Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

The inclusion of a southern link road between Royston Road and Wallington Road might well be beneficial to the traffic flow at the traffic lights but may well prove harmful to the environment of Clothall Common by enabling traffic to pass through the estate rather than the traffic lights in the town centre. It would also increase the traffic along South Road which, with its variable width, could be a bottleneck, especially in conjunction with traffic from development area BA2.

The inclusion of a southern link road between Royston Road and Wallington Road might well be beneficial to the traffic flow at the traffic lights but may well prove harmful to the environment of Clothall Common by enabling traffic to pass through the estate rather than the traffic lights in the town centre. It would also increase the traffic along South Road which, with its variable width, could be a bottleneck, especially in conjunction with traffic from development area BA2.

This area is currently used by "light industry or commerce" ( a car service business and another similar business). It is valuable to keep small areas of employment scattered throughout the community for two reasons -
1. It maintains the presence of people throughout the working day and thus mitigates the effect of the local residents commuting away to work, leaving the area deserted for much of the time and possibly rendering some forms of crime more likely (e.g. burglary).
2. It may have a beneficial effect on traffic by slightly reducing the flow on the major commuting routes.

Traffic is already a problem on the A507 (North Road), with queues building towards the traffic lights. During the day, the tailback to the lights generally reaches the junction with Icknield Way East and usually clears when the lights reach the green phase. Later in the afternoon however, the tailback gradually increases, typically reaching the area of the Salisbury Road junction by about 4 p.m. and not clearing when the traffic lights are green. Slightly later, around 5 - 6 p.m., the queue can extend back as far as Blackhorse Farm or Nortonbury Lane. This really needs addressing now, even without the additional traffic that would be generated by this very large proposed development. The proposed construction of a road linking the A507 (North Road) through the development area to the end of the A505 bypass (Royston Road) would certainly go some way to limiting the impact on the traffic flow in North Road and the traffic lights, but would not eliminate it altogether - this link road would essentially become a northern bypass for the town. This probably should have been the second bypass, rather than the A505 bypass that was actually built, but the effect now would be to encircle the town with bypasses.

The proposed development extends right up to the village of Bygrave at TL 26085 35214, which destroys Bygrave's separate identity - a bigger gap could be created by making the boundary run from the Ashwell Road at TL 25813 34990 to the location of the proposed bridge over the railway line at approximately TL 26141 34766, making the link road the boundary of the development here.

The map suggests that the existing smallholdings along the road to Bygrave will be destroyed by the new development. I suggest that some, if not all, of these could be retained to provide a green, rural pocket in the centre of the development.

The road from Baldock to Bygrave is fairly narrow and not particularly straight. Although this could be improved during the development, additional traffic will need to turn onto and off the North Road at TL 24449 34326, with the added temptation of trying to use Salisbury Road slightly to the north to avoid queues on Bygrave Road. With the proposed link road from the A507 (presumably somewhere near Blackhorse Farm), there will be 3 junctions with significant flows between the railway bridge and Nortonbury Lane. To reduce flows in and out of Bygrave Road and Salisbury Road, I suggest that access to the bulk of the development is limited by closing Ashwell Road to motorised traffic just to the north east of the existing smallholdings, thus ensuring traffic on the other side, including that from Bygrave, uses the proposed A507 - A505 link. Please refer to Schematic 1.

The other remaining problem concerns the combined effect of the A507 - A505 link together with the proposed southern link between Royston Road and Wallington Road. As described at the beginning of this representation, traffic already queues to the traffic lights at peak periods. To an impatient driver - and there are a fair number of those - the new links proposed for the developments BA1, BA4, and BA3 provide an alternative to queuing for the lights. By using the proposed A507 -A505 link, a small part of Royston Road,and the proposed link between Royston Road and Wallington Road, it is possible to bypass the traffic lights and arrive at the Clothall Road / South Road roundabout (TL 25174 33549) and vice versa, of course - please refer to Schematic 2. Although this would undoubtedly reduce congestion at the lights, it would give increased traffic flow through the BA1 estate and the existing Clothall Common, BA4 and BA3 estates. It would also significantly increase traffic along South Road. The width of this road varies along its length and is ill-suited for additional traffic.

This area is currently largely derelict. I believe it is valuable to keep such small areas of employment scattered throughout the community for two reasons -
1. It maintains the presence of people throughout the working day and thus mitigates the effect of the local residents commuting away to work, leaving the area deserted for much of the time and possibly rendering some forms of crime more likely (e.g. burglary).
2. It may have a minor effect on traffic by slightly reducing the flow on the major commuting routes out of the town.

This development area will presumably be connected to South Road. This road has a variable width and is unlikely to cope with much more traffic, especially in conjunction with developments BA3 and BA4 (and their proposed southern link road). There is limited scope for road improvements here.

This area has increased in size since the previous consultation and I believe (from the area shown on the map) that this corresponds to the inclusion of the property known as Greenacres which has access to London Road. Whilst the house itself is probably of little architectural interest, the grounds are a haven for wildlife and an ocean of tranquillity. I am aware that this probably isn't reason to object to the development, but I believe that at least part of this area needs to be preserved or kept as a public green space.