- A seven week, 24-hour closure on Eastwick Road is causing significant disruption
- Residents have been given insufficient help despite works being planned months ago
- Concerns were made clear by local bodies well in advance of the works
- Journey time for school children has been massively impacted
- Local firms have expressed fears closure will “kill their business”
- Confidence lost in developers managing similar impacts over the next 30 years
Residents in East Hertfordshire have expressed anger and disappointment as a major road closure has gone ahead with insufficient practical help being offered to local people.
As part of the Gilston Area project, developer Places for People and Hertfordshire County Council have completely closed a length of the C161 between the Eastwick roundabout and Dusty Miller pub to allow the digging of deep ditches to install services and utilities and new roads to access the development site.
The impact on existing residents has been massive. A week in, there has already been congestion on unsuitable roads, while local firms have spoken of fears that their businesses might not survive.
Perhaps most significantly, parents and carers are struggling with a major increase on their journey time every schoolday.
Residents had warned of this disruption long in advance of the closure and several options to ameliorate the upheaval had been offered by the local bodies, but all-but minor last minute ones have been ignored by the developers and county council.
Anthony Bickmore, chair of the Hunsdon, Eastwick and Gilston Neighbourhood Plan Group, said:
“When the road closure was announced earlier this year, it understandably caused a lot of concern. Residents knew that a development of this size would mean disruption, but we didn’t see anything in the plans that would help us through this difficult period.
“And as we sadly predicted, just a few days in we’ve seen major congestion as drivers are diverted through unsuitable roads. Businesses like the Plume of Feathers pub, which has been in the area for over 350 years, have expressed real fears that this closure could kill them off.
“Most significantly, a number of schoolchildren based in Gilston and Eastwick who study in Hunsdon and elsewhere in the area have had their journey time increased at least fourfold as their parents and carers are now forced to zig-zag round the county during rush hour.”
He added:
“What’s most upsetting is that not enough has been done to help offset these disruptions that we all knew were coming. This was not for want of suggestions.
“The local parish councils, the headmaster of the most-affected school, and us here at the Neighbourhood Plan Group all made serious and reasonable recommendations for how these problems could be mitigated.
“The most obvious was better timing for these long-planned works than a couple of weeks into a new school year, with the six week summer break only having just been completed. But beyond that, possible solutions included permits for parents or the provision of a school bus embarking from the other side of the closure.
“In fact, it’s not too late. It’s not impossible for the organisers of a multi-billion pound development to put on a couple of minibuses until the road is re-opened to help at least the most affected school and win back the support of the community.
“This is a project that has been allocated £172 million of taxpayers’ money. It’s unconscionable that more has not been done to help those being so seriously affected.”
Anthony Bickmore concluded:
“We are bitterly disappointed. Beyond the current disturbance, this failure at the first hurdle has obliterated any confidence we have that the development and its impacts will be properly or seriously managed to minimise the effects they will have on the people who live here.
“Instead of ignoring existing residents and brushing off the real damage being done to our communities, the developers and county council must include us in meaningful conversations going forwards. As ever, the NPG is always willing to work to get a better outcome for residents.
“Yes, disruption is inevitable. Residents are reasonable and we understand that. But by speaking to us seriously in advance and listening to what we have to say, we can make this development a collaboration that brings benefits to all instead of decades of antagonism between developers and local people.”
Made up of local people from the Hunsdon, Eastwick and Gilston area, the Hunsdon, Eastwick and Gilston Neighbourhood Plan Group was set up by the Parish Councils in 2016 to reflect the views of residents as East Herts sought to set out its District Plan for the area with and an allocation of 10,000 houses in our area over the next three decades.
After several rounds of consultation, the NPG’s Gilston Area Neighbourhood Plan passed its independent examination in February 2021 and was endorsed at referendum in May 2021 with 97.8% of the vote on a high 37.20% turnout.
The Plan went on to win national awards from the industry leading Planning Awards and the Excellence in Landscape Planning and Assessment Award from the Landscape Institute.
Other information available at: http://www.hegnp.org.uk
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