ASTON CLINTON (TRUNK ROAD) (Hansard, 9 June 1971)

§ Mr. Timothy Raison (Aylesbury)

I wish to discuss a long-standing and, in its way, quite serious local problem which affects my constituency, namely the impact of the A41 trunk road on the village of Aston Clinton. The more gluttonous Members may know Aston Clinton 1202 through its excellent pub, but Aston Clinton is also of some interest because it provides a good case study of the kind of effect the traditional style of village planning—or accidental village planning—can have today.

Aston Clinton is essentially one long main road. This was a reasonable thing to be in the days when the village grew up, but today it has almost disastrous effects on its inhabitants. The village is split in two by this main trunk road. The business of crossing from one side of the village to the other at times can be almost horrible, particularly for old people and for the quite young. It also presents a fairly considerable risk for motorists coming from side roads—and I do not refer only to motorists emerging from the Bell Hotel. It is an awkward place in which to turn round, the village school is divided by the trunk road, and there is an overwhelming need for a bypass for the village.

The parish council and the county council have both acknowledged this need for a long time and have been urging it. In 1958, a draft route was published. It was then decided to delay the whole matter because the M1 was coming into being and it was felt proper to study its impact first. Then, after some years, the threat of the third London airport at Cublington was a further reason for delay. Happily, that horror has been relieved, thanks in part to the Department of the environment, and a positive decision to build the bypass is now urgent.

This need is increased by the fact that, for Tring, which comes just before Aston Clinton on the London side of the A41, a draft order for a bypass has been published. This is all to the good—Tring needs it as badly as Aston Clinton—but the short-term effect will be to decant more traffic even more rapidly into Aston Clinton.

I will not enter into the argument as to whether the bypass should go to the north or south of the village—the south is more likely—but would re-emphasise that our troubles will be solved only with the bypass. But, in the meantime, there are one or two actions which could be taken to relieve the plight of my constituents.

The first is some kind of pedestrian crossing. The parish council considers this vital, particularly as traffic flows so fast through the village. Last October, 1203 at a meeting with the divisional road engineer, this question was discussed and some kind of count was put in hand to see whether a crossing was justified. I do not know the results, but even if they prove that the sheer numbers of people trying to cross are not all that high, I hope that it will be accepted that those who do have to cross face exceptional difficulty. I hope that my hon. Friend will be able to assure us that there will be some kind of pedestrian crossing. When canvassing the village during the General Election, I certainly found it difficult to cross; a crossing would be greatly appreciated.

Secondly, there is the immediate problem of the extent of the speed limit. There is a 30 mile-an-hour limit through the village, a 40 mile-an-hour extension on the Tring side, but on the Aylesbury side, to the west, we need either a 40 mile-an-hour buffer zone going towards Aylesbury as on the Tring side or an extension of the 30 mile-an-hour limit towards Aylesbury. Traffic goes very fast through the village. The road is mainly straight and I have no doubt that an extension of the speed limit would be welcomed by the residents.

Then there is the problem of an improvement line. A development line was laid down under the Restrictions of Ribbon Development Act, 1935, the effect of which is serious in that it covers a number of properties in the village. This line was based on the pre-war idea that the way to solve what was then a much smaller problem was to widen the road through the middle of the village. It is clear that this plan has long since been jettisoned. The county council tells anyone making application today about planning aspects that there is no possibility of this widening ever taking place.

But the improvement line has the effect of making property sales more difficult in the village and perhaps the more important effect that the rural district council does not give standard improvement grants on properties affected by this line. So I would seriously ask the Minister whether it is possible for powers to be taken to rescind this improvement line, which serves no useful purpose and is now a vestigial anachronism.

Then there is the general question of road safety. In the view of the parish 1204 council, there is an especial need to make the entrance to Brook Street safer. My hon. Friend will know the details of this point and I will not give them now. There is also a need to provide, in this part of the village, a double white line down the middle of the road to help make this area safer.

I am sure that the case I have made could be repeated in many parts of the country. Essentially this is a village in which life has become seriously affected by the road problem. The sooner we have a bypass, the sooner we may get rid of this problem. But in the meantime, before a bypass is provided, some useful steps could be taken to alleviate the harm and damage now being caused.

