Dover Bid - DWI Open Letter to DDC

From Deal With it to Open letter to DDC
Green group presses for flyover at accident blackspot on A258 and safer cycling.

Wouldn’t it be great for walkers, riders, and cyclists , locals and tourists, to be able to cross from St Margaret’s to Martin Mill station on a flyover or underpass avoiding the A258 cross roads, and to have safer access to National Cycle Route 1. Or to have a flyover linking the two halves of Ringwould on either side of the busy A258, or a cycle path linking North Deal to Fowlmead; wouldn’t it be lovely!

These could be part of a new Local Sustainable Transport scheme to develop safe cycle routes from stations at Deal and Sandwich and increased train services. An impossible Dream? Not necessarily. KCC has recently sent out invitations to District councils to bid for a Local Sustainable Transport Grant of £5 million. In Dover and Deal we could be the lucky winners if DDC put in an application by March 11 2011.

The narrow, congested A 258 is still a danger to cyclists and causes delays in the journeys of bus users. Relieving the pressure on it, by improvements to rail and cycle services can only improve our quality of life, reducing injury and air and noise pollution. For Deal, Walmer and Sandwich residents, the ever-rising cost of fuel when driving to work, education and health care, makes a sustainable transport scheme more needed than ever. We need to help youngsters whose EMAs are being cut, travel to jobs and education more easily, more safely.

These are the reasons why Deal With It says we badly need a coherent network of safe, shared walking / cycling routes with better connections between these routes and the trains and the bus services; also a reduction in congestion and parking problems and waiting times. We need SAFER, healthier, walking / cycling routes to get around within the Deal / Walmer area, and we would like our DDC councillors to put in a bid to KCC next week to meet the deadline.

The bid should include the start-up costs of a new rail service, to be achieved cost-effectively using existing rolling stock and infra structure, a service not allowed for within the franchise ending 2014. It should bring about the KCC Action plan for Rail (2011) which prioritises the extension of the Dover High Speed Train service to Deal. This would double the service frequency on the local Dover-Ramsgate line and improve connections to Canterbury, Maidstone and Faversham at Minster and Dover.

There are convincing arguments put forward by Trains4deal (www.trains4deal.com) backing such a bid for reasons of urgently needed regeneration. Deal With It believes the arguments in favour of putting in a bid to KCC for reasons of environmental sustainability are as clearly convincing. (www.transitiondeal.blogspot.com)

Emails can be sent to councillors via democraticservices@dover.gov.uk or send to councillor nigel collor - cllrnigelcollor@dover.gov.uk