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The future of Three Rivers - Consultation :
Site Allocations DPD and Development Management Policies DPD

There will be a six week consultation (23 January - 5 March 2012) on the following documents:
• Site Allocations DPD - which seeks residents' views on sites for housing, employment, education, shopping, leisure and open spaces and minor changes to the Green Belt and views on a parameters plan for the South Oxhey area
• Development Management Policies DPD - which sets out the planning policies against which all planning applications will be assessed. See here for details (.PDF file).

 

WD3 School Action Group Update

Over the summer, HCC has undertaken detailed technical investigations into the suitability of 4 local
sites for a new secondary school. Three Rivers District Council (TRDC) required notification of
preferred sites by 28th September 2011. A further period of public consultation is planned for
November.

The consultation will be titled “Site Allocations Development Plan” and will be distributed to local
households via Three Rivers Times, available on the TRDC website and in the library.

You will have responded already but…. Please take time to read the documentation and respond
to the consultation. It is a different and more in depth consultation, and is a legal requirement for
TRDC to complete. Read more here (.pdf file)

Metropolitan Line to be Slower Than Ever

The Management of London Underground are proposing changes to the Metropolitan Line timetable, to take effect from December 2011, that would provide an increase in the number of trains calling at Rickmansworth during the peak hour but a drastically slower service during off peak periods and all day at weekends.

The proposal timetable would mean the following changes for Rickmansworth travellers:

Two additional trains per hour during the peak hours, which would run all stations to Harrow so be semi-fast and take about 40 minutes to Baker Street.

The off-peak service will see a dramatic reduction in quality with no increase in train frequency. The existing two trains an hour from Amersham and two from Chesham will continue but all trains will call at all Metropolitan Line stations to Baker Street. The impact of this change will mean that a journey from Rickmansworth to Baker Street will take about 50 minutes.

The Association is strongly opposed to the proposed change to the off-peak service. The proposal would mean that journeys to Baker Street will take 50 minutes compared with the current off-peak duration of 36 minutes when running non-stop from Moor Park to Harrow and stopping at Wembley Park. This means that anyone planning a trip into London would have to add an extra half-hour's travelling time to their day.

The 2001 Metropolitan Line timetable had off-peak trains taking 30 minutes from Rickmansworth to Baker Street, so the proposed change would mean that in 10 years the journey time will have increased by 66%. In the 1922 timetable journey times varied between 30 minutes and 40 minutes, depending on the time of day and the number of stops, so the service will have deteriorated markedly compared with 90 years ago.

The management of London Underground has obviously decided that the Metropolitan Line timetable should be written for the convenience of staff rather than for the convenience of passengers. This timetable makes a mockery of the government's proposed high-speed railway to Birmingham, as it will take almost as long to travel from Amersham to Baker Street as from Euston to Birmingham; so much for progress. Help us fight this dreadful plan.

Peter Crispin 16 March 2011

Three Rivers Council's Cost Reduction Programme

The Committee submitted a lengthy response to the Council's ideas on where to cut costs and, even then, only commented on a small selection of the ideas. We argued for keeping the grant to the Rickmansworth Festival, if necessary charged only to the unparished area, because of its economic value to the town and immediate local area. The suggestion that car parking charges be introduced for the Aquadrome was opposed because we believe that charges would almost certainly force the café to close, arguing that access to the Aquadrome should be extended rather than limited, whilst we also argued fro keeping the free swimming scheme because of its beneficial effects on both young and old.

We opposed the idea that parking charges be introduced for short-term parking in Rickmansworth and Chorleywood, maintaining our strongly-held belief that the introduction of charges for short-term parking would severely damage the trade in both towns. A problem is that, as Business Rates are collected regardless of occupancy and only received by the Council indirectly by a grant handed out by central government, there is no direct measurement of the cost of lost business as residents move their custom elsewhere where greater choice outweighs the disadvantage of parking charges.

We believe that we should accept a reduction in the number of councillors and the consequent increase in the number of constituents per councillor, whilst we could see no reason why the cost savings to be gained by switching to elections every 4 years should be ignored. Ideally the elections should be synchronised with the County Council elections in order to minimise expenditure.

One very controversial idea, at first sight, is to empty the ordinary (green) bins fortnightly. However, now that much of the waste that used to go into the green bins may now be put in the brown bins and, as the proposal is to collect brown bins (but only one per household) weekly, we agree with the idea. It is extremely important that the change is publicised very clearly so that there is no "fortnightly collection" outcry..

You can read the Association's submission to TRDC here.

Peter Crispin 16 March 2011

Road Representatives needed

We still have a number of roads without a representative. This job is not onerous, but is very important. It involves delivering INDEPENDENCE to members in the road twice a year, and collecting subscriptions. Most people pay in the Spring, so the Autumn delivery is usually quicker because it is only necessary to call on those whose subscriptions are still outstanding.

Comments on this website are those of the individuals credited and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Association.