Message from John Whitehouse
Dear All,
See below hyperlink to a WCC press release issued today, confirming that an agreement has been reached which means that the Connect2 Kenilworth scheme can be completed as planned, including the bridge over the A429 Coventry Road.
This is fantastic news!
My heartfelt thanks to all for your messages of support over recent weeks, and to everyone who signed the petition. As the clearest possible expression of ongoing public support for this project, I believe that the petition made a big impact, and helped us to achieve the positive outcome announced today.
I would like to express my personal thanks to the three people who were the driving forces behind the petition: Deirdre Vernon who started it, Howard Easton who created the online version, and Clive Taylor who organised the two signing events in Abbey End. Getting 1,700 signatures in such a short space of time was an amazing achievement, and I am sure that if it had been necessary to carry on they could have obtained many more.
At the WCC Full Council meeting tomorrow Cllr Alan Cockburn will announce the go-ahead to complete the scheme, and Howard Easton will present the petition formally to the Council.
Thanks again to everyone. We now plan to crack on with the scheme without further delay!
Kind Regards,
John Whitehouse
Chair - Connect2 Kenilworth Steering Group
http://goo.gl/dFej
Connect2 Kenilworth - Warwickshire's Conservative Cabinet Intend to Scrap It
Saturday 23 October 2010
From John Whitehouse
Dear Connect2 Kenilworth Supporter,
I have very bad news.
The Conservative members ofWarwickshire County Council's Cabinet, meeting in private today, have decided to withdraw all funding from the Connect2 Kenilworth project and to order an immediate halt to further work on the scheme.
I have very bad news.
The Conservative members of
They are prepared to reject:
- The £300,000 of Sustrans/Big Lottery money awarded after Connect2 won the national £50 million prize.
- The additional £100,000 offered by Sustrans recently to help WCC complete the scheme with the bridge as planned.
- A further £100,000 which Sustrans offered this week to seek urgently from other funding sources.
They "cannot support spending any more money on this nice to do project". The 1,690 signature "Save Connect2 Kenilworth " petition, lodged with WCC this week and due to be presented to Full Council on the 2nd November, has been dismissed as being of no importance.
From today, with the twoincreased funding offers from Sustrans, the net cost to Warwickshire to complete the project as planned would have been £170,000. This is not a revenue cost which could therefore be spent on something else like supporting jobs. In line with WCC's normal policy for capital projects, it would be financed by borrowing on a 20-year basis - i.e. perhaps £15,000 a year to finance and repay the borrowing.
This is despite the fact that WCC's integrated transport budget, which is the funding source for Connect2 Kenilworth, still has an unspent balance of about £800,000 this year after all known commitments are accounted for. The Cabinet is not prepared to release any more of these funds, for one clear reason - the multi-million pound overspend on the Rugby Western Relief Road.
So our low-cost high-value scheme, which was voted for by thousands of residents and which is half built, is to be sacrificed.
If work on our scheme is stopped this year, we shall have lost the Sustrans/Big Lottery money for ever. Sustrans has a binding contract with the Big Lottery to deliver its Connect2 schemes within a 5 year window, and if our scheme stops they will redirect the funds elsewhere in the country.
Fortunately, and in the short term at least, Cabinet members do not have the authority to take such a decision.I have confirmed this with the County's chief legal officer today.
If Cabinet members want to cut off funds and kill this project, they have to do so in a formal and public Cabinet meeting, and elected members such as myself have the right to "call in" the decision, all the way to Full Council if necessary. Be assured that I will use the full powers available to me to challenge and delay this appalling decision. The next scheduled meeting of the Cabinet is on the 18th November.
Ultimately though, the only thing that is going to change Cabinet members' minds now is the force of public opinion.I shall be consulting with others over the next few days as to how best to mobilise this.
Kind Regards,
John Whitehouse
Chair - Connect2 Kenilworth Steering Group
Fight for Greenway’s future moves forward
Tuesday 19 October 2010
Today the 1702 signatures collected for the “Save Connect2 Kenilworth” petition were handed to Warwickshire County Council (WCC) at Shire Hall, Warwick
The petition is in response to WCC’s review of its capital expenditure programme in the light of severe spending pressures and some government grant funding cancellations. Buried in the mass of detail in the Cabinet papers were cuts to the Connect2 Kenilworth project that would have killed it.
Thanks to a spontaneous public outcry the Cabinet deferred any final decision on Connect2 Kenilworth, but the project remains under severe threat.
Connect2 Kenilworth will create a safe, mostly off-road, walking and cycling route linking the town of Kenilworth with the University of Warwick
Through the petition, people of Kenilworth, Leamington, Warwick , Warwickshire and Coventry
The next step will be that the petition will be presented to a meeting of the Full Council On the 2nd November.
