11:05am Friday 5th March 2010
I REFER to the report in the Bucks Free Press on February 26 on concerns about the impact of the new junction being constructed next to Currys on the London Road.
I, like many I would assume, am completely bemused by the concern now being shown about this junction and the impact on local traffic.
Anybody with any forward vision would have been able to predict the potential for traffic chaos that would result from allowing the residents of 500 new dwellings to exit via a left turn only road junction from the redevelopment of the former Thames Water site.
What did the planning officers think was going to happen on the London Road, a road that is already unable to cope with the demands placed upon it by land development on plots bordering the road over the past 15 years?
The potential for a nightmare situation was enhanced when the authority gave the developer permission to increase the density of the development for 350 homes to 500 homes.
Those who attended the public consultation at the time the scheme was first mooted will recall a project with the lesser number of residences and with green spaces that looked quite attractive.
Having secured planning permission, the developer then went back to increase the density thereby, in my opinion, making the public consultation absolutely meaningless.
Why did the authority allow the increase?
There is little doubt that traffic leaving the new site and having to all turn left, with those wishing to travel eastbound being required to turn right at the Hatters Lane roundabout, will cause a gridlock situation at peak traffic times and at weekends when the section of road between the roundabout and Wycombe Marsh retail park is already as good as stationary for much of the day. I feel this would have been the case even if the new exit was directly onto the Hatters Lane roundabout.
The only glimmer of hope is that the planners will see the mess they have been party to creating and think twice before allowing any further development of Wycombe Marsh, the allotment sites adjacent to the Thames Water development and Abbey Barn north and south.
In fact, I suggest they think three times!
Stephen Cooper, Deangarden Rise, High Wycombe.
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