Letter to Persimmon regarding proposed closure of B576

Dear Marcus,

 

Northamptonshire Highways has notified us of proposed work to be carried out on your behalf by Paul John Construction between the 5^th and 18^th April. This work is forecast to close the B576, Desborough Road, Rothwell completely for a two week period and is causing huge concern to residents of Desborough and Rothwell for the following reasons.

 

Congestion

 

There are currently about 6,000 vehicles per day using this section of road and this is likely to increase further as Covid restrictions are relaxed. There were nearly 12,000 vehicles per day using it before the Covid crisis. The diversionary route will not be able to cope with such an increase.

 

Gold St & Braybrooke Rd, Desborough

 

Gold Street and Braybrooke Road form the northern part of the diversionary route. They are narrow urban roads that always have a large number of parked vehicles along their length. Traversing it on a normal day is difficult since you are always having to stop and start to give way to opposing vehicles. A large number of extra vehicles is likely to cause traffic to come to a complete gridlock during busy periods.

 

The junction of Gold Street with Harborough Road is already a difficult one to traverse. The view is restricted and traffic travelling along Harborough Road causes delays to vehicles trying to emerge from Gold Street. Extra traffic is just going to form long queues backing up and blocking junctions further back.

 

Fox St & Harrington Rd, Rothwell

 

These form the southern part of the diversionary route and a similar situation exists here. The roads are narrow and contain even more parked vehicles. Traversing them on a normal day is difficult and gridlock is likely to occur with traffic waiting to overtake parked vehicles.

 

There are always delays with vehicles trying to emerge from Fox Street onto Kettering Road. Once again, extra traffic is just going to form long queues and gridlock.

 

Montsaye School

 

Children will be back at school by this time and the diversion will cause huge problems at school opening and closing times, particularly for those parents and students travelling from Desborough who will have to use the much longer and heavily congested diversionary route. Has consideration been given to the school bus timetable where several of the buses carry out two or three quick return trips to Desborough during each morning and afternoon periods? How will the buses pick up children from the collection points in Rothwell Road, Desborough without having to carry out U-turns?

 

I am aware that the school principal is astounded that she has not been consulted about this, in particular that the road closure is going to disrupt the school yet again only just after it has re-opened.

 

Rothwell Medical Centre

 

Rothwell Medical Centre and Lloyds Pharmacy appear to be in the middle of the closed section. Will access still be available for patients and customers, particularly for those travelling to and from Desborough? It is vital that the Covid vaccination process is not interrupted.

 

Emergency Vehicles

 

Emergency vehicles invariably have to travel from the Kettering area to access Desborough. The use of the much longer and heavily congested diversionary route will significantly increase response times and could jeopardise patient safety.

 

Public Service Vehicles

 

Stagecoach provides a twenty minute weekday bus service each way between Rothwell and Desborough and the diversion will create a major disruption to their timetable. Has consideration been given to how the buses will collect and drop their passengers on either side of the closure both in Rothwell Rd, Desborough and Desborough Rd, Rothwell?

 

Construction Vehicles

 

How do you propose to route the construction vehicles to and from your own site when the Desborough side of the main road junction is closed? Will they have to travel through Rothwell since that would be contrary to your Construction Management Plan?

 

Construction Management Plan (CMP)

 

The proposed work is in breach of the CMP which requires that “The site will be constructed in a phased manner to minimise the impact of the development on existing residents and businesses located in the nearby towns of Rothwell and Desborough. Road improvements will be delivered at the appropriate stages in order to ensure that disruption to the local transport network is minimisedduring construction.

 

Conclusion

 

I do not think that Paul John Construction has properly assessed the implications of this work. Similar junction construction work takes place in other areas without the need for complete closures.

 

If a complete closure is absolutely necessary, can this be carried out at night with single flow traffic taking place during the day? If not, the work should take place during the school holidays with night work as well to ensure the minimum of disruption.

 

Regards,

 

Rick Hill

o/b/o Rothwell North Working Party

B576 Road Closure

 The B576 road will be closed for two weeks to allow work to continue with the junction to the Rothwell North development. This will run from 5th April to 18th April 2021. More details can be found at

https://one.network/?tm=121337746

The RNWP are unhappy about a number of aspects of this. In particular we have concerns over the routing of the alternative route along Harrington Road in Rothwell and Braybrooke Road in Desborough. Both of these routes are already difficult because of the volume of traffic and parked cars. The B576 currently takes 6000 cars per day and 12000 before the lockdown. If these are routed along these roads then there could be major traffic jams and an increase in accidents. This will also affect access to Montsaye School, including buses, and the Medical Centre.

We are asking for the closure to only occur overnight, if it has to be fully closed, and the re-routing to be along the A14 - A6 to the B576 roundabouts. We understand our Borough Council have approved the plans but where was the consultation with affected residents and the school and medical centre management?

Rothwell North Working Party End of 2020 Report

 Happy New Year from the Rothwell North Working Party. 

Rothwell North Working Party – end of 2020 report to the community and all stakeholders. 

Rothwell North Working Party (RNWP) was established in 2017 to be the “eyes and ears” of the communities of Rothwell, Desborough, and the surrounding villages as the plans to build 700 homes and relevant infrastructure to the north of Rothwell have evolved. RNWP have met monthly since that time to ensure that the interests of existing and future residents have been, and are, taken into consideration before and now during construction. 

Strong relationships have been built up with the developer, Persimmon Homes, along with other organisations and councils who have been regularly updated on progress with appropriate, timely two-way feedback given. 

Successes to date are the reduction from 350 homes being the trigger for the Strategic Link Road to be opened down to 150 homes or 3 years from commencement of development (February 2020). Through detailed lobbying an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system was installed at the time of the development commencing to ensure that HGV’s use the agreed traffic management route and not minor roads especially at peak times when students are going to and from Montsaye Academy and the other Rothwell schools. 

