Plans for a New
Alma Road Car Park
are scrapped
No further threat
to Sir Sydney Camm's home
December
2001 - Sir Sydney's home - Safe Now?
The Observer newspaper, in their edition
dated 14th December 2001, (p.1.) have reported that The Royal
Borough are planning to return the terraced homes in Alma Road
and Arthur Road to residential use after being left empty for
several years. The threat to demolish Camm's house along with
adjacent properties now seems to have been scrapped along with
plans for a large car park in the same area.
The Observer reports that the area will
now be developed for housing and that a second deck is planned
over the Alexandra Gardens Car Park to provide additional parking
in that part of the town.
July
2001 - Park and Ride - Will it save Camm's House?
A report in The Observer dated
Friday 13th July suggests that rush-hour jams between Windsor
and Slough could eventually be history! Apparently Windsor Borough
and Slough Borough councils have been discussing a Park and Ride
Scheme at Junction 6 of the M4 motorway, with a "medium
term plan to look at ways of re-arranging parking and access
in the Alma Road and Windsor Riverside area, and this Park and
Ride Scheme is for the longer term" said Cllr. Spooner lead
cabinet member for Windsor parking.
Judging by the traffic
in Windsor at 6.00pm last Thursday, when queues of stationery
traffic stretched from the Relief Road to Home Park, in both
directions, any 'medium term solution' of increasing parking
in the town centre by around 500 spaces would be totally unacceptable.
If permanently scrapping the proposed increase of 'in town' parking
provision means the return of a dozen or so homes to residential
use, and the Camm household saved into the bargain, Windsor residents
would be well pleased.
May
2001 - Why are these homes still empty??
It is now over two years
since Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council shelved plans to
demolish 10 homes at the junction of Alma Road and Arthur Road
to make way for access to a new multi-storey car park on the
site of the old gas works. This car park is thought to have been
promised as part of the development of the Central Station as
a shopping area and precinct.
One can only assume that
the homes remain empty because the council are keeping the plan
on the 'back burner', in the hope that an opportunity will eventually
arise, permitting the redevelopment.
Let us state right now,
therefore, that the plan will never be accepted by local residents
because the congestion in Arthur Road is now so severe that tail-backs
to the relief road and even the M4 are now commonplace. Any addition
to the number of car parking spaces in the town centre will further
exacerbate the situation to an intolerable level. RBWM accept
this, as stated in The Town Plan, Page 6.11, para 6.6.18, "At present, most traffic
entering Windsor does so via Arthur Road, Clarence Road or Alma
Road from the Windsor and Eton Relief Road. In terms of environmental
capacity, all these routes are reaching saturation. In order
to relieve these roads and also the central area from long-stay
traffic, an alternative to parking provision within the town
needs to be considered."
If the spaces are required
by local retailers for the benefit of customers, then let them
release existing spaces used by their staff. We have already
suggested (See November 2000, below) that they support an expanded
Park and Ride scheme and encourage their staff to park away from
the town centre.
In the meantime it is shameful
that these houses are left empty. The
Empty Homes Agency (EHA) will publish in mid-May a list of some 750,000 properties that are unnecessarily
left empty throughout the country and it is likely that Windsor
will feature prominently in this report with this and other examples
of housing waste.
The Windsor and Eton Observer,
in their edition dated May 11th, 2001, features this story in
depth on their front page. It is to be hoped therefore that this
matter can now be permanently resolved.
The
Camm Plaque goes missing - again!
For the second time the
above plaque, unveiled on Sir Sydney Camm's house in Alma Road
in March 1986, has gone missing. Local residents assumed that
Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council had taken it into safe
keeping after the original theft and subsequent recovery, but
it seems that the plaque was insecurely refitted and so promptly
stolen again. Naturally we hope that the plaque will be recovered
once again.
Car
Park News in November 2000
In their edition dated 24th November 2000,
The Observer reported that a plan has been resurrected to demolish
Sir Sydney Camm's birthplace (also that of his brother 'Practical'
magazine Editor, Fred Camm) in order to provide access to a planned
multi-storey Car Park. Local residents have long opposed these
plans as congestion into Windsor on the adjacent approach roads,
Maidenhead Road and Arthur Road, is already way past acceptable
levels.
At many times of day, long queues build
up that stretch as far back as the Relief Road. At the end of
the day the situation is reversed with extensive stationary and
slow moving traffic trying to leave the town. Increasing car
parking in the town centre will only add to these existing problems.
Many of the parking places that already
exist in Windsor are occupied by cars belonging to staff of local
shops and offices. These valuable spaces could be released by
more than the capacity of the proposed Car Park - some
500 spaces - by encouraging use of an expanded Park and Ride
schemes. This point is expanded in the article 'Absolute
Power...'
In March 1999, WMBC councillors agreed
to withdraw the application for the Car Park. It seems, according
to para 3.32 p. 45 of the Supporting Information, that WMBC were
legally required to refer the application for a Car Park to GOSE
(Government Office
for the South East at Guildford) for
consideration by the Secretary of State as it departs from the
existing "Borough Plan". (also known as 'Development
Plan', 'Local Plan' and 'Transport Plan'). See below for more
about this Planning Meeting.
In March 2000, GOSE confirmed that the application to demolish the
terraced houses had been withdrawn. The implication is that the
houses are safe until such time as Windsor and Maidenhead Borough
Council come up with a different scheme and file a new Planning
Application.
Letters against the scheme have been published
in the national press from time to time, including one from Germany,
praising Camm's aircraft and stating that "...Luftwaffe
pilots ... will rise in support of this cause". The
letter in full
See below for typical letters from a local
resident and a relative of Sir Sydney.
|
