Dear John Draft Local Transport Plan 2050 I write in response to the current consultation. I am copying this to Derrick Ashley and I will be posting this online. East Herts is a largely rural area, with high levels of car ownership. For families and businesses cars are the principal form of transport, given their often complex patterns of movement and the lack of realistic and affordable alternatives. Therefore whilst I support positive steps which help provide those alternatives we must not lose sight of the simple fact that, for most families and local firms, travelling by car is essential. Any vision to 2050 must therefore recognise this practical reality, when proposing alternatives. This means that there is an immediate and ongoing need to improve the road network, by expanding capacity, particularly in key hotspots in and around the towns in my constituency. I will refer to each town below. I would also point out that there are plans for substantial housing development across the whole county and in neighbouring counties. The transport vision needs to therefore match this housing development with improvements in both local and strategic road capacity. Ideally this should be achieved before developments are completed. Thus plans for major roads such as the A414, A10, A120 and A1184 all need to factor in the planned increase in households. The fact that East Herts Council alone is planning for at least 16,000 more homes by 2031 needs to be explicitly included in any transport plan. The County Council should therefore convene a conference with the planning authorities to establish a Hertfordshire-wide design code for new housing developments which expressly reduces the need for car journeys and which encourages alternatives modes of transport. I would be pleased to support this initiative. A414 I welcome the strategic thinking about making the A414 a priority for eastwest travel. It is a natural county-wide corridor for this purpose, both for cars and commercial vehicles. It may also be a suitable route for some form of guided bus, but not if it entails reducing the existing road capacity of the A414. Any bus link should be complementary. The case for an extension of the A414 eastwards and onto the M11 is strong, regardless of whether development takes place at Gilston.
Demand management. I am not opposed to practical, realistic proposals for managing demand and trying to reduce congestion by reducing the need for car use. However as stated above it needs to complement improvements in road capacity and be carefully targeted. In each of the towns in my constituency there is a strong case for a concerted approach to encouraging more school children to go to school by bus, on foot or by bicycle. Parents driving their child to school adds considerably to congestion and reducing this by 10-20% would be hugely beneficial. It would also aid the need to tackle childhood obesity. Car sharing also has considerable potential, albeit in certain workplaces, including large workplaces and public sector employers such as councils, the NHS and education. Considerably more could be done to increase the proportion of employees not travelling solo by car. Hertford would particularly benefit from an increase in car sharing. Buses Buses are vital for certain sections of the community, notably those in the villages, the elderly and the young. Town-wide bus routes such as the Stortford Shuttle are essential and popular, but some residential areas have no bus services whatsoever, such as Bishop s Gate, in Bishop s Stortford. Serious consideration needs to be given to ensuring the long term viability of such services, including through different business models and in collaboration with the voluntary sector. This should include considering how express coach services might operate to better connect local towns and the workforce trying to get to work. If more people are to be encouraged to use bus services greater emphasis needs to be placed on improving real time travel information. Transport for London has seen its ridership levels increase substantially once free mobile apps enable people to track the progress of available buses and pay online. The current availability of information is very limited, as is awareness amongst the wider population. This needs to change. Bishop s Stortford The town should be included as one of the county s sustainable travel towns. Its omission overlooks the real challenges the town faces. A comprehensive review is needed of the volume and flows of traffic to address serious and increasingly frequent problems with traffic and air quality. The problems at Hockerill lights are a reflection of the wider imbalance between the capacity of the road network and actual demand levels.
Redevelopment on the edge of the town at Stortford Fields and elsewhere illustrate the need for improving the road capacity and for targeted schemes to give people realistic alternatives to using their car, whether for the school run, for getting to work or for shopping. The step change in cycling programme should specifically include the town. Parking provision needs increasing and the location of parking needs to aid traffic management, not attract cars into the most congested parts of the town. Much greater attention needs to be given to town-wide parking management, both to improve what is available and because of its impact on traffic. The A120 needs dualling along its length to the north of the town. The proximity of junctions on the north west side of the town threaten to cause more congestion and delays and their design needs careful re-appraisal. The risks here appear to be underestimated at present. Hertford There is a very strong case for removing the A414 route from its current road through the middle of Hertford. A by-pass to the south is the most likely choice, though the case for a much shorter tunnel below the current route should not be ignored. The benefits to the town of removing the current route would be considerable in terms of traffic and air quality. It would unlock several of the adjacent junctions and sharply reduce many of the other traffic problems around the town, whilst allowing for a sensitive restoration of the town centre. A masterplan for the town, developed with the community, should be produced alongside any by pass or tunnel scheme. Making Hertford a sustainable travel town also means addressing short term issues around walking, cycling and careful consideration needs to be given to the parking provision both on street and off street. Some roads such as Ware Road need end-to-end plans for managing parking. There is continuing problem at Rush Green roundabout above the A10. The decision to allow a drive-through McDonalds was wrong and has continued to be a source of accidents. This decision needs reviewing and the layout changing. A policy also needs to be established to avoid this kind of mistake happening elsewhere.
Ware The town centre in Ware faces serious problems as traffic is highly congested along the A1170 and over the bridge towards Amwell. This congestion has steadily worsened over the last three years. If the proposals for development to the north of the town were to proceed these homes would need to have alternative routes into and out with the town centre. A strategic review of the road capacity, layout and flows is needed to identify how to reduce the number of vehicles coming through the town centre. This should include limiting loading/unloading times for commercial premises along the length of the high street. Sawbridgeworth The town suffers from approximately 29,000 vehicles passing along the A1184 each day. This divides the town and generates considerable problems. This problem becomes severe if there are any problems on the M11. It is not clear what difference junction 7A will make, but the only practical long-term solution to this problem would be a by-pass, probably to the west of the town. I am surprised that no consideration of this issue has been identified in the plan. Rural roads The plan needs to recognise the increasing flow of traffic on smaller rural roads. The B1004 for example is increasingly busy and is having to cope with heavier, larger lorries. This impacts on village life, on the physical infrastructure and on the trees and hedges. The Plan needs to recognise that this problem will only increase and needs to give careful consideration to more active use of traffic management including weight restrictions and time restrictions for certain vehicles. Parish councils need to have greater involvement in these decisions. Gilston If the proposal for 10,000 homes at Gilston were to proceed the impact on the whole road network would be considerable. A new community of 25,000 people would be larger than Ware today. I do not propose to review here everything that would be needed if this scheme proceeds. However this draft transport plan would need updating and the case for bypassing Hertford on the A414 would become urgent. One issue which needs addressing here is the impact on the rural roads around Gilston. The draft plan seems to have given no consideration to how such a development would change the volume and flows of local traffic on what are, at best, B roads.
The B1004 in particular will need to reviewed all the way north to the A120 as will the A1184 towards Bishop s Stortford. Stanstead Abbotts will be impacted. High Wych Lane and the other lanes which lead onto the A1184 will all be having to deal with traffic levels for which they re not designed. If this development is approved it must be conditional on having a plan for coping with this change to local roads. To conclude, Hertfordshire is one of the most densely populated counties in the country. If we are to maintain our quality of life then establishing an effective long term plan for transport is essential. I hope you will give serious consideration to the points I have raised, including the proposal for a county-wide design code for new housing developments. Yours sincerely Mark Prisk FRICS MP (Hertford & Stortford)