1. Traffic Chaos

see also: Lifting Bridge

By the developer's own admission, this is their weakest link and our strongest case for contesting a planning application.

With up to 200 new homes, 300 'residential holiday dwellings', a 50-bedroom hotel, restaurants, a pub, various marina-related businesses, shops and offices. Port Penlee would effectively be an entirely new village. With around 1000 new residents, visitors, workers and service personnel going to and from each day, the extra traffic the development will generate will make the existing traffic problems in Newlyn intolerable. 90% of these extra vehicles are expected to travel through Newlyn, the rest through Mousehole and Paul, even now, all close to gridlock on a daily basis.

Despite rumours (and if we can believe the developers), we are relieved there will be no demolition of any historic property at the Newlyn Bridge junction as per earlier proposals. However, there are no serious proposals for any meaningful improvements to the existing road layout either. After years of trying to identify a solution, it can be confidently concluded that there isn’t one and never will be.

There are several critical ‘pinch points’ in Newlyn namely The Narrows, The Bowjey one-way system, Paul Hill and the notorious Newlyn Bridge junction. Each of these points are natural bottlenecks resulting in regular hold-ups and tailbacks. This can only become much worse with substantially more traffic. Regular gridlock is virtually guaranteed.

Whether or not the current harbour-side businesses relocate to the proposed development of a fish processing industrial estate at Newlyn Coombe (Heaven forbid), there would still be a large volume of traffic going to and fro. This would also include the existing large articulated lorries as the fish auction and cold storage facilities will remain within the harbour area. Most fish will therefore continue to be purchased there to be immediately trucked out of the county. Having an out-of-town industrial estate for fish processing would actually make the traffic situation worse due to the fleet of vans and lorries that would be continually shuttling back and forth.

We must also consider the extra traffic that would be generated from the proposed extensive development at Sandy Cove namely: A watersports centre (waterskiing, sailing, sailing club? diving, jet skis, gig racing etc), a visitor/heritage centre, historic lugger restoration attraction, a lobster hatchery (commercial and tourism-based), a boat yard and maintenance facility, extensive workshops, a boat lifting hoist, a boat dry storage facility, a new slipway and a very large car park. Virtually all visiting traffic to these facilities will have to travel through at least three of the four Newlyn pinch points. Many will be towing boats and jet skis to reach the new slipway.

"I'm sure we can remove any of the problems regarding traffic" - Tony Woodhams

The developers refer to a range of statistics and reports in an attempt to reinforce their case but, despite umpteen requests from us and others, they will not produce them for detailed scrutiny saying they are ‘interim reports’ or ‘preliminary findings’. A recent example of this occurred at the Newlyn Harbour exhibition where some data was displayed but this has now vanished despite a promise that it would be accessible online. Our contention is that this is possibly because the data was utter nonsense and unable to withstand even a modicum of refutation. Worse than that, we consider it was an insult to common sense! For instance, who in their right mind would try and say with a straight face that the difference in traffic flows through Newlyn between the quietest and the busiest and times of year is only 12%?

Conclusion: Our traffic problems will only be made worse with more traffic! There is therefore no solution that encompasses the current development proposals.
Warning on Cornish roads gridlock - BBC
Senior transport planners are warning of gridlock on Cornwall's roads if car numbers continue to grow at their present rate.
Hyder (consultants for the developers), state that the traffic flow through Newlyn fluctuates by 12% between the low and high seasons. The following is reprinted from Cornwall County Council's website: Note the text highlighted in bold.

http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=7651

The Growth In Traffic

   * In Cornwall, traffic levels have increased by 121% since 1970.
   * If not tackled, traffic levels are predicted to increase by between 33% and 64% in the period from 1999 to 2029.
   * At the peak of the season, there are 275,000 visitors to the County at any one time and more than four million visitors are attracted annually.
   * In 1998, 91% of tourists reached Cornwall by car, 4% by coach, 4% by train and 1% by air and other modes, such as walking, cycling or by sea.
   * Over 40% of visitors arrive during the peak summer months of July and August resulting in traffic flows up to 35% higher for that period than the annual average.
   * Objective 1 status, whilst providing a significant boost to the local economy, has the potential to create a corresponding increase in traffic levels. The challenge will therefore be to provide for a growing economy and to constrain the rate of traffic growth simultaneously.

