East Herts Council are currently consulting on their draft Local Transport Plan (LTP5) for the county.
The Plan will help shape future investment in roads, buses, rail, walking, cycling, accessibility, road safety and new technologies, to create a transport network that is safer, more reliable, inclusive and sustainable, and promotes economic growth, supporting Hertfordshire to continue to be a place where people choose to live, work and visit.
As a community organisation we have submitted the following response:
- The Love Bengeo Community Group were previously the Community Steering Group for the Bengeo Neighbourhood Area Plan. The Neighbourhood Plan was adopted by East Herts District Council in July 2021.
- Our response to this consultation is confined to matters relevant to Hertford Bengeo Ward and Neighbourhood Plan policies and objectives. Previous public consultation responses from the Love Bengeo Community Group include the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan and the Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
- We support the Local Transport Plan’s scheme-specific objectives to –
- increase the number of journeys made by walking, wheeling, and cycling
- increase public transport use and reliability
- achieve the right speeds in the right places
- maximise opportunities to enhance nature in transport schemes
- Bengeo Neighbourhood Area Plan policies and planning objectives encourage walking and cycling and support the improvement and extension of footpath routes and the cycle network. ‘Bengeo Trails’, one of the projects initiated and managed by the Love Bengeo Community Group, promotes walking through the production and promotion of walking trails throughout Hertford Bengeo Ward.
- We’re keen to improve active travel connectivity between Bengeo and the business, employment, and leisure facilities at Westmill Farm, which is within the Bengeo Neighbourhood Plan Area. Westmill Farm is the only part of the Neighbourhood Plan Area with no safe pedestrian access. A potential pedestrian route from Ware Park Road across land to the east of Wadesmill Road has been identified. With landowner permission, access could be achieved via a permissive path. In conjunction with Hertfordshire County Council, other safe pedestrian routes could be explored.
- A bus route from Bengeo to Ware via Westmill Farm would be endorsed by the Love Bengeo Community Group. Together with safe pedestrian access, this would support the vision in the Local Transport Plan for everyone to be able to ‘connect to their communities, employment, and services’.
- The Bengeo Neighbourhood Area Plan supports the creation of a foot and cycle path on the former Bengeo railway land. The Love Bengeo Community Group have promoted this, and other options for the land, through the Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan and the Local Nature Recovery Strategy, and the land is designated as Local Green Space through the Neighbourhood Plan.
- A 2018 Hertfordshire County Council appraisal of the land said it had the potential to becomepart of the area’s green infrastructure, with ‘significant gains for biodiversity’. The Neighbourhood Plan says the land ‘could become part of a network of paths to make walking and cycling better and safer and create an important linking route’.
- The creation of a foot and cycle path on the former railway land would contribute towards the aims of Local Transport Plan Objective 1 to increase the number of journeys made by walking, wheeling, and cycling, and Objective to maximise opportunities to enhance nature in transport schemes, via the Local Nature Recovery Strategy. This year, the landowner expressed a wish to sell the land to the community. The community does not have the financial resources to purchase the land.
- The Neighbourhood Plan supports measures that give priority to pedestrians and cyclists. Paragraph 4.58 of the Plan says it will ‘support traffic calming measures, including but not restricted to:
• a 20 mph speed limit on Bengeo Street
• a 20 mph speed limit on Sacombe Road from the Wadesmill Road/Sacombe Road mini roundabout up to The Wick ‘. - Achieving 20 mph speed limits on these roads would support the roll-out of the 20 mph speed limit in the 2027-2050 Local Transport Plan’s Objective 1 and Policy 7.
- Pavement, footpath, and cycle path accessibility is a priority in Hertford Bengeo Ward. In the Accessibility and Inclusion Strategy, referenced in Policy 2: Accessibility and inclusion, we would support measures to help keep paths clear of obstructions to facilitate walking, wheeling, and cycling.
- Through the 2027-2050 Local Transport Plan, the Love Bengeo Community Group would welcome Hertfordshire County Council’s support in achieving the aims identified for Hertford Bengeo Ward in this consultation response.