The developer behind a 55-home plan has offered to pay £105,000 to widen a nearby road to two lanes.
A field between Russell Lane and the A41, near the Hunton Bridge roundabout, is earmarked for a housing development but there are fears the road network could not sustain it.
Hertfordshire County Council would not accept access via the A41 or A411 so a route from the south ending at the top of Hempstead Road was settled on.
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The field that would be built on is currently home to these ponies. (Image: Courtlands Residents' Association)
Using smaller roads would require improvements for them to serve as the access to a development and the applicant says it is happy to directly provide an extension of Hempstead Road as a 5.5-metre-wide access road into the site and add a raised table in the carriageway.
It would also provide cycle connections between its section of Hempstead Road and the A411 and general pedestrian and cycle improvements to Russell Lane under this arrangement.
However, HCC analysis has shown that the junction of Courtlands Drive and Hempstead Road to get onto the section final section of Hempstead Road could cause problems with extra traffic taking the turning.
In the latest correspondence last week, the applicant has claimed that improving this junction – which is around 900 metres from the site – would be a “strand 2 matter”.
This means it is needed because of the "cumulative impact" of different things rather than being a direct requirement of the development. Essentially, not the applicant's responsibility beyond the usual Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) payments that developers contribute.
Notwithstanding this, the transport response note says it is prepared to provide “additional funding" towards improvement beyond CIL.
It arrived at the £105,000 figure as it calculates this is what it would cost to increase the capacity at the junction by providing “an elongated two-lane approach on Courtlands Drive, allowing left and right turning streams to be separated over a greater distance”.
The document suggests that HCC thinks a traffic signal-based scheme would be better, but claims the council has not provided details of how that would work and adds “this would comprise an improvement far beyond what is necessitated by the development itself”.
The land north of Russell Lane where the homes would be built. (Image: Google Maps/Canva)If the council decides a signal scheme is still needed then the developer is apparently willing to provide the £105,000 anyway, but it suggests HCC makes up the difference by bidding for CIL monies or finds “alternative funding sources to make up any additional funding gap”.
Whether highways officers are happy with this arrangement remains to be seen.
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