Election candidates clash over whether the A582 should become a dual carriageway
The route is one of the busiest in South Ribble and it is set for a long-awaited upgrade between Lostock Hall and Penwortham. But what form should it take?
That was one of the questions facing some of the candidates standing to be South Ribble's next MP when they were quizzed during a hustings event in the constituency.
The Lancashire Post, Lancashire Lead, Blog Preston and the Local Democracy Reporting Service invited all five candidates contesting the seat at next week's general election to a debate in which they fielded questions from voters.
Four of those on the ballot took part in the event. In order of appearance from left to right on the stage, they are:
KATHERINE FLETCHER - Conservative
PAUL FOSTER - Labour
ANDY HUNTER - Reform UK
ANGE TURNER - Liberal Democrats
The one other candidate for the South Ribble constituency, who was unable to attend, is:
STEPHANI MOK - Green Party
That was one of the questions facing some of the candidates standing to be South Ribble's next MP when they were quizzed during a hustings event in the constituency.
The Lancashire Post, Lancashire Lead, Blog Preston and the Local Democracy Reporting Service invited all five candidates contesting the seat at next week's general election to a debate in which they fielded questions from voters.
Four of those on the ballot took part in the event. In order of appearance from left to right on the stage, they are:
KATHERINE FLETCHER - Conservative
PAUL FOSTER - Labour
ANDY HUNTER - Reform UK
ANGE TURNER - Liberal Democrats
The one other candidate for the South Ribble constituency, who was unable to attend, is:
STEPHANI MOK - Green Party
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NewsTranscript
00:00What plans do any of the parties have for the duelling of the A582, which in case anybody that doesn't know has been a decade-long aspiration, more than even.
00:10Due to the increase of housing, Lancashire Cricket Club developments and Lancashire Cricket Club developments, this section of road is already congested and it's only going to get worse in the next few years without action now.
00:21The current plans are not to duel it, but to partially duel it, aren't they?
00:26Catherine, to start with you again, isn't that a sob?
00:29I haven't seen the current plans, so you're a step ahead of me, Paul.
00:33I mean, the A582 is a car park, so I live over a new long-term amount coming off the motorway.
00:38If you do it at the wrong time, or if there's an accident, you're like when that HPH truck turned over, you know, it's an absolute mess with all those little roundabouts that people don't understand.
00:48Lancashire County Council have applied for between £40 and £50 million of the money that we released taking the tough decision to stop HS2 at Birmingham.
00:57And that was because HS2 was taken, I was very briefly road-administered, it's a bit of an internship if I'm honest.
01:03But what was very true was that there was not a penny left in the transport budget because all of the money was going on HS2.
01:10So last autumn we took political pelters to say we'll stop at Birmingham because there are other more important priorities.
01:18We'd rather spend £19 billion in the north and the midlands on other things, and part of that is the bid for the A582.
01:24But as far as I'm aware, the plans aren't finalised.
01:27So I will support anything that stops it being a car park, but I'm not a roads engineer, so I'm not going to say this particular solution solves the problem.
01:35But the government is making the hard decision to say we've got the money available to solve the problem.
01:41Paul to you on the A502, unless you've connected heavily to the Pickering's Farm issue.
01:46Yes it is, and I'm glad Catherine has referenced and accepted that it's a car park, Catherine, because that's the very reason why the Planning Committee in South Ribble refused the applications twice.
01:57And the Secretary of State overturned the decision of the Planning Committee because they said it was already congested, therefore another 1,200 homes wouldn't make a material impact, which is utter nonsense.
02:16Just a point of clarity, Catherine, the government hasn't released funds from HS2.
02:22They were borrowing money to fund HS2, and you're still therefore borrowing money that you're reallocating.
02:29You're not releasing funds.
02:31The 582, the Conservative Lancashire County Council have decided now not to duel any of the 582 at all.
02:40They have now decided they're going to re-profile some more of the roundabouts, and the majority of the funds that Catherine's referring to have now been moved to fund the road improvements around the two major Lancashire County Council...
02:57That's not true.
02:58Catherine, you haven't seen them, so you can't comment.
03:00You'd be remiss if you hadn't.
03:01I haven't seen them.
