Future Roundabout!

This is the scene from my window!

It is beautiful, but it is soon to be turned into a large roundabout, parking spaces and helipad for the hospital with its accompanying buildings including a mortuary!

Do we really want to lose this lovely open space for more urban sprawl?

Surely the NHS has enough real estate to put its new hospital on without destroying ever more scarce open land.

Does not the county council have an obligation to protect such spaces for all of our benfits?


If you think this space should be protected then dont forget to register your objections to:

Joe Nugent
Senior Planning Officer
Development Management
Development Services
County Hall
Morpeth
NE22 5TU

as soon as possible.

Also had the pleasure of listening to a helicopter circling overhead for about 15mins today!

YES we can hear them!

Road Layout

This is a Photo of the plans for the new roundabout on a small road.

This shows proposed new road layout and the large roundabout.

See More Photos



Transport,Environment and Health - WHO Report

The World Health Organisation Report on Transport, Environment and Health contains 2 sections of interest to those of us that will live in the proximity of the proposed new hospital and will have to live with the impact to our quality of life that it will bring.

The sections of interest are

1. "Transport noise: a pervasive and underestimated ambient stressor" and
2. "Serious health impact of air pollution generated from traffic"

We are not medics and cannot determine the consequences to health of a major increase in road traffic and helicopter journeys. However there is so much written following studies by authoritive organisations including the World Health Organisation and highly regarded medical professionals, about the link between traffic and the risks to health, both physical and mental.

 Our own commonsence must make us question what are the possible risks to our health and to those of the vulnerable including children and the elderly living nearby and to ask why, when Governments and Local Authoritys are required to cut the levels of air pollution and greenhouse gasses, our local representatives shrug and grin when we raise the issue of health risks and are keen to impose increase in airbourne pollutants on our environment.

Extracts from the report are revealing:

The health effects of noise.

"Good evidence shows the adverse effects of noise
on communication, school performance, sleep and
temper, as well as cardiovascular effects and hearing
impairment."


Serious health impact of air pollution generated from traffic

"Direct link between proximity to heavy traffic and ill health.
A number of studies have recently shown an association
between respiratory disease and proximity
to roads that are busy and those travelled by a high
number of heavy vehicles or trucks (46). Children
living near roads with heavy vehicle traffic are at
greater risk of respiratory disease. Most studies suggest
an increased risk of around 50%. These studies
may have captured the effects of actual mixtures of
pollutants and they strengthen the case for traffic generated
air pollutants’ affecting health."

Judge for Yourself  READ MORE

Residents Against Location of Proposed Hopital

There are now hundreds of residents in Cramlington who have expressed concern over the proposed location for the new Emergency Care Hospital. The NHS Foundation Trust are pushing ahead with a proposed planning application for early January 2011 for a hospital location off the B1326 (see map).

The proposed development will comprise of a 40 foot roundabout and major junction alterations including traffic lights, remarking of the roads. Further development includes a helipad and 500 space car park, along with a three storey hospital building with further buildings to follow in the future.  Please note that this is an Emergency Care (Trauma) Hospital and not a walk in centre.

Emergency vehicles (blue lights and sirens) 24 hours per day are anticipated to be in excess of 120,000 per annum. Coupled with visiting vehicles, delivery trucks etc will greatly overload the already congested Moor Farm and surrounding B roads.

Residents feel the previous consultations have not covered a wide enough area and particulary the impact on the community living around the proposed development site.

Traffic blunder hits Cramlington hospital plan

See this news item posted by The Journal on 25th Aug 2009

"Patients needing emergency care could be put at risk after it emerged key decision-makers on transport improvements weren't told a new hospital was planned.

A team putting together a wishlist of North East road and rail improvements were not told of plans for a new hospital near Moor Farm roundabout, near Cramlington"..... Read More

Patients Unhappy about New Hospital

Patients have hit out at plans to restructure the region's emergency hospital care. Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has unveiled proposals for a £75m Specialist Emergency Care Hospital near Cramlington......Read More

Potential Health Questions

There have been a number of wide ranging studies on the impacts of traffic fumes on the health of individuals living in close proximity to heavily trafficked roads. 


Professor Jonathan Grigg, Honarary Consultant Royal London Hospital state in his recent study....

"Children who live near a main road are in greater danger of catching pneumonia because pollution  from passing traffic damages their lungs. A leading expert in childhood breathing difficulties has made the link between exposure to particles from vehicle exhausts and a child's susceptibility to the chest infection, which can be fatal....." Read More

Mrs Z J Andersen, Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen University report concluded....

"Air pollution related to traffic is significantly associated with triggering of wheezing symptoms in the first 3 years of life" .... Read More

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine ...
"traffic-related pollution is associated with respiratory symptoms in children.."  Read More

There are numerous other studies and reports all concluding similar findings that proximity to traffic fumes is a danger to health particularly to young children.