Quite a few people were trying to get into the closed Village Hall thinking the Exhibition was being held there. The meeting was fairly well attend considering that both ends of Green Lane had Road Closure Signs erected across half of the road combined with poor access due to roadworks. The British Legion car park was badly lit and sadly a gentleman fell over an unlit raised tarmac in the car park and was taken to hospital in an ambulance with a suspected broken hip! There was a general acceptance that there is a need for more housing and whilst the general consensus was acceptance of the lanes being closed to through traffic the consistent topic being raised was traffic!! When asked what were Redrow planning to do at the end of Pound Lane and the Junction with the A38, they responded by saying that hadn’t finalised any proposal on that yet, as this was still with Gloucestershire Highways for comment. Someone pointed out that wasn’t this then a little premature to present this proposal if Highways hadn’t agree to this yet!? Another person who lived in the Sellars Bridge Estate also developed by Redrow, asked how many car parking spaces would be allocated for each house. Redrow said that they comply with the requirements set by Central Government – 1.5 spaces per house, although most of their houses have a garage. This was highlighted to be a significantly bad and outdated metric to use and the person from Sellars Bridge said there was already congestion in that area from not enough car parking spaces. Quite a few people raised concerns about why a Primary School was being built and no secondary school which is badly needed in the area. Redrow implied “that would be good for them as they could build more houses on the remaining space”.
Pound Lane and Church Lane is a known regular flooding hotspot and when asked how Redrow were going to resolve this, they suggested that planting a few trees in the new Community Orchard would help. They did acknowledge the potential flooding issues for the new houses and existing properties, but didn’t provide a satisfactory answer as a few suggested balancing ponds with the water to egress to the already saturated Shawn Brook and existing water courses is just not practical!
One resident asked how many houses they were going to build per year and it was suggested by Redrow to be 125! He then pointed out that this would be a project rather than a programme that would be “strung out” for 11 years. He also added that it would devalue his house being in the middle of a “building site” for 11 years and he just didn’t want to live in Hardwicke any longer – but was trapped as wouldn’t be able to sell his house!
Currently there is no Doctors Surgery in Hardwicke and when asked why Redrow weren’t building one, they replied that the Rosebank Practice preferred to ask people to register at the new Kingsway Health Centre – which is great if you don’t mind waiting 6 weeks for a routine appointment! Redrow said yes they could build one but didn’t see the point.
In summary our thoughts are that the meeting was poorly planned, with a paucity of information, in a poorly planned location with Redrow being unable to answer the main question which was what are you going to do about traffic!!
Agree that traffic is a major point to be still properly addressed and solved. Are Redrow aware that environmental and climate change groups have predicted that much of our surrounding areas will be a flood risk area by the end of the decade? Planting a number of trees will not solve the problem! Allocation and planning for 1,5 cars per household is outdated, supremely short sighted and shows the builder is not in touch with our world!
This building firm sounds dodgy, it only wants to build houses not provide everything a new big estate wants as Quedgeley can’t manage with traffic doctors , big school , and shops , plus as Gloucester is just a commute small city now , traffic on to motorway needs thinking about and bypass and school run to only big school in Quedgeley,it’s only be allowed because of distance between Stroud council and hardwicke,and building houses away from Stroud out of sight out of mined
When I asked about the traffic volume which would all converge (Hunts Grove & Kingsway) at the Cross Keys Roundabout, I got no answer. They seem to think that putting in traffic lights at the Roundabout will solve the problem.
They ‘ve got to be joking. Not a chance will it cope. Little or no input from the Local Highways Department; clearly they don’t want to get involved as they won’t have the answers to local concerns either.
It’s scandalous that this is being proposed where it is. All the Local Council are interested in is the Council Tax revenue from new developments.
A shocking state of affairs which needs addressing. Local people being walked all over similar to the Recycling Centre at Javelin Park. Local Council representing themselves and developers, not the local population.
Nowhere near enough thought has been given to this. Local flooding, traffic levels, poor infrastructure, no consultation with the local Health Authority or Police. Shambollic.