Bucks County Council announced that the 11 March Budget (remember that?!) had awarded them £170m for infrastructure. In a telling phrase, Leader Martin Tett said that the Council would now be “looking at the detail of the funding conditions.” Your Action Group have sent in a Freedom of Information request to ask what these conditions are. If that sounds esoteric, it isn’t. Any Government money for major road building requires BCC’s traffic planning to meet a stringent Dept for Transport standard, which the current plans do not. If BCC are hoping to slide past these conditions, we will vigorously challenge them.
Updates
“Additional work and delay” caused by AVDC and BCC
After years of assuring developers and Councillors that BCC’s traffic modelling was robust, AVDC Planning have now admitted that a new ‘Aylesbury Transport model 2020’ has to be used instead. This means that the traffic elements of the developments have to be re-done. In her letter to developers dated 6 March, AVDC Corporate Planner Susan Kitchen admits that she appreciates “this will inevitably result in additional work and delay.” Environmental Statements will also have to be reviewed and where necessary reworked.
HFAG have argued that the traffic modelling was flawed all along. We have made the point strongly at every public hearing .
We have already started work to scrutinise the new model and will challenge any weaknesses that we find.
Come to the party!
We met the new MP
Phil Yerby and John Benjamin from HFAG met Rob Butler MP on 7 Feb. He appeared to have previously been told that Aylesbury needed a ring road. It was therefore important that we were able to challenge that view with evidence including the % of traffic that would actually use a bypass, which Phil and John did. Mr Butler asked to be sent more briefing material and this was done without delay. Let’s hope that the new MP’s natural focus on Westminster will still allow him time to understand more about this issue, so vital to the constituency.
Flood Alerts
These flood alert maps cover a large area of the proposed housing development.
