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Friday, 3rd September 2010

Traffic chaos top of agenda in Gosport

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Gosport Election Debate at Thorngate Halls
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Published Date:
20 April 2010
Chief reporter
Finding ways of breathing new life into run-down Gosport dominated an election debate in the town.
In The News-organised hustings, three issues dominated last night's discussion: the town's notorious road system, health care and jobs.

Members of the audience quizzed candidates from five parties fighting the Gosport constituency about their priorities and it was clear that all three topics were linked.

Speaker after speaker blamed the A32 and its life-sucking queues and bottlenecks for wrecking Gosport's economy and driving patients heading for Queen Alexandra Hospital at Cosham to distraction.

Labour candidate Graham Giles said he believed his government's decision to build two Portsmouth-based aircraft carriers would mean extra manufacturing jobs for the town.

He said: 'Labour's plans for the future of Gosport are radically different to those of the Tories.

'Labour has guaranteed to build the two new aircraft carriers which will need thousands of apprenticeships. I will push for those manufacturing jobs to come back to Gosport not just now but for the next 20 to 30 years.'

Tory hopeful Caroline Dinenage said one of the ways to keep people in the town would be to redevelop the waterfront.

'We are sitting on an absolute jewel,' she said.

'The waterfront is beautiful and getting it right is essential. We want to stop people automatically crossing the harbour to Gunwharf.

'So, the waterfront redevelopment should offer not just housing but opportunities for people to spend their money in Gosport too.'

UK Independence Party candidate Andrew Rice was adamant that Gosport businesses would be better off if Britain left the EU.

He said: 'They are battling with too much legislation, three-quarters of which comes not from Westminster but from Brussels.'

Green candidate Claire Smith agreed with the entire gathering at Thorngate Halls that Gosport's demise started with the axing of the railway line in the 1960s.

She said she would push for a high-speed bus link along the line of the old track.

'I know it's not going to solve all the problems, but to have that link to Fareham railway station would take a lot of traffic off the A32.'

Lib Dem Rob Hylands said his party supported expansion of the rail network. 'We would open new branch lines. We had one here once. Why not again?,' he said.

» For all the latest Election 2010 news go to our special section with dedicated areas for constituencies within The News region

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  • Last Updated: 20 April 2010 6:00 PM
  • Source: The News
  • Location: Portsmouth
 
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max0603,

Gosport 20/04/2010 11:55:52
Councillor Dave Smith said 'what traffic problems'?
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RQM,

20/04/2010 12:45:49
None of this lot could tell you which way is up, let alone sort out a real problem.

Steer clear of all of their isolated single issue kneee jerk "solutions" because they will make everything else ten times worse.

We need politicians with broad experience of the real world who can think positively in a coordinated manner.

We need a final box on our ballot paper marked "none of these try again with new candidates" You would get a big voting turnout because people could then make their abstentions count.
3

Chris2,

Gosport 20/04/2010 13:09:27
Max0603: If you'd been at the meeting last night, you would know that Dave Smith was not on the panel, so what you say is a lie. And, as he is someone who commutes from Gosport to Fareham daily to work, it's probably the LEAST LIKELY thing he'd say!
4

Scumstomper,

20/04/2010 13:24:21
With today's society, we might as well have a phone vote after live local debates. Not only money for the coffers but maybe a clearer refelction of what the masses think...
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SaveNewgateLane,

20/04/2010 15:19:20
A bus link between Fareham to Gosport is hardly going to attract people out of their cars. Where does the bus link connect? Not Southampton, and not Portsmouth, and that's the drawback. It wouldn't surprise me if new bus services along the bus link would need subsidising due to operating at a loss. The bus link cannot really be compared with the Waterlooville to Portsmouth route, for the pure fact that it completely misses Portsmouth. Who would actually use the service? I doubt it would encourage more people out of their cars. Unless people live in Fareham and work in Gosport or vice versa then the new bus route still won't appeal. And if commuting between Fareham and Portsmouth I would still rather catch the train, as catching a single train is faster and most likely to be cheaper than catching a bus and then a ferry and possibly then another bus.

