To copy recipients - if you think of any points I have missed, please email Audrey direct.

First point is that I thought PFI was ruled out the last time around because they couldn't get any interest from private developers. If they are to do that now, it implies that the deal will have to be significantly "sweetened". Any examination of current PFI deals elsewhere would suggest that (a) they are more expensive than developments done publicly - their only advantage is to move expenditure from Capital to Revenue accounts. That means that we are building in long term future liabilities which must potentially impact on Council Tax. There is also the issue of who is liable if the usage figures don't come up to estimate and there is a revenue shortfall - again, previous experience would suggest that developers are pretty good at avoiding taking any real risk. The is also the recently developed scenario of the original PFI developer (with his "30 year contract") selling on after a year or two - again who is responsible long term and who picks up the tab?

If the busway were to be developed as a PFI project, then it will cause a severe distortion of the usage for the other P&R's because in order to get the throughput, they  will have to try and shift people from Caldy Valley and the Zoo parks. One can just see that part of the external finance would come from Tesco's (who own the land and want a supermarket in Hoole). What would happen if they got this permission? - (a) they'd close the store in town depriving many of the less mobile people in the city centre of a resource (not to mention that all the people living in the newly constructed brown-field site developments in the centre [Brook Street, Steam Mill, City Road etc] would be forced to drive out to Holle for their major shopping. (b) there would be a severe impact on the viability of Sainsburys in Caldy Valley as they would be more directly competing for the same market.

As to the Busway itself:-
a) loss of urban green space - at the time of the inquiry, it was acknowledged that Hoole & Newton already well below the Government's recomended guidelines. Things are being worsened already by plans for building on Newscene, the estate on the old Brook Lane allotments, the potential loss of allotments to the tennis club etc.

b) usage of the greenway has increased year on year, contributing to improved health via exercise of many in the local population.

c) by the Council's own figures presented to the inquiry, the reduction in traffic on Hoole Road was only calculated as (I think) 3%

d) times have changed. Car parking is no longer the issue it was - there are usually spaces available throughout the day in the Market Hall. Of course the damn fool plans to reneague in the insistence for the building of a new coach station before the re-development of Northgate discriminates against conventional public transport - is there a master plan?

e) Cost. The original estimate was (from memory) about £3 or £5mn. By the time it had reached the inquiry, it was £ 56 (?)mn. The escalation was way beyond RPI inflation, building cost inflation or any other justifiable measure known to mankind. My guess would be that if it were built tomorrow under a PFI contract, the cost would be over £ 100mn, which spread over 25 years is £ 4mn pa. One way or the other, it would end up on the council tax.

f) what was not properly done for the inquiry was to take a holistic view of the problems that the busway was meant to solve:-
ie  1) most congestion is around the school run - what can be done about that in terms of "walking buses",  subsidised school buses, half price fares for over 16s going to and coming from school
    2) what can be done to encourage car sharing, staggered working times, workplace public transport - some of this is being done but it is very piecemeal and not part of a co-ordinated strategy.

g) environmental. It may be co-incidence, but over the past couple of years, I have seen in my garden species of bird that I haven't seen before, or at least not in such numbers (Jays, Sparrow Hawk, greenfinches, wrens). My belief is that the greenway has become a wildlife corridor. I just wish that someone had done a "before" and "after" study. Given the rate of colonisation of the route, another study would need to be done to ensure that there were no more protected species other than the great crested newt.

h) it could be an educational resource for teaching our (particularly) primary school kids about their surroundings. But this would require active County Council DoEducation encouragement - in these days of targets and curricula, I'm  not optimistic!

i) it could be marketed actively as a tourist attraction for the tourists (cyclists/ walkers) who would actually overnight in the town and spend money. Just look at the impact similar routes have elsewhere (CtoC, Radnor Ring, Pennine Way)

Audrey - these are just points of the top of my head - if I think of more, I'll email you

Nic
 
Audrey Hodgkinson wrote:

Hi,
Have been asked to give councillor (a third one) willing to speak against
CDTS bullet
points to use. Would you like to give some for him to use? I shall forward
all them including those from Ann Jones and myself.
Private company may want to take over is one excuse they are making to
extend time for CDTS! Your thoughts on that would be good.
I need the points asp as he will need to study them before Wednesday.
If the lady just recently moved in to your road, who lost the white Persian
type cat, lives near you could you have a word she seems interested in
objecting to the busway. We need a lot of objector turning up on Wednesday.
Audrey