Amended Planning Application for Little Hay Golf Course - Proposed widening of Upper Bourne End Lane & Temporary Formation of access into the golf course

An amended planning application for the “remodelling” of Little Hay Golf Course has been received.  We would urge everyone in the village to object to this amended application, details of which are below.  (For full details of the application, please go to www.hertsdirect.org/planning).  Whether or not you have already objected to this application, please do so again.  At the moment we only have until 26 February to respond, although objections will still be accepted right up until the determination of the application.  If the landfill on the golf course goes ahead, it will adversely impact everyone in the area, whether or not you ever venture onto Upper Bourne End Lane.  The developers want to widen the bottom of Upper Bourne End Lane, which will mean removing the grass verges, making it extremely dangerous for walkers and horse riders. We want to prevent them from dumping landfill on the golf course which is Green Belt land and an area of natural beauty.  If it goes ahead there will be noise and dust and 75 tipper lorries coming from all directions every day.  They will set their sat navs and head for our area, inevitably trying to access Upper Bourne Lane directly from the village.  There will be mud on the roads and the A41 slip roads around the services will become extremely dangerous for everyone.  Please email/send your objections to Shaun Wells at Herts CC, spatialplanning@hertfordshire.gov.uk  Herts CC, Spatial and Land Use Planning Unit, CHN216 County Hall, Hertford, SG13 8DN.

Upper Bourne End Lane,

Nr Hemel Hempstead, RSA1                                   Page 5                                                       December 18, 2013

2 THE SCHEME

2.1 The proposal is for a temporary access for construction traffic via Upper Bourne End Lane to the Little Hay Golf Club. From the supplied Access Statement this route has been proposed since it provides direct access to / from the dual carriageway, A41 (Hemel Bypass), without passing any houses, and would also allow construction vehicles to be segregated from general traffic to / from the Golf Course, which uses the main entrance on the B4505 Box Lane.

2.2 It is proposed to widen the existing carriageway into the wide verge on the eastern side within the adopted highway boundary on the northernmost section of Upper Bourne End Lane (north of the gate to the stables, on the left hand side of the road. This would be by up to 1.7m over a length of 65m to provide a 5.5m width section over almost 60m.

2.3 Further minor carriageway widening is proposed over the section south of the bridleway into

Hanging Wood, to the north of the existing 5.5m section by up to 0.7-0.8m on one or both sides

over a 40m length. Together with the existing 21m long section of this width, this would provide

another 55m length with a 5.5m wide carriageway width, about 70m from the initial widened

section. It is suggested that the two sections would be inter-visible for drivers of oncoming

vehicles travelling in either direction with the implication that that almost 120m of the first 190m of

Upper Bourne End Lane would be of sufficient width to allow two HGVs to pass each other with

no risk of vehicles queuing back onto the A41 westbound off-slip.

2.4 In the Access Statement supplied, it is stated that no carriageway widening can be undertaken over the next section to the proposed temporary access and hence one-way shuttle working is proposed to be implemented on this section during site operating hours throughout the

importation period.

2.5 It is proposed that the above works would create a holding area some 180m from the bottom of the Lane. Allowing one-way shuttle working to be confined to a section of Upper Bourne End

Lane of about 270m in length, which is below the maximum of 300m recommended by the DfT

document ‘TAL 2/11 Portable Traffic Signals for the Control of Vehicular Traffic’. With the

proposed length, intergreen times of around 30 seconds would be required for vehicles to travel

from one end of the length of shuttle working to the other, which together with minimum green

times of 7 seconds would give a cycle time for 3-stage working of around 90 seconds.

2.6 Alternatively, it has been proposed that the Code of Practice ‘Safety at Street Works and Road Works’ (DfT, 2011) recommends that manual Stop / Go boards can be used over a length of up to 500m for a two-way flow of 850 vehicles per hour. This is in excess of the total maximum

hourly two-way flow of up to around 60 vehicles per hour expected on a weekday during the

works period. A higher flow limit of 1,050 vehicles per hour is recommended where the length of

the works is below 300m, as is the case here. The Code states: Two-way radio control between

operators may be needed where the operators are not clearly visible to each other and there is

no intermediate operator present and in this instance this is the case being proposed.

Upper Bourne End Lane,

Nr Hemel Hempstead, RSA1                                  Page 6                                                       December 18, 2013

2.7 From the Access Statement supplied, it is stated that as a banksman would be stationed at the access and responsible for controlling the egress of HGVs from the site, no visibility splays would be required. Further, the access would have gates that would be closed and locked outside site working hours.

2.8 From the supplied Access Statement, the duration of the construction phase is anticipated to be in the order of approximately 18 months, depending on the availability of suitable soils, and also restricted hours of operation due to adverse weather conditions. Normal operating hours for the importation of material would be weekdays (excluding public holidays) 07:00-17:00, with no

deliveries at weekends. It is anticipated that the site would receive an average of around 75

deliveries per weekday in the form of 10m long 3- and 4-axle tippers, which equates to an

average 15 two-way HGV movements per hour during the proposed working day.

NOTE:  5.5 m width is the minimum quoted by Ardent for 2 HGVs to pass