My hon. Friend's Department has shown in its action over the Third London Airport that it has the interests of the environment of Buckinghamshire close at heart. I hope that, on a smaller scale, the Department will now show the same enlightened attitude in tackling the problem I have raised.

§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Michael Heseltine)

I must disappoint my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Mr. Raison) on at least one score. My familiarity with the name Aston Clinton is related entirely to its traffic problems and bears no relationship whatever to its pub and restaurant, but I intend to put this right at an early opportunity. In this respect, therefore, my hon. Friend has performed another admirable service on behalf of his constituents.

I agree that the trunk road, the A41, through Aston Clinton is one long straight road and, while this may have virtues in some respects, it produces its problems. No one disputes that the answer to these is the creation of a bypass.

My hon. Friend will be aware that preliminary work on a bypass is already proceeding. It is well known that a southern route is protected by Buckinghamshire County Council under its planning powers. This would be a dual-carriageway bypass of Aston Clinton with full grade separation running from the west end of the proposed Tring bypass. We are considering the possibility of including such a scheme in the next instalment of 1205 the trunk road Preparation Pool which we hope to announce in the next few weeks. I cannot anticipate any decision that may be made, and I can tell my hon. Friend only that that is the next time at which a decision can be made on the possibility of moving further forward with this bypass.

As my hon. Friend made clear, there are a number of points of a smaller nature that could be dealt with in the meantime in an attempt to solve some of the village's problems. He will be the first to agree that while we are considering the general issue of whether or not to proceed with the bypass, there must be a restriction on the amount of work that we can do in the village.

My hon. Friend was anxious to ensure that we should take a sympathetic attitude to this problem. One example is a one-quarter mile improvement of the A41 in the village which will eliminate a very dangerous bend. Work is to start this month and will cost about £38,000.

The question of providing a new pedestrian crossing on the A41 was mentioned by my hon. Friend. While I would not suggest the provision of such a crossing to make it easier for him to canvass his constituents, the traffic and road safety arguments are extremely real at this point and I am pleased to tell him that a site was agreed yesterday for a crossing a few yards west of Brook Street. It has been difficult to make this decision because of circumstances of which my hon. Friend will be aware. However, the crossing will be in operation within six months, some delay arising from the fact that the electricity board must lay a new supply.

Then there is the question of increasing the area covered by speed limits. Orders are now being prepared to increase by 45 yards the 30 m.p.h. speed limit to the west of the village. This too we hope to put into effect later this year. I would have to tell my hon. Friend that I am aware that the parish asked for more ambitious schemes than this, but we and our local divisional road engineer found that the situation on the ground did not merit additional changes to the ones that I have announced tonight, the reason being that the areas to the west of the village are not as built up as those to the east. One of the problems about imposing speed limits is that we have to 1206 be absolutely sure that they will commend themselves as sensible to motorists. There is no point in imposing limits which people simply ignore.

The next point was the possibility of improving the road safety measures at the entrance to Brook Street, and various suggestions have been put to us. But, again, we are not satisfied that it would be possible to expect people to observe the painting, for example, of "slow" markings on the roads, and on this we have the backing of the county council and the divisional road engineer, who have looked at it extremely carefully.

My hon. Friend mentioned the development line, and I appreciate that this was first laid down a long time ago in 1937. I can give an undertaking tonight that this line will be replaced as soon as a decision has been made about a new line which, when established, can take the place of the old line. Obviously I cannot say when that decision will be made, but my hon. Friend will judge my answer in the light of my remarks tonight. Certainly when that happens it will have the effect of removing the blight to which he has drawn attention.

On the general question of whether or not the by-pass is to come, I hope that my hon. Friend will understand that it is impossible to anticipate a final decision, but I can say that we shall be making a decision about a number of schemes within the next few weeks and within that time we shall be making the major decision of whether to proceed with the bypass at Aston Clinton.

There are a number of small schemes about which I have been able to reply tonight. I hope that my hon. Friend will feel that these will be a helpful addition to what we have been able to do in the village.