Hertfordshire County Council says no immediate plans to open Rye Street access to Newland Avenue on Stortford Fields estate
A second access to a Bishop’s Stortford estate will not be opened in the immediate future, disappointing residents and parents of students at a new secondary school.
There is only way in and out of Stortford Fields – via Hadham Road – although construction traffic working on new houses uses an access from Rye Street.
Residents say the opening of new schools has led to traffic jams along the estate’s spine road, Newland Avenue, which runs from Hadham Road to Rye Street, and parents have been fined for stopping when picking up and dropping off their children at Avanti Grange secondary.
There were hopes that opening the Rye Street access would improve traffic flow, but this week highways authority Hertfordshire County Council dealt a blow to those hopes.
A spokesperson said: “Newland Avenue is currently a private road and there is no agreed date for it to be adopted as a public highway.
“The Rye Street junction is currently being used as an access point for construction traffic by the Bishop’s Stortford North Consortium to keep that traffic separate from other road users, and the developers are keeping the road closed to other traffic to maintain site safety.”