Sign up to fight for Greenway’s future
Saturday 16 October 2010
The clock is ticking for cyclists and walkers keen to persuade Warwickshire County Council to think again about the bridge across a busy Kenilworth road. To read more from the KWN click here.
On-line Petition - votes + from where
Tuesday 12 October 2010
Save Connect2 Kenilworth - On-line Petition
The Threat to Connect2 Kenilworth
Everyone thought Connect2 Kenilworth was a dead cert for the next stage: the building of the bridge, but it was not to be.
After spending £140,000 last year on clearing and preparing paths, the county needs to contribute the knock-down sum of £270,000 towards the cost of the bridge across Coventry Road. The cost of the previous year(s) works on all manner of project impact assessments into environmental and the effect on the loaf fauna and flora…
Especially as national cycle network group Sustrans has now agreed to up their share of the cost by £100,000 to £400,000 more than originally offered - provided the bridge is included in the project.
Some councillors believe they can save money by installing a pelican crossing instead of the bridge on the route, which links Kenilworth Castle, Abbey Fields, Burton Green, Berkswell, Crackley Woods and Warwick University as well as connecting into the national Sustains network.
Would any of you trust a child to cross a “A” road using a pelican crossing unaided? No!
Neither do the parents, grand-parents, friends of families, academics, voters, walkers, and cyclists etc. who have supported this petition. Over 1400 (at the time of writing) Warwickshire and Coventry residents signed since 15th September.
I would like to take you back to 2007 and the Peoples Millions Lottery. Connect2 was the winner by a vast margin. The County council at the time was generously supportive. It was also supported widely by the electorate.
People empathise with the goals of Connect2. They like the principles of green sustainable transport. They like the ideas of safe walking and cycling routes untroubled by traffic; where children can progress in safety. Where we all can enjoy exercise and fresh air to improve our physical and mental condition whilst at the same time enjoying the beautiful Warwickshire countryside There is a concern in the Cabinet that going ahead with a £400,000 bridge in these straitened times would look like an extravagance to the general public. However over 1400 petitions think otherwise.
The story has enjoyed wide coverage in the local newspapers. Which just goes to show, there is absolutely nothing that unites our society so much injustice.
Injustice? That’s what this is; to deign the provision of this bridge Warkshire County Council is deigning the wishes of its electorate. People voted for Connect2 in their thousands. They’ve generously supported our petition. So why cancel the project now?
Go back to your accounts find the £270,000 and give Kenilworth it’s long denied, and much anticipated link to its Greenway in 2011.
After spending £140,000 last year on clearing and preparing paths, the county needs to contribute the knock-down sum of £270,000 towards the cost of the bridge across Coventry Road. The cost of the previous year(s) works on all manner of project impact assessments into environmental and the effect on the loaf fauna and flora…
Especially as national cycle network group Sustrans has now agreed to up their share of the cost by £100,000 to £400,000 more than originally offered - provided the bridge is included in the project.
Some councillors believe they can save money by installing a pelican crossing instead of the bridge on the route, which links Kenilworth Castle, Abbey Fields, Burton Green, Berkswell, Crackley Woods and Warwick University as well as connecting into the national Sustains network.
Would any of you trust a child to cross a “A” road using a pelican crossing unaided? No!
Neither do the parents, grand-parents, friends of families, academics, voters, walkers, and cyclists etc. who have supported this petition. Over 1400 (at the time of writing) Warwickshire and Coventry residents signed since 15th September.
I would like to take you back to 2007 and the Peoples Millions Lottery. Connect2 was the winner by a vast margin. The County council at the time was generously supportive. It was also supported widely by the electorate.
People empathise with the goals of Connect2. They like the principles of green sustainable transport. They like the ideas of safe walking and cycling routes untroubled by traffic; where children can progress in safety. Where we all can enjoy exercise and fresh air to improve our physical and mental condition whilst at the same time enjoying the beautiful Warwickshire countryside There is a concern in the Cabinet that going ahead with a £400,000 bridge in these straitened times would look like an extravagance to the general public. However over 1400 petitions think otherwise.
The story has enjoyed wide coverage in the local newspapers. Which just goes to show, there is absolutely nothing that unites our society so much injustice.
Injustice? That’s what this is; to deign the provision of this bridge Warkshire County Council is deigning the wishes of its electorate. People voted for Connect2 in their thousands. They’ve generously supported our petition. So why cancel the project now?
Go back to your accounts find the £270,000 and give Kenilworth it’s long denied, and much anticipated link to its Greenway in 2011.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
