In 2014, a sister company to Inland Homes, Wilton Park Developments Ltd, applied for planning consent to build the section of the Road to Nowhere from Pyebush Roundabout to Minerva Way, where it would connect with the section built by Bucks County Council. Consent was granted.
As part of that 2014 planning application, the developer submitted a Planning Statement. That Planning Statement recognised that various buildings would require demolition to make way for the road:
The Developers even stated in that Planning Statement that they would "ensure that the works are completed and ready for public use by the end of 2018 at the latest."
As we now know, the road was not finished "by the end of 2018 at the latest" - the developers built a small section only, to allow access into their development site at Wilton Park.
Fast forward to 2019 when the Wilton Park outline planning application for redevelopment of the former MOD site came before the SBDC Planning Committee. I was a public speaker and addressed the Planning Committee with some concerns, in particular that in granting the 2019 planning consent, the Committee would be handing control over WHEN the road would be finished, to the developers. This comic strip sums up what happened, not so comic, rather tragic:
The planning committee granted planning permission with a condition that the road need only be completed before the OCCUPATION of the 99th home. In his Report to the Planning Committee, the Planning Officer made no mention of the earlier planning statement given in 2014 that the road would be completed by the end of 2018 at the latest.
Here's an extract from the Planning Agreement entered into by the Developer in 2020:
The planning committee agreed this, despite comments from Bucks County Council's Highways Dept. that a back-stop date should be agreed, to ensure completion of the road within 24 months of commencement of development. This is what Highways told SBDC:
So, despite Highways telling SBDC Planning Committee that this was a problem and despite me addressing the Planning Committee to tell them they were handing over control to the developers without a backstop date for completion of the road, SBDC Planning Committee went ahead and granted permission with no backstop date imposed.
I have previously suggested to our MP and councillors that application be made to the Secretary of State to modify the planning consent to bring forward completion of the road, given that HS2 traffic has started to use the A355. I think that the representations given in 2014 should be examined closely from a legal perspective. I think that the Planning Officers' Report to the Planning Committee in 2019 should be examined closely. I think that those councillors responsible for this planning decision should not sit on a planning committee again. And I question why NONE of our current Town Councillors (some are candidates for May's elections) stood up and addressed that 2019 SBDC Planning Committee. There was far too much complacency and this led to an extremely poor decision for our town.
I have since submitted 2 Freedom of Information requests to Bucks Council to find out what, if anything, they are doing about this. Here are some of the replies:
Note there is no duty for Bucks Council to "inform the public" about HS2 applications.
However, we now know that Bucks Council have declined to permit HS2 to use the A355 due to insufficient information being given on amount of HS2 traffic to enable proper impact assessment to be made. HS2 have appealed to the Secretary of State. I think our MP should persuade the Secretary of State to modify the Wilton Park planning consent and seek recompense from HS2.
Meanwhile, here is the latest from Inland Homes on the relief road delivery:
“1 We have to demolish 18 houses that sit on the path of the road, we now have vacant possession of 10 houses with notices served on the remainder, our target is to have all 18 empty by the end of June (this could be delayed because of additional protection given to tenants during the COVID Crisis)
We are wherever possible relocating tenants to other existing houses on the Wilton Park estate.
2 You will be aware that the existing Air Cadets building sits across the path of the proposed road, the new Air cadets building (which is a much improved facility) is now under construction with a target completion date of early August this year, under a legal agreement we have with the MOD, the old building can be demolished once they relocate.
We anticipate this will be achieved before the end of September.
3 In January this year, we submitted technical information for the construction of the road to Buckinghamshire Highways (you may recall at the last planning committee, we were promised that Buckinghamshire would not hold us up ) however at the time of writing, we are trying to get Bucks to engage with our team, without much success, we are applying pressure to commence fortnightly design meetings.
4 In March we submitted further information regarding lighting,signaling and trees.
5 In April, we will go out to 3 civil engineering contractors to tender the road contract.
6 Subject to the input from Bucks Highways being concluded, we would intend to start the construction of the first roundabout from the Pyebush end to facilitate the temporary bus stop at the end of May.
7We are targeting a start on the main body of the relief road in September.
8Our aim is to complete and handover the relief road to highways by the end of March 22.
I hope this is helpful, I will provide a further update within 3 months, as you will appreciate, we are in the hands of the Highway department to cooperate efficiently to achieve the foregoing.
On other matters,our development partner Bewley Homes are now on site starting the first phase of new homes, they expect to open show homes during September.
Inland have completed the refurbishment of 6 former servicemen’s houses, with the first sales and occupations starting in April.
We will shortly be applying for a detailed planning permission for the hew children’s nursery.”
You will see from the above that Inland aim to hand over the relief road by the end of March 2022. Let's see.
Comments