Wycombe Liberal Democrats

Be careful where you park – even outside your home!

Today I was contacted by a local resident in Kingsmead Road. He had been given a parking ticket for causing an obstruction – outside his home!

It appears that the parking in Kingsmead car park was full and visitors were parking along the road opposite his home.

It seems the amount of public parking for some leisure facilities in Ryemead is becoming an issue. This is a problem that needs addressing.

The answer isn’t to simply put a parking ticket on the cars. That is not treating the underlying cause. The lack of off road public parking and the lack of a cohesive public transport strategy is the real issue.

Specific problems identified by residents in several areas of Ryemead -

1. Rugby Club public car park off Kingsmead Road.

2. Kingsmead Netball car park in Fennels Road

3. Fitness First area in the new retail park.

4. The Rye during summer holiday months and some Sundays.

In the interim be vigilant and ensure your car is not in a position where it could be ticketed!

Your Liberal Democrat Councillors are pressing for protection of our historic High Street shops and market.

We hear quite a lot about the thousands of visitors coming to High Wycombe with the opening of Eden. I’m sure we will have a lot of new visitors to the shopping centre
However let’s not forget about our traditional High Street shops and Market. Despite numerous requests we are not seeing investment in this area ahead of the opening of Eden.
It had been suggested that footfall will drop in this area of the town despite the opening of Eden. We are also told the opening of Eden will bring new shoppers to the town. No one really knows—this is concerning!

We need to understand the dynamics and shopping patterns of the High Street now to be able to manage the dynamics and changes to retail and shopping patterns in this area.
Since August 2007 we have been promised that the High Street shopping footfall patterns would be monitored . This is supposed to be managed by the town centre video cameras.

December 2007 and we are still waiting for the tracking of shoppers to be done. If it is not running by early January 2008 its going to be too late to collect robust shopper data.

Why do we need to track the footfall?
There is concerns that if the trade drops off in the High Street that the shops and market traders businesses would suffer. No one in Wycombe would want to see a situation where we find our unique shops and markets under financial pressure and be accused of Eden killing off local businesses. Wycombe would lose some of its uniqueness. We need to be in a position to track and monitor the changes so we can request that our council make necessary changes to protect this part of our shopping heritage.

Your Liberal Democrat Councillors are posing questions — when will the shopper footfall tracking be in place.
To date we have not been given a date.

WYCOMBE District Council agreed that a bridge could be built across the River Wye, to a new road, which would link the new homes on the site of the old sewage treatment works in Bassetsbury Lane with London Road itself. It will run across the area where the access lane to the Curry’s store currently lies.

At the Development Control Committee meeting, decisions were made without due consideration of the bigger picture and impact on the east of High Wycombe.
The DCC voted for the St James access road and bridge to be approved! The councillors failed to stand up for what is right: they accepted the proposal for the new development bridge and lights. One Tory councillor even suggested that the officers were applying duress to force the decision to approve to proceed.
Others supported Cllr Trevor Snaith and Cllr Ray Farmer who suggested that the new road layout was flawed and would cause additional congestion to the London Road. All traffic turning out of the new road will be forced to turn left onto the A40, and, if need be, do a “u-turn” at the Hatters Lane roundabout, coming back to the lights they had come through when they left the estate!!

The St James development to date has a poor performance regarding the impact of the other access roads into, through and out of the site. There has been considerable comment in the press regarding the traffic problems and accidents arising from poor design and highway planning:
- On the London Road/retail park due to poor lights and junction, there are car parts in the middle of the road as a testament to the problems
- On the Abbey Barn junction outside the Marsh School residents have painted their own STOP road markings in an attempt to prevent more accidents
- Guinions Road, The Marsh streets, Abbey Barn and Kingsmead Road – are all rat runs – and St James plans another rat run through the new development
- Currently our District and County Councils are displaying a marked indifference to the problems they are about to cause on the A40 from Hatters Lane through to the Marsh and in the New St James estate.

Wycombe District Council’s decision making is effectively run by rural and semi urban Conservative councillors making decisions that impact High Wycombe town. Councillors who represent and live in the country wards appear to have little comprehension of the dynamics of the town and the problems they are creating. Perhaps they should book a week in one of the hotels along London Road to see what High Wycombe town dwellers have to live with everyday!

We have seen the artist impression  to develop the Wycombe station. We fully support development of station as it will put some life back into the east end of the Town.

Residents are tellling us the Station development  must have a design that compliments the area. Although early days we are already receiving comments from residents who are not impressed with height or design and are concerned how the access via Station Road is going to work for new residential. 

Residents are already concerned and will  need firm assurances that Station Road will not be opened up to through traffic leading to a rat run down to London Road.

We are looking for Residents comments once plans are released in the next week or so -  Contact Ray or Trevor    

trevor_snaith@wycombe.gov.uk

Raymond_farmer@wycombe.gov.uk

Application No: 07/06414/FUL Date Valid: 11/06/2007 Expiry Date: 06/08/2007 

At: Sewage Treatment Works Bassetsbury Lane High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP11 1HS 

Proposed Development: Construction of new bridge over River Wye & access road to London Road  

Applicant: St James Group Ltd Agent: Barton Willmore 

Your Local councillors following comments from residents have deep reservation about this access road 

The application gives little information in the submission .It makes no reference to  bridge structure ,impact on river and wildlife  corridors, Existing footpaths and rights of way, road width ,traffic flows, volume of traffic, access on to London Road, Impact to existing and future traffic. If it’s a junction ,lights or roundabout  and direct impact on surrounding roads and properties.    This development to date has a poor performance with regard to the planning that’s gone into understanding the impact of the other access roads into/from the site (retail park roads and school Lane/Abbey Barn) . We have seen considerable press and comment regarding the traffic problems and accidents    We need to understand fully the impact another road from the same developer and estate will have on the London Road and Ryemead ward 

Residents of Ryemead are concerned regarding the incremental nature of any developments  in the area  and the cumulative effect on the wider planning and transport issues affecting the district and Ryemead   At this juncture Cllr Trevor Snaith and Cllr Ray Farmer  oppose access of this road on to the London Road and have raised objections with the planning department 

 Interested resident can also make comments writing to planning dept  or log on to 

 http://www.wycombe.gov.uk/publicAccessPlanning.asp