LETTER: Bypass petition has been approved

I am a lifelong resident of Buxton and one of the reasons I started the petition to debate Buxton, specifically Fairfield Road, having a bypass was because some of the people I spoke to about this topic had the same defeatist attitude of councillor Kemp, whose statement was given to Lucy Ball at the Buxton Advertiser, and councillor Todd (letters page, January 19th) who thinks it's a waste of time duplicating a petition that had '˜already been rejected'.

Firstly, this is not a duplication of a rejected petition. Petitions are rejected before they are published if they do not meet the standards required by the Government to approve them; the Buxton Town Team’s petition would not have been published for people to sign, it would never have reached that stage, because it did not meet the standards they set, (this is in a statement on their petition page on the Government website) if I am incorrect please let me know.

However my petition was approved, and has at this point 904 signatures. If it reaches 10,000 the Government will respond, and if it reaches 100,000 it will be considered for debate in Parliament. This is all explained on the Government’s website for public petitions.

Secondly, if over 900 people so far would like a discussion about looking into ideas to relieve the traffic problems on Fairfield Road, then surely they have a right to have their voices heard. If we all take the line that ‘it will never happen’ then nothing will ever get done.

I don’t claim to be an expert in traffic management, planning, logistics etc, but if any of you tell me your ideas I will try my best to get them to the relevant bodies who have the power to make decisions on this subject, but above all, sign the petition if you are not one of the ‘it will never happen’ brigade, or even if you are. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/172149

Elizabeth Thompson

By email