Wakefield road widening scheme approved despite councillor’s air quality concerns

A 400m section of Wakefield Road will be widened by 7.5m, to provide four lanes rather than the existing three.

Barnsley Council’s planning board approved the scheme yesterday (April 18).

The Wakefield Road carriageway between the Carlton Road and Smithies Lane junction will be widened to accommodate four traffic lanes including two right turn lanes.

The pedestrian crossing at the Smithies Lane junction will be replaced with a staggered crossing.

The existing footpaths on both sides of the road will be retained, and a new pull in at the bus stop on the south bound side will be added, making it easier for other vehicles to overtake stationary buses heading in the direction of Barnsley Town Centre.

Councillor Philip Lofts told the meeting of the planning board that he would have “liked to have seen a better scheme,” adding that it “ought to have air quality monitoring”.

Coun Lofts asked what the benefits of the scheme would be, and asked if air quality had been modelled along the stretch already, and warned that he scheme will create a “bottleneck”.

He added that properties in the area “are going to be affected by noise, lack of parking and air quality”.

Paul Castle, service director for environment and transport said that the scheme will improve journey times, and BMBC’s planning officer Matthew Smith added that the A61 is “not in an air quality designation management area”.

Mr Smith added that the scheme will “not have a significant impact on air quality”.

Joe Jenkinson, head of planning at BMBC, told the meeting that 27 of the councils 64 nitrous oxide monitoring machines are within two kilometres of Wakefield Road, and have been raking readings for four years.

Mr Jenkinson added that “some are close to the nitrous oxide objective,” but “there will be no adverse impact demonstrably on the existing situation

He added that the widening of the road will “improve journey times and the reliability of buses.

“If we don’t support the plans, those problems are going to persist. We’ve got to do something about this part of the network, and this has been deemed to be the most suitable proposal.”