For some years, Buckingham Town Council has been campaigning for all roads within the bypass to be 30mph and lit, so they were disappointed by Buckinghamshire Council’s recent decision to reduce the speed limit on Tingewick Road to only 40mph.
The Town Council’s Planning Committee considers it imperative to implement the s106 agreement for St Rumbold’s Fields immediately so that residents of this 400-dwelling estate will be able to access the London Road schools and the industrial estate in safety on foot or by bicycle. The route of the old railway – the Scenic Walk at the Tingewick Road end, and Railway Walk from the University’s car park to the bypass – is intended to become a combined cycle and pedestrian path with streetlighting, which will have access to Chandos Road via a ‘permissive path’ link through the University’s land.
The s106 agreement states that the details of the footway/cycleway works should have been agreed, laid out and constructed before any occupation of the housing and that deadline passed some time ago. It will involve drainage works as well as the path construction and will take some time to construct once the details have been agreed. Meanwhile, schoolchildren and employees of companies on the Industrial Park will have to negotiate the mud and rough surface of the Scenic Walk – or cross a 40mph road to use the footpath on the north side of Tingewick Road to go through the town. The other option is to use the car, adding to the traffic on the bypass.
Councillor Mark Cole JP, Chairman of the Planning Committee, said: “We will continue to push for the speed limit to be lowered to 30mph, but meantime we call on the developers to meet their obligation under the s106 agreement to construct this much-needed footpath. If it is not usable for pedestrians and cyclists, then car use will increase, against all national and local initiatives to get people out of their cars.”
