News, News, News, News
Tarmac girdle could strangle town centre
‘It will be like a tarmac girdle’ was how Roger King of the Aylesbury Society described the inner ring road following completion of the current the road works. ‘It is effectively strangling the town centre and cutting it off from the rest of the town.’ Speaking at last week’s monthly meeting where, Martin Dalby the Forward Plans Officer for AVDC was addressing members, Mr King was responding to members’ unease regarding the removal of the central reservation in Friarage Road and Oxford Road. Martin Dalby was updating members on how the town was moving towards 2031 and how the transport hub was part of the modernisation of the town.
Roger King said that the addition of the bus lanes and the removal of the central reservations could compromise the safety of both pedestrians and motorists. He believed it would encourage motorists to make illegal right turns and people to rush across the road because of the infrequent pedestrian crossings. He said that although the public were consulted in March work started as early as July leaving little time to change the plans and take into account other views and ideas. It seemed that the Council were determined to go ahead with their plans no matter what the public thought. Apparently the road widening works could be carried out by the County Council as they constituted permitted development and therefore did not require planning consent.
Keith Robinson, Chairman of the Society was also concerned that the well used underpass from Morrison’s car park to Friarage Passage was being demolished in favour of a level light controlled crossing on Friarage Road. He said “Our chief concern is the crossing of Friarage Road at the point where the Southcourt Bridge reaches street level. We think that this will cause disruption to both pedestrian and traffic flows and will also compromise safety. We pose the question – is there any way that the bridge can continue over Friarage Road into Great Western Street?”
Bus Station entrance is overbearing
The Society is rather concerned that the District Council did not comment on the design of the refurbished bus station entrance outlined in a recent Bucks County Council planning application. It appears that the District Council’s Design Officer has not made any comment on the proposed new entrance to the bus station on the south west corner of Market Square.
The Society’s chief concern is that the proposed design has no regard for the adjoining conservation area or adjacent listed buildings. The signage and overscaled entrance is not in keeping with the historic market square and we feel is very obtrusive. In the cultural heritage report attached to the application, the grade 2 listed Bell Hotel and White Swan are both mentioned, but no account has been taken of their status in this overbearing design. The Society has written to AVDC planning supremo Norman Skedge outlining our concerns.
Who owns Walton Pond – we may know soon?
The Society has been concerned for a number of years regarding the who is responsible for the upkeep of Walton Pond. Many members and visitors to the town have commented how sad the pond looks, choked with weeds and litter. After years of legal investigations the good news is that the Town Council will now be adopting the pond and have promised that it will be maintained on a regular basis.Theatre design is not ideal
Whilst we agree in principal with a new theatre, the Society have serious reservations with regard to the proposed design, location and impact of the new building.
Design & location
- We feel that the design, although good in it’s own way, is not appropriate for a traditional County and market town. The building does not respect the streetscape, either in Exchange Street or Walton Street and has no regard for the adjoining conservation area. The building has no relationship or respect with the nearby listed Ship Pub, the Canal Basin and the historical former electricity showrooms in Exchange Street. Furthermore it appears that it will contrast greatly with the designs originally shown for the Waterside development.
- With regards to the orentatioin oif the building we feel that the building has an overbearing affect on the current vista of Walton Street, Exchange Street and Friarage Road. We feel that it is far too close to the street.
- With regard to the materials, we feel that glass, wood and steel are not appropriate in this location. We particularly did not like the use of slate. This style of building would be more appropriate in, say, Milton Keynes, than in historic Aylesbury.
Traffic impact & assessment
- The pictures of the theatre shows pedestrians crossing with central reservation, and no street lights in the vicinity. How does this relate to the remainder of the site?
- The ground floor plan appears to suggest that there is no footway links.
- The direction of service access involves commercial vehicles in considerable extra mileage. Entering vehicles will need to U-turn at the High Street. Egressing vehicles are constrained to travel to Walton Gyratory. Reversing the direction of access will enable all vehicles in all directions to use the County Hall roundabout. No footways have been shown on the Exchange Street frontage.
- The crossing of Exchange Street is to be a puffin not a toucan. This crossing should cater for cyclists. There is also no mention of cycle parking.Three puffin crossings will be very disruptive to traffic flows. There is also no provision for coach setdown or pickups.
- With regards to the traffic assessment there is no mention of the width of the footways needed to accommodate theatre crowds.
- It is noted on page 3 that coaches are using the bus stops on the wrong side of Exchange Street, and that the special needs layby is not big enough.
- Assuming that 200 trade vans each stopping for, say, 15 minutes, that is 50 van hours, there will not be room in the service room especially as the vans will be nose to tail. Where would these vehicles park? This needs much further consideration.
- There appears to be no calculation of parking demand.
- The traffic assessment is inadequate. It does not properly consider the impact of :
a) A large number of commercial vehicles arriving for shows,exhibitions, fairs etc.
b) No consideration has been given to dealing with the many coaches for shows, pantomimes etc.
In summary, we objected to the plans on the following grounds:
1. General design and location.
2. Inadequate provision for pedestrians and cyclists.
3. Inadequate provision for coach parties
4. Inadequate loading and unloading facilities.
5. Lack of integration with adjoining Waterside development and surrounding streetscapes.
Gatehouse Plans - update
Plans to turn the former industrial sites of Versatile Fittings, Seda & the former Air Trainers site in Bicester Road & St Andrews Way into a multi mixed use development to include a hotel, retail, business units & 370 homes and welcomed by the Society has now been given the go ahead by the District Council. This follows a shortened inquiry by the planning inspectorate in early September.
The Plans are outline at the moment so we have not commented on the design. The society is hoping that the detailed planning application will include some if not all of our suggestions. These included . - that the car park to the offices and retail units in Gatehouse Road form part of the car park to the hotel and factory units in Bicester Road.
Common access to these car parks should be from Bicester Road. - we opposed any access to either the offices or retail units from Gatehouse Road. We feel that this would cause difficulty in turning left from the site into Gatehouse Road. This was a problem when Focus Do-it-All ran a retail DIY store from the site.
- an extended green buffer zone from the proposed Ardenham Park to the land between Keith Garage and the new housing. - mini roundabouts at the entrances to the residential estate and car parks in Bicester Road. The Society is also hoping for some landmark architecture particularly for the public buildings such as the hotel.
Finally we hope that the development will have open access through the scheme for cycles and pedestrians.
