More houses for former school site is just nonsensical

While the proposal to demolish the old Holliers’ Walk school is to be welcomed, the suggestion that the site should become yet another housing estate is nonsensical. The area around the old school is already clogged up and this will simply make things worse.

Another 24 homes with a total of 78 bedrooms and only 32 parking spaces for residents is insane; inevitably, the demand for on road parking will increase. The surrounding roads already have serious parking problems, with traffic on the thoroughfare of Holliers’ Walk frequently held up due to residents’ parking and yet our so-brilliant councillors want to make this worse. What will happen when those residents are forced to change to electric cars but have nowhere to park or charge their vehicles other than by trailing cables across the footpath ? The same issue applies to both Albert Road and Alma Road as well as other terraced streets in the locality.

The obvious solution is to turn the school site, or at least part thereof, into secure off-road parking for existing local residents, together with EV charging points. Inevitably, such a use finds little favour with councils set on a) bringing in money by selling the site and b) finding anywhere to build more homes in pursuit of meeting their centrally set targets.

No doubt, the councils will argue their corner and point to the supposed ‘public consultation’ though I wonder how many of the public actually responded to it, or even knew about it. Very few, I suspect, with no notice taken of any suggestions which did not support the preset aims of our masters.

What a farce.