A GRANDMOTHER has lodged a last-ditch legal bid to prevent the £140million M6 bypass being built behind her home.
Linda Davies, of Russell Drive, Torrisholme, is desperate to halt the road from ploughing through greenbelt land – and she is willing to fight it out with county highways bosses and the government in the High Court.
Defiant Mrs Davies, who has liv
ed in Torrisholme for more than 40 years, has secured legal aid and has challenged her lawyers to find points of appeal in the planning application, which was approved by the secretary of state last month.
Mrs Davies, a retired social worker and a former teacher at Lancaster and Morecambe College, said: "I was intending to spend my last years in this house.
"I have been identified with Torrisholme all my life and I am concerned about the environment.
"That piece of land behind my house is all that remains of Torrisholme as was written in the Domesday Book.
"It is an attractive piece of land and I want to preserve it for my grandchildren – we should have some green space."
Mrs Davies' lawyers, Essex-based EarthRights, have written to Lancashire County Council outlining their three-pronged appeal after campaigners from Transport Solutions for Lancaster and Morecambe (TSLM) declined to mount a legal bid.
EarthRights argue that the road's environmental assessment was "inadequate" and say the park-and-ride, which would be built close to junction 34 of the M6, was not subject to the same probe.
The legal team also claim the county council failed to assess properly alternative measures, such as public transport, and did not look into the risk of flooding.
Mrs Davies added: "There are some legal points that have been identified that have not been addressed properly.
"The point is that it's £140million for that road and at the end of it people are still going to be sitting in traffic jams on Morecambe Road.
"Most people in Lancaster and Morecambe want to get in and out and think the link road will ease congestion.
"They will be disappointed when all that money gets spent and they are still sat in traffic.
"The road will have an adverse affect on the quality of life for
people round here. I am disappointed and I will be furious if it goes ahead."
A date, expected to be later this year, will now be fixed for
the hearing at London's High Court.
Ian Blinkho, the county council's principal solicitor, said he expected Hazel Blears, the secretary of state for communities and local government, to defend the bypass "robustly".
He added: "The county council is confident that it did all that was required and that the case is sound."
Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed the cost of building the Heysham to M6 link road had rocketed from £105million to £140million in just five weeks. However, county highways bosses have said they are confident of securing funding for the scheme from the Department for Transport.
