The Causey Arch was commissioned and financed by the Grand Allies coal cartel to take coal to the growing Tyneside conurbation. That is the demand from Tyneside could not be met by the existing transport of packhorse trains and carts so the plateway was built to increase the supply of coal. Tyneside had already grown and the 'infrastructure' followed that growth.
The town where I gain my living has a traffic problem. There are two roads one eastbound and one westbound round the dock area that carries all through traffic and acts as a local distributor. Over the last 20 years or so I have watched as this gyratory system has got more and more clogged as the Town has grown and developed. Economic growth has already happened.
As you will have realised the traffic has a negative externality. Land prices are probably depressed by this, or more likely removing the traffic would increase the attractiveness of locations in the area. You should note that there are a number of partially- and un-developed sites in the location, a couple of which were bought out of receivership.
There is a plan to solve all this and at the same time provide access to an island site in the Wet Dock to make it suitable for development. From memory the budget is £70m or so. You will notice that the plan gaily admits that spending this money will make the Island Site valuable. And of course 'drive economic growth'.
Three points.
One clearly Ipswich has already grown. This new infrastructure is being built to relieve the traffic problems created by this growth.
Two. Spending this £70m of other peoples money will hand windfall gains to all the landowners around the gyratory system and a handsome uplift in the value of the Island Site which will accrue to its owners, Associated British Ports. Why is everyone else paying to finance these windfall gains to a small number of landlords?
Three. Motorists are not paying the costs of their pollution. Why are they being gifted an improved route?
The thing is there are only four ways that such infrastructure can be financed, and three of them are flawed.
One, finance can be raised by taxation. This is taking money out of the economy. It's a zero sum.
Two. The government can borrow money in the market. This makes less finance available for private investment.
Three. It can print the money. Which is a form of taxation.
Or...
Four. LVT could be applied to the landowners who would therefore pay in proportion to their gains and tolls could be levied on traffic using the crossing.
I confess that this is a personal niggle that I need to get off my chest. And the fact that Ben Gummer (ex)local MP was in favour of it is enough to condemn it.
