Meeting documents

Introduction

In parallel with the development of proposals for the Town Centre Redevelopment (TCR) March Cabinet (and the County Council) agreed on a strategy to deliver good quality parking, public transport and other improvements to access the town centre. Since then work has continued across a range of areas.

Different officer working groups have been established with a remit to progress different areas of the strategy, reporting to an overall Parking and Access Strategy Co-ordination Group. These involve officers of both the District and the County Councils.

Short Term Measures

In the short term the focus is on coping with the loss of parking that will occur when construction of TCR gets underway. This is scheduled for April 2005, resulting in an immediate loss of over 600 public parking spaces. Further parking will be lost as construction progresses. There is also the prospect that redevelopment of other town centre sites will reduce available public parking. The potential exists for up to 1300 parking spaces to be taken out of use if other developments also progress when TCR is under construction. Even leaving aside other developments, experience suggests that in the run up to Christmas demand for parking could increase to similar levels. The situation will be closely monitored and if it is clear that sufficient measures will not be in place to cope with the displaced parking, then the Council may need to consider using its influence to re-schedule those projects in which it has a role as landowner.

As outlined in the agreed strategy a multi-pronged approach is being taken to address the displaced parking. This entails:

A package of measures to better utilise spare capacity within the existing parking stock is being developed and the following measures are under review:

The scope for temporary parking on sites in and around the town centre is being looked into, and where appropriate, raised with the landowner. How, or whether, this fits into the overall package will depend on potential sites being suitable in terms of size, location, security issues and availability over the critical period.

It is expected that a combination of these approaches will be sufficient to cater for the likely parking shortfall. A key element will be that park and ride will be made available from Cressex Island to serve the town centre, linked by high frequency, shuttle buses. The Cressex Gateway Member working party has preferred the Cressex Island site for this purpose (as opposed to the existing sports centre site) and proposals are being worked up. At present the target is an “in-service” date of 1 September 2005; this will be in time for the pre-Christmas surge in demand and will take up demand as further town centre parking is reduced as construction proceeds. Work is underway at present:

Work has also been continuing to improve transport alternatives. Progress on upgrading the 326 bus service (Quality Bus Partnership 2) using development contributions has been held up due to legal issues. It is however hoped that a solution will soon be found so that it will be possible to use the funding that has been earmarked to upgrade this route.

Upgrading of bus services between Downley and Hazlemere via the town centre (Quality Bus Partnership 3) is progressing ahead of schedule, starting in October 2004 with more frequent bus services, and with investment in more modern low floor vehicles following next year

A very important area of work will be communication, both with the public and those based in the town centre. This will need to be integrated with information about the changes afoot to the town centre, covering the disruption during construction of TCR and the measures being taken to minimise this disruption. This will be essential to demonstrate that High Wycombe town centre remains open for business and to assist those whose routine travel and parking arrangements may inevitably be disrupted.

Longer Term Measures

The Town Centre Redevelopment itself will bring about improvements, including a new bus station, new routes for pedestrians and cyclists and traffic management improvements at critical junctions.

The longer-term transport improvements highlighted as necessary by the High Wycombe Town Centre Parking and Access Strategy included:

In partnership with the County Council as Transport Authority, thinking on these issues is being developed and integrated with work on the new Local Transport Plan.

The assembly of a site for the development of a new multi storey car park at Baker Street is progressing. This will enable rationalisation of other car parking in the vicinity and incorporate residential-led mixed-use development, including a fire station. In the meantime, external Project Managers have been appointed and are recommending a design team led by Peter Brett Associates. The next step will be the submission of an outline planning application in the spring.