Herts County Council claims planning condition to blame for Rye Street crossing row

Hertfordshire County Council claims it cannot change the design and location of a new puffin pedestrian crossing in Rye Street.

Cycle Stortford has slammed the proposals, saying they will put a spoke in the wheels of plans for a new cycle and walking path from Grange Paddocks to St Michael’s Hurst.

Spokesman Graham Oxborrow said: “This junction plan will install the wrong type of crossing in the wrong place.”

The sustainable transport pressure group wants a wider toucan crossing, suitable for cyclists as well as pedestrians, closer to Bourne Brook Bridge, but a spokesman for the county council told the Indie the authority’s hands were tied.

He confirmed the work to construct the crossing and a new junction with Newland Avenue would close the B1004 from Monday, August 26 to Saturday, August 31, as originally reported by the Indie.

Signs at the site and a notice on the Causeway one-network roadworks website indicated the six-day closure would start on Monday (August 19).

A spokesman for the county said these notices would be updated shortly - once the formal permit was approved.

He explained: “The new puffin crossing on Rye Street is being installed by the developers of the Bishop’s Stortford North development, as required by the planning permission for the site granted by East Herts Council in 2015.”

That means the housebuilders have a legal obligation to install a puffin crossing at this location, and the county council must facilitate this. The Section 106 agreement was agreed by 19 parties so the county council cannot make unilateral changes.

The North Walking and Cycling Route proposal does not have the same legal status as the agreement to build the junction and crossing.

The spokesman said: “East Herts Council and Hertfordshire County Council are working in partnership on a Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP), and if residents have suggestions for other improvements to cycling and walking routes in and around Bishop’s Stortford, we would encourage them to respond to the current consultation for the district at https://east-herts-lcwip-hertscc.hub.arcgis.com/.”

Rye Street was also closed last summer for work on another crossing for pupils to reach Avanti Meadows primary school on Farnham Road.

As part of an associated planning agreement, a new path should have been constructed along Rye Street, but Herts County Council over-ruled East Herts’ concerns and ditched the proposal last month.

That move was opposed by Liberal Democrat Herts County Cllr Calvin Horner, the member for Bishop’s Stortford East.

He backed Cycle Stortford’s objections to the new crossing’s design and location too. He said: “Just as with the inadequate state of the footpaths along Rye Street to Avanti Meadows and St. Michaels Hurst, this shows that over a long period, there has been a complete lack of coordination in planning sustainable transport routes, both between new developments and with existing or proposed routes across the town.”