IT would seem that spin is not the sole preserve of certain Westminster politicians.

I refer to claims made by Clr Ritchie in the Northwich Guardian (October 14) regarding the benefits accruing from the Bradburns Lane slip road in Hartford.

The council’s own study, Optimising Capacity, undertaken by MVA Consultancy in anticipation of the Winnington Urban Village, concludes that the slip road will only result in a slight positive impact on the efficiency of the junction for vehicular traffic.

A review of the modelling contained in the study reveals that the junction will still remain in a 95 per cent saturated mode with delays and queues.

Hardly the 25 per cent reduction in queues claimed by the councillor, though to be fair, for a short period each morning the number of vehicles, mostly school/college traffic turning left, amounts to around one in every five cars. On another point, the total funding of the improvement scheme, of which Bradburns Lane is a part, is £500,000. Not the £350,000 quoted.

The councillor goes on to claim that the council had kept all relevant parties informed at every stage.

This patently is not true. Detailed plans were not made available until up to the point of sending out the invitations to tender.

Without such plans, no meaningful discussion could take place.

Despite the work being in a designated conservation area, the attitude of the council highways officers in various meetings attended by the Hartford Civic Society and Mike Hall MP was that as the area was within highways adopted boundaries, it was not subject to normal planning consent and they could do exactly what they liked.

A petition of 1,000 signatures objecting to the slip road, collected by the Hartford Civic Society within the space of a few days, was totally ignored. While Clr Ritchie described Mike Hall’s remarks as high on electioneering sound bites, unreasonable and in part simply incorrect, from our perspective the boot is on the other foot.

Mike Hall, MP, has acted with integrity and in the interests of Hartford residents throughout this saga.

It will be for voters to decide at the next elections whether the same can be said of our local councillors.

The council’s own study makes clear that the desecration of this designated conservation area has little to do with benefiting local residents and all to do with taking traffic through Hartford from the Winnington Urban Village – when built.

JOHN SWAFFIELD Hartford Civic Society