10:19am Friday 28th November 2008
By Oliver Evans
LOOKING at a photograph of High Wycombe from the sky – now available at the touch of a button thanks to the wonders of the internet – it is clear to see why Wycombe District Council is taking a consultation on the RAF Daws Hill and Abbey Barn sites so seriously.
If you split the town into four with the vertical divide of the A404 and the horizontal divide of the A40 you see the top two and bottom left sections are heavily populated by housing and businesses.
Yet the bottom right quarter is noticeably greener. This is in part due to Wycombe Abbey School and The Rye but also fields between Abbey Barn Lane and the former RAF Daws Hill, off Daws Hill Lane, which closed last year.
Yet it could look a lot more built up if options being put forward by the council are approved. Added to the approved housing development for Wycombe Marsh, near London Road, this is likely to be the biggest issue facing the south east part of the town in the coming years.
Two plans have been put forward for the former American-led base, owned by the Ministry of Defence, and neighbouring fields, owned by Carrington Estates, and another, separate, piece of land nearer the Marsh.
“Option A” is primarily residential with 1,200 to 1,500 detached, semi, terraced and townhouses with more than 15 hectares of open space. “Option B” would see 1,100 to 1,300 townhouses and terraces, some detached and semi-detached homes and office space for 3,000 new jobs.
What do you think of the plans? Leave your comments at the bottom of this story.
At the root of this is the Government’s demand that councils find space for new homes to help bring house prices down. In Wycombe, the fourth biggest district council area in the UK, this means 400 new homes a year to 2026. Clearly, the council needs all the space it can get.
To say this has caught the attention of residents in the Daws Hill and Abbey areas is something of an understatement. A public meeting held last month drew almost 200 people – and two more “workshops” had to be held the following month to satisfy demand. Further consultation is expected in the summer.
The proposals will mostly affect the former base and neighbouring land, known as Abbey Barn South. Abbey Barn North, a vast crater of land between the former Wycombe Summit and Kingsmead Road, is not affected by plan A, the council told Bucks Free Press.
But Option B would see “limited housing development on it with the remainder retained as open space/nature reserve” on the land, part owned by the council.
Vivienne Danne, 65, who lives with husband David at the beginning of Abbey Barn Lane, near the Marsh, said she is worried by any moves to build on this site.
She said: “It is going to make the traffic much worse. You get a backlog on the motorway and you can’t move on this road.”
Looking at the council’s notes about the October meeting it is clear the resulting surge in vehicles is a major concern.
“Already traffic congestion in the morning on the road at Daws Hill Lane” says one. “Congestion issues already on Kingsmead Road at the Marsh. Safety concerns” reads another.
Councillor Trevor Snaith, a district council member for Ryemead, said: “The increases in traffic will be considerable, between 300 and 500 per cent.
“My concern is that a development of this size can have major repercussions on not just Daws Hill but into the Marsh area and onto London Road.”
He said he applauded moves to create extra services including a new primary school, community hall, medical centre and shops, but called for more leisure facilities and fewer homes to cut early morning traffic.
This was backed by Stanford Gardens residents Claire Reeves, whose street borders the former base.
She said: “We are worried about the effect on the price of our houses and the throughput of traffic. It is bad at the moment. I have sat for two hours to get from here to Cressex, that is usually a six minute journey.”
Neighbour Mike Tomich, 60, whose home borders Daws Hill, said: “The traffic is too much already, it has been since the mid 1990s.”
Yet the council said it is committed to managing the extra traffic.
A council statement given to Bucks Free Press said: “This involves looking at the highway network and congestion issues, public transport provision, and provision for cycling and walking in the area.”
The council is considering radical proposals to deal with the rise in vehicle numbers.
This could include a new road cutting across country between the A404 and Heath End Road. See map, above left. An alternative is to widen Winchbottom Lane and link it to the A404.
Also in the plans is a new road, for public transport only, out of Daws Hill and down the side of St Augustine’s Primary and St Bernard’s Catholic Secondary schools.
This would then cut through woodland adjacent to the M40 through to Wycombe Sports Centre, which is to be rebuilt by the council, to create a new junction at Handy Cross.
Wycombe MP Paul Goodman said he was prepared to speak out on major planning applications but wanted to see firm proposals before commenting.
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