04.05.05: TSLM Press Release as follows:
Lancashire County Council (LCC) has apologized for sending out a flawed survey document to businesses in the Lancaster and Morecambe district.
Transport Solutions for Lancaster and Morecambe (TSLM) a local group campaigning against the Heysham to M6 Link, noticed that the level of support, suggested by a public survey, for the proposed Heysham to M6 Link road, was stated as 15% higher than it should have been. TSLM wrote to the Chief Executive of LCC to complain of bias and LCC have now admitted their error.
The embarrassed officials have now had to write to the businesses again to point out their error and giving them the opportunity of withdrawing or amending their questionnaire if they had not already returned it.
“We originally wrote to LCC complaining that the document contained vague and unsubstantiated statements about the benefits of the road” said David Gate, Chair of TSLM. “We felt that an objective survey would give businesses more meaningful quantitative information about the likely effects of the road - e.g. journey saving times (which will on average be small) and predicted changes in traffic flows (permanent increases on some roads, and temporary reductions on others). We felt that the County Council should make businesses aware of Government research by the Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment (SACTRA, August 1999), which showed that new roads can suck investment out of an area as well as bring it in.”