A major road that has become “stressed” by thousands of vehicles every day could be overhauled to help it cope with a huge increase in traffic.
The A4010, which runs from Handy Cross, through High Wycombe and all the way to Stoke Mandeville, is a major road that sees up to 23,000 vehicles travelling along it a day – including ambulances on blue lights carrying patients between the two hospitals.
With a huge increase in housing planned, particularly in Princes Risborough and Aylesbury, along with HS2 construction traffic heading between the M40 and their Wendover compound, that number is expected to increase by 30 per cent by 2036.
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Now, a project is underway to look at how the busy A-road can be overhauled to improve safety, traffic and pollution – and even help tourism in the Chilterns.
Jim Stevens, a resident who used to work for the council in transport and drew up a draft plan for the road based on his expertise, told councillors at the North West Chilterns Community Board on Thursday that the A4010 is “stressed” and “calling for attention”.
He said work to improve the road would not be to facilitate more house building, but to play “catch-up” so the road is “capable of taking the 30 per cent increase” in traffic.
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The overhaul, which is in the very early stages of discussions, could include making improvements to the “bottlenecks” at either end of the road including between the pedestal roundabout in West Wycombe and the M40, and at key junctions like Chapel Lane and Cressex Road.
It could also see the single-track Chiltern Railway line made into a dual track to “improve the offer” of public transport, narrow parts of the A4010 widened and the creation of a continuous footpath and cycleway.
Presenting his plan, Mr Stevens said: “Communities either benefit or disbenefit from the route – benefit in terms of it being a very useable route connecting key towns, but also disbenefit when congestion arises when there are incidents, or roadworks - and then that’s when the rat-running occurs, and rat-running occurs through most of the local communities either side of the route.
“We have got interventions around improving the offer from the Chiltern rail line, improving the bus offering and looking at traffic direction signing.
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“There are concerns in communities alongside the A4010 where HGVs are rat-running through those villages. They shouldn’t be running through those villages, they should be on the A4010.”
He said widening the narrower parts of the A-road would address some other local safety concerns and potentially help link up areas for tourism purposes, like the historic West Wycombe Village and the various cycling trails near Risborough.
Cllr Gary Hall, chairman of the community board, agreed that the road can be dangerous for cyclists.
He said: “On those narrow bits, as a keen cyclist you are acutely aware that lorries have great big mirrors sticking out the sides which would knock a cyclist’s head off. It’s something people don’t think of but it’s a real danger to cyclists.”
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Fellow cyclist and councillor Clive Harriss said adding a continuous footpath and cycleway would be great for days out.
He said: “To be able to cycle up from West Wycombe, up to Princes Risborough, take the Phoenix Trail, go on the Chinnor Railway, all these different things, all accessible by bike would be fantastic.
“A lovely day out with the family and to know you can do it all safely, even better.”
Mr Stevens said any work to the A4010 would have an impact on the AONB, but that it could be positive – by reducing traffic and emissions.
He suggested that the road and footpath widening could be undertaken when the A4010 next needs major resurfacing – similar to what the council did back in the 1990s.
He added that funding for the project is a “huge challenge” – a concern voiced by council leader Martin Tett who was present at the meeting.
Cllr Tett said: “Widening the road, I don’t know what that would cost. I suspect it would cost quite a bit and it’s hard to know where we might get that money from.
“The Wycombe end is a real problem. We can talk about the A4010, but when you get down to West Wycombe, that’s when the problems start because the congestion along the West Wycombe Road as you go in towards Cressex or the M40, you’re going through basically Victorian housing estates and this is not an area that is easy to modify.
“It’s not like you can just build a bypass through the area. It’s very tricky. I’m not sure, candidly, how we address it. It’s a highly congested area.
“On the main route, we’ve got the Princes Risborough area which we hope the new 4010 will be built and the rest of it, you’re right – there are some very narrow parts. I would love to get that cycle route open. I’d love to cycle it as much as anything else. Even if we could restore what’s already there with some maintenance in the shorter term.”
All councillors on the community board were supportive of Mr Stevens’ draft proposal and agreed to lend their backing to it.
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