Alternative mooted to avoid haul road plan
Proposal to save money, traffic and golf course
MORE than 150 Ickenham residents have signed a petition against a proposed high speed rail haul road.
HS2 announced the £25million haul road, which cuts through Uxbridge Golf Course, and signalisation of Swakeleys roundabout to ‘provide mitigation of the traffic impact in Ickenham resulting from the scheme’.
Members of the The Drive and Harefield Place Estate Residents’ Association will propose an alternative route for the road, arguing HS2’s current solution will cause ‘traffic chaos’.
Hans Rader, who lives in Highfield Drive, off The Drive, is concerned about the noise and air pollution that will be produced.
He said: “The main issue is that they want two-way traffic going in and out for heavy lorries and to put traffic lights on the roundabout to facilitate that.
“Of course, there’ll be complete traffic chaos. The second issue is that all those lorries are coming up a very steep hill from the golf course to join the A40, creating air pollution and noise pollution, and it also goes through an area of scientific interest.”
HS2’s proposed haul road will connect with the eastbound slip road adjacent to the A40 at Swakeleys Road roundabout, pass parallel to The Drive, Ickenham, with the northern section cutting through Uxbridge Golf Course and land to the west of Harvil Road.
But Mr Rader believes the railway should make use of an existing ‘skip lane’ instead.
He said: “This will be cheaper to utilise. It used to be a railway line that finished up in Uxbridge station near the high road and the track still runs all the way down to the High Street and could even be extended as a road to Uxbridge all the way from Harvil Road.
“HS2 want to remove the whole road again at the end of the exercise in nine years time. We want to have a permanent bypass as a result of it which is further away from The Drive and provides permanent access in future to the A40.”
Mr Rader is one of 158 people to sign a petition who live in The Drive, Highfield Drive, and other parts of the Harefield Place estate including houses by the golf course.
Bob Birch, vice-chair of the residents’ association, said: “If we don’t do this, we’ll have traffic chaos in Ickenham for the next seven to nine years.
“We’ll also lose amenities such as Uxbridge Golf Course and there’ll be safety issues – not only from pollution but from noise.
“They’re talking about moving 1,480 lorries a day through Swakeleys roundabout and 1.2 million tuns of materials over seven years and they’re talking about spending £25m on putting a concrete haul road down and then ripping the thing up after nine years, which seems an awful waste of taxpayers’ money.”