A trip to India, a lovely walk, coffee and scones in Downham Market and plans for a new dual carriageway in the Wensum Valley
In the weekly Friday Politics column, Green Party councillor Pallavi Devulapalli discusses a busy December and looks forward to the New Year...
December brought a break from work and routine when a long-awaited trip to Mysuru (in South India) materialized. The flight was uneventful and the trip was lovely - we had a family get-together, pleasant weather, mature trees in parks and on the roadside, and of course, got to eat some delicious food.
India is astonishingly digitized in its everyday life- with everyone from street vendors to taxis, public transport to restaurants taking electronic payments by phone, via one of their payment apps (G-Pay/PayTM and others). This is a huge change that has come about due to government policy in the past few years. The idea is to make banking accessible to everyone so they can avail of government subsidies and loans, and to reduce the amount of money that is outside of the ‘official’ economy.
The other thing that impressed me was the availability of inter-city public buses at extremely cheap rates.
What is not so good is the presence of stray dogs almost everywhere. India has some of the highest numbers of injuries due to dog bites in the world. And quite a few of the dogs are not vaccinated so rabies is a real concern too. A program to vaccinate and sterilize dogs needs to become an urgent priority for local and national governments.
Since being back, I have been on a lovely walk along the River Great Ouse and the Relief Channel near Downham.
It’s an easy walk along mostly flat ground, albeit a bit muddy. There were large numbers of ducks, swans, geese and gulls in the mud flats and flying overhead.
We ended up at the Dial House cafe in Downham to warm up over a coffee and scone - a perfect end to a Sunday morning walk.
Nationally, we continue to struggle. The cost-of-living crisis is showing no sign of let-up, and the NHS will be brought to its knees if the threatened strike by doctors goes ahead. These fully qualified doctors who are training to be specialists and consultants are now paid approximately 14% less in real terms than they were in 2010! It's incredibly frustrating to watch the government digging its heels in, refusing to agree to their demand for fair pay.
Moving onto local matters, Norfolk County Council wants to build a new 3.9-mile dual carriageway in the Wensum Valley - to connect the Broadland Northway (formerly known as the Northern Distributor Road) between the A1067 and the A47 in the west of Norwich.
The new road is expected to reduce journey times for people that use it by a grand total of three and a half minutes! Traffic in surrounding villages like Taverham and Costessey is predicted to increase. Plus adding yet another road only means more cars on the already congested roads of Norwich
The ambulance trust has said it will have no impact on ambulance response times - hospital handover waits are the problem, not the roads.
The Wensum Valley is a rich patchwork of habitats including ancient woodland, protected bat species and a rare chalk stream. Building a new road across the Valley will destroy this unique ecology. No amount of planting of saplings elsewhere in so-called biodiversity net gain measures will repair this damage.
This road is expected to cost at least £400m, of which Norfolk taxpayers (including all of us in the West) will be expected to contribute around £60m. At the same time, the county is expected to plug a budget deficit of the same amount - £60m.
The alternative and much cheaper solution would be to improve existing roads such as the B1535, and have better bus services across the county. No bus service crosses the Wensum Valley, yet around 12,000 cars make the two-way journey each day. It would cost very little to improve the frequency and speed of bus services on existing roads from Lynn, Swaffham, Dereham, Fakenham, Wymondham, Costessey and Taverham to the main destinations such as the city centre, Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, County Hall, Carrow Road etc.
There is a campaign against this road which I would encourage all members of the public to look up. https://www.stopthewensumlink.co.uk/
Please read the facts and have a think about whether you want your hard-earned tax money to be spent on this road - at the expense of so much else that could be done to improve lives across Norfolk. I will be joining a march in Norwich, all else being well, on Saturday, January 20, to show my opposition to the road.
Sign up to the Facebook page if you’re able to, https://www.facebook.com/events/856685949319198 to stay informed.
I wish all readers a Happy New Year. Hope it’s a year of sensible decision-making at County Hall that benefits everyone in Norfolk, not just road-builders and developers!
