City regions what's people's views?

[craigmason]

What are poeple's views on the proposed city regions

http://www.northernway.co,uk/

http://www.thenorthernway.co.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=19

I can see no benefits for the residents of north derbyshire in this proposal everything seems to be concentrated on sheffield

[Haydn1971]

I feel that the City Regions concept has merit, especially in the transport, planning and development arenas of local (and national) government, perhaps also the concept needs extending to the NHS and other 999 services, although, I must stress I'm not a fan of large regional 999 areas as proposed a few years back....

 

The main problem I have and I've stressed this to a number of elected members over the last year is lack of vision... The transport arena is one I know well, but for me, both this regional plan and the current 2006/2011 LTP do not go far enough in terms of vision... We have practically abandoned the Supertram extensions (which would be better than the cronically crappy FTR alternatives), we have no national vision for higher speed TGV style or better trains (which would help us nationally cut back on airtravel and CO2 emmissions inside the country), we have no vision for more park and ride sites, nor any major infrastructure schemes even at conceptual stages - The current IRR scheme was kicked off in 1992, although early concepts had been kicking around since the 1950's, i.e. it's taken 15yrs to get from inception to completion.

 

It's time we got more radical, I'm not talking motorways and dual carriageways everywhere, I'm talking better and new ideas, the Supertram was a good start, yet the idea dates back to 1975, i.e. that took almost 20 years from inception to completion... The proposed re-regulation of public transport is another great advance, the deregulation was perhaps the lowest point in transport history of recent times. We need to start getting ideas in place for 20yrs from now, rather than concentrate on the next local election.

 

Thats my take on the transport front, how about some input re planning and development from someone who knows the current system ? Will City Regions work better ???