When the Spalding bypass was about to be built I attended a meeting where a group of people from the Highways authority were in attendance.
The official representing Highways stood up to address the packed hall and started by saying he knew who his audience were that evening because it was his job to travel the country and address such people when a bypass was about to be built.
He said he was speaking to people who already ran a business on the soon-to-be-old A16 and landowners who owned land in the location where a traffic roundabout was to be built on the new A16.
Although he made no promise that there would not be a downturn of business for those on the old A16 he did say he was sorry but Highways was not going to give carte blanche permission for every landowner to sell his land at much inflated prices so a retail business could be built on the new bypass islands.
He went on to say that the purpose of the bypass was to get traffic from one side of Spalding to the other the quickest and safest way possible and with the least disruption to the people of Spalding.
Anyone passing through who wanted to avail themselves of a service would turn into Spalding and seek out those already-established businesses for the service they wanted.
Some 15 years later there is not an island on the new A16 that has either got a retail outlet of sorts on it or planning permission granted for future retail use.
Now I read someone wants to build a mini-town on the island already crowded with retail outlets near Springfields, which I am certain will cause chaos on that stretch of road if allowed to happen.
What the man from Highways did say which seemed to make sense at the time is that if they allowed retail on the islands then in some 30 years’ time from then the public would be calling out for a Spalding bypass to solve the traffic congestion problem on the A16.
I do hope the South Holland planning officers have realised that could happen and will take the necessary steps to stop such a thing before it’s too late.
George F. Slinger
Chairman
Birchgrove Garden Centre
Surfleet Road
Pinchbeck