Meeting documents

With the agreement of the Chairman, an update from Bucks County Council representatives was added to the agenda. Mark Kemp, Director of Growth Strategy and Highways, and Christine Urry, Head of Highways Development, gave a verbal update to the Group which covered the following key points:

·         The Section 106 agreement with Pinewood had been signed a number of years previously and since that time BCC had been consulting with the Iver Members Liaison Group to decide how the money would be spent.

·         £500,000 had been received for sustainable travel; however the spending of this money had been paused whilst discussions took place around progressing either the Five Points Roundabout scheme or the Seven Hills Road option favoured by residents.

·         Modelling was taking place based on current traffic data and updated traffic surveys, looking at the impact on the Five Points Roundabout and Seven Hills Road. BCC were reviewing the results of the survey and hoped to have a resolution by the end of August, with feedback being given to the Iver Members Liaison Group in September.

·         An ecology contribution of £68,000 had been received.

·         Additional S106 contributions had been received for sustainable transport but these could not be spent until 50% occupation of the site had been reached. It was predicted that this would occur in the 2019/20 financial year.

·         The current contract for the shuttle bus would expire in September and was out to tender. The shuttle bus route would be reviewed when Crossrail was completed. Discussions around use of the shuttle bus outside of peak hours had taken place, however it was advised that this would need to be a private arrangement between Pinewood and the Iver Heath Residents Association.

Kathryn Donovan, Group Community Liaison, Pinewood Studios, advised that the possibility of using the shuttle bus for local residents had been discussed but it was not considered viable by Pinewood. Alan Wilson, representative for IHRA, advised that use of the shuttle bus would only be viable if funding was available, but stressed that Pinewood would not be expected to contribute funding.

In the discussion which followed, the below points were made:

·         The trigger point for the release of the original S106 funding had been reached and a fully designed scheme for the signalisation of the Five Points Roundabout had been produced. The scheme had been put on hold due to ongoing discussions with local resident groups.

·         Options for the cycleway scheme were being discussed, and it was noted that the recently uncovered footways could be wide enough to accommodate a cycleway.

·         In response to a question raised regarding the potential for a park and ride service, it was advised that BCC were considering a range of sustainable travel options.

·         Concerns were raised that the signage for speed limits on Pinewood Road was illogical and it was felt that limits should be reduced to 30mph with the increased volume of heavy goods traffic.

·         Traffic surveys had included Pinewood Green as well as Five Points Roundabout, Seven Hills road and other areas. Standalone junction models had been used, with ANPR allowing analysis of the number of journeys related to Pinewood traffic. The modelling had taken into account all committed development in the area, as well as infrastructure projects such as the M4 smart motorway and Western Rail Link to Heathrow. Anticipated growth had been taken into account, with models based on forecasts for 2034.

·         In relation to alleviating traffic pressures, it was advised that the key issue was reducing journey times and attempting to make preferred routes more attractive to drivers. Evidence submitted by Network Rail would be assessed however BCC would be using the County-wide model to predict what likely impacts would be.

·         A concern was raised that the County model was not appropriate for Iver and that the impacts produced by the modelling carried out by Jacobs were not representative. Concerns would be fed back to the transport modelling team at BCC and any anomalies would be looked at.

·         Pollution monitoring commissioned by IHRA had produced data which could feed into the modelling. It was requested that the data be sent to Christine Urry (curry@buckscc.gov.uk) to feed back into discussions.

·         It was advised that, once a review of the modelling work had taken place, representatives from BCC would return to present their findings to the Group.

The chairman expressed thanks to Mark Kemp and Christine Urry for their contribution, which was echoed by the Group.