I have managed to throw some light on my earlier comment about lack on information about the proposed health centre in Stansted. The chairman of the PCT has advised me that the NHS is still working towards an agreement with the development company, Pelham Structures. I am now more in the picture about who at Uttlesford has been negotiating with Pelham Structures about accommodating the needs of a health centre, supermarket and new residences within the Lower Street car park. I wrote last night to Pelhams spelling out my concerns regarding recycling facilities and the skateboard park. There may be acceptable solutions; but I don’t yet know. Council members have so far not been asked to approve any arrangement.

The big issue for me remains traffic generated by this proposal. Will it amount to ‘town cramming’? This is what I wrote to Pelham Structures:

“I am very concerned about the impact of what will be a major commercial development on road traffic in the centre of Stansted. A professional traffic assessment is necessary to determine the impact…………  The proposal to enable a freer flow of traffic between Church Road and Lower Street by impeding the existing uncontrolled flow from Chapel Hill will cause traffic to back up Chapel Hill……….. Once traffic backs up close to Woodfields, gridlock will occur. This is not new to Stansted; it happens regularly at Grove Hill. It would be unacceptable to create a situation in which a second traffic blackspot is created on the predominant Elsenham Road to Silver Street route……I do not believe that there is any acceptable alternative for the residents of Chapel Hill to their continued parking outside their own homes. Side roads are already congested.”

Chapel Hill’s one-way normal (to pass parked cars) traffic is a bit of a nuisance because of residents’ parked cars, but it works today. I don’t think anyone connected with this development has asked residents whether they will abandon parking outside their own homes in order to prevent likely gridlock.

I am hopeful that Geoffrey Sell and I will soon be able to meet Pelham Structures with council officers to hear whether these concerns can be overcome.