---
Which figure do you believe???

Note also, that Cornwall County Council's 35% increase is between the high and the average. Hyder's 12% is between the high and the low! Clearly something is amiss?

The figures from Cornwall County Council were published in 2001 under the 'creating excellence' remit. Unfortunately, the figures didn't make it into the Council's 2006-2011 Local Area Transport Plan - possibly because there was no viable or economic way to reduce traffic (and we have to keep Mr Prescot happy don't we?)

It gets worse... have a look at the Cornwall County Council Local Transport Plan 2006-2011. click here to see 'Annex 4'- 'Regeneration and Congestion Detailed Strategies for Penzance'.

This are the County Council's detailed, let us repeat that 'detailed', plans to alieviate our local traffic congestion. The only mention of Newlyn is the large area of land marked 'Newlyn Fish Park' that has been shaded grey as earmarked for 'land use'. They were/are seemingly expecting this development to generate a substantial ammount of traffic - even before a planning application had been submitted. Now that the Newlyn Coombe Scheme has collapsed, presumably the same ammount of traffic - namely the 'fleet of small vans' that would have been shuttling backwards and forwards to this new industrial estate will have to shuttle backwards and forwards to somewhere else - Longrock perhaps? Who can tell? We weren't allowed to see the traffic impact assessment for Newlyn Coombe Fish Park as it was 'sensitive information' so it  is unlikely we will be privy to any future assessments either?



Independent Assessment

We put our faith in the following independent assessment of Graham Hewitt. By analysing the current figures and the projected figures published by Hyder (click here to download, 1.57mb pdf), we learn of a massive increase in traffic flows through Newlyn of 'over a third' from Port Penlee alone! To this we must presume to add the new extensive Sandy Cove traffic and the fish-related traffic that will be shuttling to and from a 'seafood park' somewhere on the outskirts of town or beyond - THIS IS MADNESS!

COMMENTS ON THE TRAFFIC ASSESSMENT FIGURES PUT FORWARD BY THE PNP TEAM by Graham Hewitt:

The ‘Traffic Assessment’ figures published in October 2005 as a basis for public consultation were provided by the Traffic Team at Hyder, the consultants employed by both Penwith District Council and MDL the private developers of Penlee Quarry. Due to the evident deep commitment of the public and private interests involved to bring all the projects to fruition, and to the obvious attempts to integrate the various proposals (Port Penlee, Sandy Cove, Newlyn Harbour, Seafood Park) so that they are completely interdependent, the figures should be treated with caution. However, even accepting the figures at face value, the following conclusions may be drawn:

 According to the Hyder figures, peak traffic flows  through, for instance The Strand, Fore Street and ‘The Narrows’ will be 863 vehicles per hour (roughly 50% travelling in each direction) compared with 652 at present. This is an increase of greater than one third, and represents over 14 vehicles per minute, or more than one every 4 seconds. The Hyder report does not state what time of day peak flows occur, but common sense suggests 8 – 10 am, and 4 – 6 pm.

If peak traffic flows increase by over a third, it is reasonable to suppose that ‘normal’ flows at all other times will also increase by at least the same amount.

Newlyn’s road system was obviously not designed with the car in mind and is struggling unsuccessfully to cope with existing levels of traffic.

Most of the extra traffic will be generated by ‘Port Penlee’, which if completed (together with the lifting bridge) represents a community roughly half the size of Mousehole with a similar mix of houses, businesses, hotels etc. This, in itself, strongly indicates that Port Penlee alone would result in at least a one third increase in current traffic flows through Newlyn.

To date, despite the deep concerns that have been expressed, no-one involved with any aspect of the developments has put forward any significant proposal of any description for alleviating the impact of the additional volume of traffic on the community.

GH 11/1/06


Press Release 5
click here to read our Press Release relating to the traffic figures pubished by Hyder referred to above.

Additional Information to follow:
The 'Planning for real workshop' farce
Build a new road? (see FAQ's meanwhile)
FOIA non-release of documents
Conducting our own 'traffic survey'? direct action
What can I do to help ? Local contact numbers:
Penzance: Caroline 331086 ~ Mousehole: Sybil 731147 ~ Newlyn: Adam 364554 ~ Paul: Rod 731548
email us