More effort should be diverted towards creating a high quality route between Gosport, Stubbington, Titchfield and junction 9 of the M27. Doing this would not solve Gosport's traffic problems, but it would go further than a bus route that completely avoids Portsmouth, and motorists generate considerably more revenue for the economy than bus passengers.
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Johnny ,

Fareham 20/04/2010 16:40:14
I must admit I was expecting something a little more interesting here. No-one's that interested in the long term, and everyone just wants to play their party's tired old record. The Greens, as usual, are on another planet.

"She said she would push for a high-speed bus link along the line of the old track."
Does she realise that the bus rapid transit link, both in its current form and for the foreseeable future, is about creating new journeys (or un-suppressing demand). It'll do nothing for the existing journeys.

Has she ever asked herself why the majority of bus priority and 'rapid' bus schemes both in the UK and abroad have been unsuccessful?

On to people with a bit more sense:
"The bus link cannot really be compared with the Waterlooville to Portsmouth route, for the pure fact that it completely misses Portsmouth."
For the record, the aim of that project was to reduce journey times between Waterlooville and Portsmouth. I have asked whether this has happened and was told "it's not about the numbers".

"More effort should be diverted towards creating a high quality route between Gosport, Stubbington, Titchfield and junction 9 of the M27."
Somewhere amongst all my papers I have an OS map with a lot of pen on it, showing my own road starting at a free-flowing junction on the former Meon motorway service station site east of J9 (with sliproads interlinked with J9), having an interchange with the Titchfield Gyratory, crossing Peel Common and then entering Gosport from the west. I then got a little carried away and had it taking out most of central Gosport, having a roundabout, and then crossing a bridge into Portsmouth, taking out most of western Portsmouth before meeting the M275. I won't be standing in the election. I believe I christened it the A333 (only half-evil), but that number's now taken so I'll need to think again.

There is a serious point to all this. I can argue that my idea would work wonders for Gosport just as much as anyone else can, b
7

Johnny ,

Fareham 20/04/2010 16:40:32
because no-one has bothered to work out who uses the A32 and where they're going, so instead everyone's just presuming the A32 is made up of people who would benefit from their scheme. If most of them are heading west then this would work, as would 'SaveNewgateLane''s idea. The A32 would then be left empty and can be used largely by buses or cyclists. I'm sure not even the Greens would be able to disagree with that.

Sadly, the truth is I can't see anything happening because no-one has any money.
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pmpycj,

portsmouth 20/04/2010 17:55:11
I loved Andrew Rice's point - it was completley off-topic and utterly redundant. Damn those europeans making the traffic in gosport a nightmare! I knew it was the italians fault all along!
If I'm honest none of them provided great solutions - aircraft carriers a decent idea but we'd have to wait and see if it would ever happen, I don't see how improving the waterfront will do much - if they do too good a job of it you'll have people from fareham driving into gosport which will make the problem worse and doesn't solve the 'people who live in gosport but work somewhere else' driving in and out problem, the high speed bus link take a load of people out of their cars but not enough, and a rail network would be good but is it really workable? is there the space?
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Candice88,

21/04/2010 16:04:02
Why not build a tunnel from gosport to the naval base in Portsmouth (where a high percentage of gosport residents work) which then leads to the M275.......
10

Roger Allen,

Gosport 21/04/2010 17:40:15
It is absolutely obvious that nothing that can be done in the way of improvements to the A32 is going to make any difference. Tesco is about to build a superstore that will clog up the Quay Street roundabout even more.
The answer is obviously to attract more investment into the town utilising what we do have and that is history and a magnificent waterfront. The Stubbington by pass would take the traffic that heads to the west and that will reduce the load on the A32. The problem is that Labour will not pay for it and now having broke the bank, they cannot. Gosport cannot expect the solution to its problems to come from outside of the borough, we have to look inwards and work on getting investment in to create permanent jobs for Gosport people and cut down on the 60% of workers living in the town who have to commute out every day.
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