03:02So, listen, let me just...
03:03I haven't seen them funding. You can't say that the funding...
03:06Catherine, you can't hear, you don't have the microphone, I'll give you a chance to come back.
03:09So, the 582...
03:10Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, about this.
03:12The 582 dueling is no longer going ahead.
03:16They've reallocated the funds to do highway improvements around the Lancashire County Council, cricket ground that's being built, and the works around the Curdon development site that is the Lancashire County Council site as well.
03:28Very creative.
03:29Well, you put the full funding for the 582, even though it could cost another 100 million pounds.
03:34It is absolutely critical to this constituency, Paul, that that 582 is duelled.
03:39Therefore, we need to find the money, invest the money, and build the road.
03:45It is causing no end of issues to the people in South Liverpool. Thank you.
03:50Andy, the 582 needs to be duelled or upgraded to a lesser degree?
03:57As you know, reform is fairly new to this game, and I think we'll let the people who are going to be in control fight this one out, actually, because we just want to be able to drive on the roads, don't we?
04:10We don't want all the roadworks, we don't want all the potholes, we don't want all the often mad drivers that are around because of the bad roads and the potholes and the roundabouts and things.
04:22So, once again, it's a very interesting discussion between you two people, and I'm enjoying it.
04:28As I get more involved in the game of politics nationally and in South Liverpool specifically, I'm sure I'll have more to say on the matter.
04:38And the 582, worth the investment to duel it in full or not?
04:44So, I've got a real issue with roads in general, and I think if a lot of you have been abroad on holiday or, as I did, work in Europe, I think successive governments have massively failed us by focusing investment on roads.
05:02This country has a high population, it's part of Europe which is going to continually grow, it's a growth area on the planet, and I actually feel, answering this honestly, we should be focusing more on public transport.
05:20So that we get to a point where, when I was living in Germany in fact, we had the choice of a tram, an underground, a train, or a bus service.
05:36And I really do get upset when I hear about road building infrastructure, when actually we need a government that's going to start focusing on public transport, because in the long term, that's going to be best for our country and best for the environment.
05:56I'm not going to talk specifically about the A582, it's just going to be one of those projects again that just gets left, because if you listen to the candidates, and this isn't a criticism of them, it sounds like it's something, it's like the bridge over the river, in how it's been talked about, it's going to happen, but the money's never been available.
06:16In the meantime, we're moving on decades, and our public transport system is way behind Europe.
06:22So, when did we make the decision to stop HS2 at Birmingham? It was about November. So, to be fair, that's a whole slug of money, plans coming in, plans being developed, so I don't think it's fair to say that it's not going to happen, I think it's important.
06:42And, you know, Paul's highlighted, and I've highlighted that we care about this stuff. I think what you can't do is just make claims to say, oh, the money's gone here, the money's gone there, when you haven't seen the overall picture. I mean, apart from the HS2 money, you know, people talk about potholes, Lancashire County Council's ended up with about 240 odd million over the next few years to do potholes.
07:04But, to be fair to them, you know, it's poured down all winter, so we've given them money, and it's poured down, and they need to catch it back up again. But if they're just on public transport, Angie's right, it has to be within a balance of road and public transport infrastructure.
07:20We've got a train station in the constituency where the train stops, people peer out at the platform and they can't get on and off. And this is an absolute nonsense, and for a relatively small sum of money, you could probably have four of what it would take to dual the A582. And with the money that we've given to the buses to improve the bus services, and they get around for £2, that has to be part of an overall responsible portfolio.
07:44But I think the illustrative comment was, we need it dualling, it's going to cost £100 million, I don't know where we'll get the money from, but we need it to happen. Life isn't like that, you've got to make tough choices and make sure you spend your money in the right way.
07:58Okay, to clarify those points, Paul, very, very quickly, a couple of sentences just on this issue of the funding and whether it's...
08:28And just not specifically on the A582, but generally on potholes and the conditions of the roads. Just very briefly, really quick, electric vehicles weigh stacks more than hydrocarbon vehicles. They are ripping up the roads on the estate, why are we not taxing Jeff Bezos for all his Amazon trucks that are driving around and ripping the roads up?
08:56Thank you.