Without the #Linkroadfirst campaign and petition raised by RNWP it is unlikely that reductions in the numbers of HGV movements would have been achieved. RNWP’s “Truck Watch” campaign has publicised the importance of HGV’s using official routes and encouraged residents to let Persimmon know if residential roads are being used. 

RNWP is looking forward to continuing to build relationships with all the stakeholders as the development progresses from the first phase which is currently under construction through to completion. 

Whilst maintaining current activity, RNWP will continue to constructively engage with Persimmon Homes, Rothwell and Desborough Town Councils, Kettering Borough and Northamptonshire County Councils (then their replacement North Northamptonshire Council, from April 2021), Montsaye Academy, existing residents as well as the new residents moving in as the homes are completed. 

Areas of particular interest in the future will be the potential for a new access to Montsaye, getting the employment area commenced, the new primary school, commencing the affordable housing, the development of plans to build to the south of Desborough, improving air quality locally and the planned parking facilities for Rothwell Corinthians football club. 

The working party meetings are open to anyone with an interest in how this development is progressing. Currently meetings are held virtually using Zoom Video conferencing but will go back to meeting in person when Covid restrictions enable that. 

RNWP welcomes contributions from anyone interested in this significant expansion of Rothwell so that we can all enjoy being part of our growing community. 

From all the members of RNWP 

If you would like to contact RNWP you can email us on rothnwp@gmail.com 

see our Facebook Page - Rothwell North Working Party – RNWP, 

follow us on Twitter @rothwellnwp, or visit our website -rothwellnorth.blogspot.com

Rothwell North Working Party Annual Financial Report 2020

 

Rothwell North Working Party Annual Report 2020

 Rothwell North Working Party(RNWP) 

Report for year ending October 2020 

Membership: 

We currently have 13 members. In October 2019 Andy Browne was co-opted to fill the vacancy from last year. 

The Committee: 

Chair Peter Chapman 

Secretary Margaret Mossman 

Treasurer Marie Chapman until 22nd June 2020 Andy Browne from 22nd June 2020 

Outline of action: 

RNWP has continued to meet on a monthly basis meeting in either Rothwell Library or Desborough Library until the Coronovirus lockdown in March 2020 since when we have met online via Zoom. 

We sent letters to the Borough Councillors urging them to reject the planning application until acceptable access to the site could be agreed and members spoke at the meeting. Unfortunately, the application was passed. We continued to liaise with Persimmon and Kettering Borough Council in an effort to find a suitable access point for a haul road from the A6. Unfortunately agreement could not be obtained from one land-owner and Northamptonshire County Council Highways would not support a link road from the A6 at any other point. However, in response to our strong concerns Persimmon agreed to further lower the trigger point for constructing the link road to 150th house occupied or 3 years, whichever is first. Persimmon also made changes to the ANPR system to make it easier to record vehicles not following the designated route in response to our remarks about the gaps in their original plan. 

Some members represented RNWP at a joint meeting with KBC, Persimmon, Desborough Town Council and Rothwell Town Council where plans were discussed, questions raised and concerns aired. It was agreed that another such meeting should take place a few months after the start of construction. Construction began 17th February 2020. 

In February 2020 one of our members visited Persimmon in York to deliver letters to the Directors in a last attempt to get the link road layout reconsidered. We received no response. 

In March 2020 we were successful in gaining a grant from Desborough Town Council and although Coronovirus lockdown delayed the opening of an account, the grant of £600 was paid into our Market Harborough Building Society in August 2020. 

RNWP made the decision to continue as a group to ensure that construction continues with as much consideration for local residents as possible, and various issues raised by members of the public, such as excessive mud, vehicles waiting on the highway as well as HGVs not taking the designated route, have been reported to and discussed with the Project Manager. The new funding has enabled us to replace our banners with the new “Truck Watch” banners, designed to discourage all HGVs from coming through Rothwell or Desborough and not just those travelling to and from the Rothwell North site. We are also encouraging residents to report any vehicles they see disregarding the designated route and we continue to liaise with the Project Manager regarding local concerns regarding construction and the vehicles. 

Our Facebook page has continued to be a means of communication with residents and membership of that page has grown and stands at 390 as of 15th September 2020. 

Our campaign continues. 

Margaret Mossman 

15th September 2020

Truck Watch

You may see this banner by the side of the road around Desborough and Rothwell. We are concerned that some contractors for the Rothwell North development are not obeying the routing of trucks to and from the site.  Trucks servicing the development are only allowed access via the A6/B576 through Desborough. Routes through Rothwell, Braybrooke Road and Rushton Road in Desborough are closed to heavy vehicles. We have noted a number of violations and have informed Persimmon.

If you know of trucks not following the approved route to the Rothwell North development then please report them to the Rothwell North Working Party 

rothnwp@gmail.com 

Please provide details of where and when the truck was seen, the company name on the truck and, ideally the truck’s registration number. Please be sure the truck was servicing the Rothwell North development.

RNWP wins improved access to Health Centre

After representations from Rothwell North Working Party members and Councillor Jim Hakewill a temporary controlled pedestrian crossing and wheelchair/pram ramps have been installed at the top of Desborough Road. Prior to this is was impossible for a wheelchair user to get access to the Rothwell Medical Centre from Greening Road or from the left side of Desborough Road. The road works had left the footpath blocked, with no kerb ramp to allow a wheelchair user to cross the road and no traffic control to give pedestrians a chance to cross over. Local members of RNWP photographed the problem area and Councillor Hakewill made representations to the authorities and Anglian Water about this and they promptly dealt with the problems. The attached photos show what was put in place. Without local people getting involved with issues like this, it is highly likely that our interests will not be taken into account.