For your convenience, here are summary guidance notes on how to respond to L&G's latest documents submitted in October 2024:
L&G's proposal contravenes the new Local Plan, which is intended to protect residents from precisely this type of unplanned, speculative development.
L&G have disclosed that their development would grind Harpenden to a halt with 145-car queues in each direction along the Luton Road, even without allowing for an increase in future traffic. This would cause severe disruption for local residents. Indeed on 23rd October 2024 temporary traffic lights at the Nickey Line bridge on the Luton Road mirrored precisely the solution that L&G's proposals will permanently create. This disruption created gridlock all the way back through Harpenden Town Centre to the Silver Cup, a 28 minute delay and extensive rat-running on side roads.
L&G have also put forward an alternative way of moving traffic through the Nickey Line Bridge but this is not a recommended solution and they have provided no assessment as to how it would impact on congestion.
L&G's new transport documents fail to address the serious concerns expressed previously by local residents. The evidence base on which their forecasts are based is not technically robust or credible.
L&G are proposing improvements to bus measures, but given the congestion on Luton Road, buses will simply be caught up in the same queues of traffic as cars, and are unlikely to prove an attractive way to travel.
L & G are proposing a package of measures on Luton Road and Cooters End Lane to improve access for pedestrians and cyclists, but they have not yet carried out any safety audits of the proposals.
L&G have conceded that their proposals will make local roads such as Ambrose Lane and Cooters End Lane rat-runs.
Please submit your comments to the Council's planning portal using this link. Please note that your response will carry more weight if you make it in your own words rather than using ours.