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!

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.

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!

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

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

Cllr Ray Farmer has asked the councill to look at adding to street cleaning rota .He has passed request for lighting to BCC

VIGILANTES angry at a lack of safety measures have taken matters into their own hands. They’ve drawn road markings near a junction in Abbey Barn Road, High Wycombe, in an effort to slow down drivers.The work has been welcomed by residents who say the stretch is notorious for collisions and speeding motorists.They are making a statement that the county needs to pick up. Residents say the junction, which links Abbey Barn Road to Wycombe retail park, has seen up to five collisions recently. An oil spillage was even caused after a car ploughed into a telegraph pole.The junction faces Marsh First School and there are fears children could be hit in an accident.

Cllr Trevor Snaith is in discussion with Bucks County Council and is pressing for action to resolve the issues before we have a major accident.

Last night, Wycombe District Council passed the following motion:

‘This Council wishes to place on record, its serious concern at the level of noise produced by traffic on the M40 as it traverses the district and the blight this causes the communities that border the motorway. The Council considers that all practicable means should be taken by the Highways Agency to mitigate this noise and wishes to support local residents whose quality of life is affected by noise pollution in their campaign for the necessary works to be carried out.’

Your Liberal Democrats councillors, of course, supported this motion. But it does not go far enough. This motion does not actually commit your Council to any kind of action – instead, it simply abdicates responsibility to the Highways Agency. Of course, the Highways Agency are responsible for the M40. But I believe that the District Council could and should:

1. Schedule regular meetings with the Highways Agency to monitor progress on noise reduction measures
2. Explore together with the Highways Agency what can be done to alleviate noise for those residents closest to the motorway
3. Explore what actions the District Council may be able to take independently – for example erecting noise barriers and tree planting

This is not a new problem, residents have been campaigning for too long without any real action being taken. With only three weeks to go until the election, this motion will not placate the long suffering residents of Lane End. It is time to elect councillors who will take action.

To read more about the M40 noise camapign, visit http://www.m40-chilterns.org.uk/

Neil Timberlake is a transport professional, with a relevant degree, and believes that as a councillor he will be even better-placed to help the campaign. Neil says “The M40 is far busier now than anyone could have envisaged when it was first built. Traffic flows 24 hours a day 365 days a year. It is clear from talking to local people, and from survey replies, that traffic noise is a blight on many people’s lives. I am more than happy to back this campaign.” Speeding There are a number of ‘hotspots’ in the Lane End area where speeding is a concern. The Marlow Road out towards Stokenchurch and through Cadmore End has a speed limit of 50. Neil Timberlake says this is unacceptable, particularly near Cadmore End School and where there is no adequate footpath. Park Lane is also a concern, and many residents there have asked Neil to campaign for a speed camera or some form of traffic calming. The Liberal Democrat Focus Team are taking up issues on your behalf – we’ll keep you informed in a future edition of Focus.