, it would never be allowed to happen. There will be much more traffic noise not to mention pollution. And with schools in this area, shouldn't we be directing traffic fumes away from young children according to recent health surveys?
The centre of Wakefield at the moment is positively ghastly and if this scheme comes to pass, this area will be just as awful. Traffic is bad enough at the moment around here, especially at certain times of the day, but this scheme will make it much worse. It will be like King's Cross Station at rush hour all day.
All this is just a complete waste of money. Just like the money wasted on the new market and the Ridings Centre. Can anybody explain to me by the way, how the Ridings Centre is any better than how it used to be? Where are the changes actually? I can't see any at all. Vast amounts of money just seem to be spent on ridiculous things.

Bernard Martin,

Philippa Rothery,

ELLE ROONEY,

Diane Keegan,

Jane O\'Brien,
I work out of town and my children do to school in Wrenthorpe. I will have to travel into Wakefield City Centre on a morning to go back out again to set to Wrenthorpe and Junction 40 of M1. How many other people are going to have to do the same? So increasing the amount of traffic going into the city centre. There is already two lines of traffic on Leeds Road and Bradford Road it seems pointless to make people drive into the city centre and cause congestion just to get back out again.

Gavin Nicholls,

M.J.Biglin,
My wife and I regularly attend St Austins Church at the week-end and frequently during the week. We are both 78 and my wife cannot walk very far. We can usually park in Laburnum Road which will now be denied to us if the proposals go ahead.The whole proposal seems designed to create traffic cogestion rather than reduce it.

Lee Ogden,
My reason to oppose the one way system is I live on one of the roads leading of Bradford road and I am concerned that driver may use the road I live on as a thoroughfare. This is a quiet residential area where children still play in and around the the roadside.

Louise Lupton,

shirley farrow,

stephen farrow,

Rosemary Grewcock,
I have just moved to Wakefield from Dorset. I thought it would be a quiet area

Peter Gallivan,
I attend St Austins church and work there.

Dennis Nicoll,
After the debacle with Westgate, Ings Road & Kirkgate, which has resulted in worse traffic jams than before, this is the last thing that we need from our so called 'Traffic planners'

Jeanette Sharpe,

malcolm george,

Janet Pearson,

A Browning,
the narrowing of pavements will increase danger to pedestrians
all that is needed is a park and ride especially for the school run
these changes will improve access through Wakefield and not to Wakefield. Traffic volume will increase significantly as motorway commuters take advantage of the new ringroads, gyratory etc to use wakefield as an alternative route to the motorway. Is heavy vehicje acess (excluding buses) going to be restricted ?

H Watkiss,
Take a beautiful, historic area where people live, walk, worship, go to school, shop, then put a one way dual carriageway through it that nobody wants??? Hasn't Wakefield suffered enough 'improvements' - roads closed, parking removed, access denied, traffic cones, resurfacing, disruption... We've got a Market Hall with no traders, a Bullring with no people, Brook Street with next to no shops. Can't what's been started get finished and then consult properly. No one appears to want this scheme.

James Millard,

emma murgatroyd,
if its not broke dont fix it, tax payers money getting wasted yet again. it will cause too much headache for regular users of these roads aswell as problems for emergency services!!!!dont change the layout

jane Bryant,
Wakefield is the least traffic-congested place I have ever lived!! We don't need this scheme!! How about some urban designers leading the way on regeneration ihn Wakefield instead of hhighways engineers ???!!!!

Jane Shields,

Judith Longman,
The proposed NWG would be a complete disaster.