A few weeks ago a group of residents took a petition to the Vale of White Horse District Council asking that the council appeal against the decision of the planning inspector to allow 159 homes to be built in a field alongside South Abingdon.
Legal advice has been taken and the 2 legal experts judge that The Planning Inspector’s decision could not be challenged on legal ground. He allowed the scheme to go ahead because the Vale of White Horse District Council did not have a five year housing plan in place as required by the the NPPF – National Planning Policy Framework, voted in by the coalition government as a way to quickly free up land for house building.
The Planning Inspector had also considered the main objection, traffic, and made sure that traffic mitigation measures go ahead before any development.
So now it is all down to whether the traffic mitigation measures (those extra pedestrian lights) suggested by the developers are allowed by Oxfordshire County Council. That is not a foregone conclusion given that it has to go through public consultation. So expect a story about that in the not too distant future.
The cost for both the moving of the crossing on the Marcham Rd & the new crossing on Ock St will be borne by hallams. The traffic queues from the MacDonald’s roundabout back up the Drayton Rd on a good day & from the Tesco’s roundabout on a bad day. The moving of the crossing on the Marcham Rd a few meters will make little to no difference to the traffic build up on the Drayton Rd
The new crossing on Ock St will back up traffic into the Town its self that on a bad day can stretch back to before Abingdon town FC. If the proposed alterations to the existing crossing & the new crossing have to be proven to reduce the congestion on the Drayton Rd before they are installed then this development may still not go ahead but (and you knew that was coming) I won’t be holding my breath.
A lot needs to be done to fix this problem. It simply cant continue for much longer. Over the years it has got so much worse and will not get better.
Looks like some major infrastructure work needs to be done.
Does anyone know whether the alterations need to demonstrably reduce the traffic as a prerequisite?
If so…a reduction by whose measure and over what period of time?
How do we find out? From who? From where?
Has the planning inspector actually pulled a blinder as he knows or understands that the traffic improvements won’t actually work which means whilst “allowing the proposal” he knows it won’t ever fulfill it’s necessary traffic obligations. He pleases everyone, in effect?
I still believe its the ‘School Run’ thats the main cause of this problem. I’m leaving any time between 07:30 and 08:00 hrs from Mill Road and its a breeze at present, come first week in September and it will all be back to gridlock.
Spike….the traffic was pretty dire (back to Preston rd) at 5 this evening, and not a school child in sight…
Not that it matters of course, we all know the extra crossing is going to solve the issue anyway.
As an added bit of information to the above….I noticed in this week’s Herald that plans/intentions are afoot to build more houses on Marcham Road. The news item seemed to say that the Unicorn School may have to find new premises and the building they currently occupy may be converted into apartments and houses built on the land behind. (I think I read these proposals correctly but am now wondering if I imagined it?) It seems so oddto be being put forward at a time when there is general disatisfaction with what is already being discussed for that stretch of road?