Letter to Editor,

Bus Gate, the full story.

Sir,

IT is rather ironic that our MP is objecting to the closure of London Road to car users whilst at the same time has been the champion of an enlarged Harlow, which in reality for the most part is just building thousands of homes on the Green Belt surrounding Harlow’s boundaries.

In order to try and mitigate the huge increase in cars being used on Harlow’s roads as a result of these developments Harlow Council are looking to create what are known as sustainable transport corridors, criss-crossing the town. They have a target of 60% for all new residents to use a bus, cycle or to walk when travelling within Harlow. It has been stated that a fast, punctual, reliable and cheap bus service and even a tramway will be provided to help meet these targets.

Research has shown that unless schemes are put in place before residents move into their new homes, it is very difficult to change peoples habit of using their car and to get them to use other forms of transport. This is at the heart of the problem that is now faced by Essex County Council, simply that residents in Newhall and Church Langley have become used to travelling along London Road by car. There are basically two ways to create these corridors, build bus or tramway lanes adjacent to existing routes (expensive) or reduce lanes or in this case stop car use (cheap). From past history, residents will be able to guess at which alternative Essex County Council will try and use.

The other interesting issue is if and how this bus gate route will integrate with the sustainable transport corridor which needs to run along Gilden Way to the proposed new hospital nearby. One might have thought that this link would have been created at the same time work was being done to increase capacity along Gilden Way.

This scheme is likely to be the first of many attempts to get people out of their cars and onto buses, perhaps the most ironic thing is that our Conservative MP is at loggerheads with Conservative controlled Essex County Council.

Regards
Nicholas Taylor