The Highways Agency  have withdrawn from the A628 Bypass Inquiry, which this site regards as a massive plus. 

Cause for satisfaction perhaps but not necessarily for celebration. The congestion charge battle was not won, and who can say ultimately if that was not more important, as if Manchester had taken that necessary step, the rest of the UK might well have followed suit.  As it is Planet Earth remains in for a torrid time! 

However  on the local level, and zooming in and out is a big part of campaigning these days,  the withdrawal of the Highways agency  does seem a positive and necessary conclusion to a struggle to protect a unique and undervalued environment and a National Park. We hope ultimately that future generations will see that however awful the traffic problem was that this was not the way to solve it, and would only have created worse problems further down the line, whilst the architects of the scheme by that time would have been well away. 

For that reason it seems really important to try and now find some solutions to the traffic issues in Glossopdale as a matter of urgency. This will not be easy, such matters have complex planning contexts, but we believe there are a number of exciting proposals on the table that can certainly help to ease congestion in the valley, and even maybe have other benefits. 

We really think this is achievable and that an end to  the bypass saga might be the best thing possible for the quality of life  in our beautiful valley and ultimately for the Longdendale villages who want relief to their traffic problems.  To allow the project to just drag on, as well as eroding the will to solve this problem in the here and now (and the bypass has now failed to deilver over 20 years) will also eat  further into the coffers of the national exchequer and this just makes poor sense. 

It would be great if all the talk of transport iniatives like Gamesley station for example, a vital link in an area of high unemployment, could now start to happen and fast.