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Magazine Issue 5&6 - Winter 1997
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| Nightmare on Elstree Elstree in Southwest Hertfordshire lies 43 miles north of London. Behind the facade of the proposed ‘environmental bypass’ at Elstree lie the vested interests of road-builder Tarmac and developer Slough Estates. Alina Congreve of Hertfordshire Friends of the Earth reports with additional information by Andrew Wood. Hertfordshire Friends of the Earth has created a storm by exposing the links between the Tarmac group and the Council’s plans to build a bypass through Aldenham Country Park. Hertfordshire County Council and the Hertsmere District Council chose TBV Science, part of the Tarmac group to carry out the Environmental Impact Assessment into the scheme. The Tarmac group are a road building company with a dubious environmental record, responsible for the destruction of Twyford Down. In spite of this, the council trusted them to write an impartial and scientifically based assessment of the scheme. Environmental Benefits? The village of Elstree suffers from very heavy through-traffic and a bypass has been in operation for over 12 years. Much of the traffic results from commuters and lorries ‘rat-running’ into north London to avoid motorway congestion. There is also local traffic. As the roads have become dangerous with heavy lorries so local people are inclined to drive even very short distances. The bypass scheme is being promoted as the first ‘environmental bypass’ for Hertfordshire because it will bring net environmental benefits for the people of Elstree. Does this mean that Hertfordshire will have many more “environmental bypasses” or that all the other bypasses built so far are un-environmental? On closer inspection the claims in the glossy leaflets given to the public have little or no basis in fact. The Council promises better air quality for local people but, since there is no publicly available data on current air quality, any claims of an improvement which they make in the future will be impossible to verify. The Council also promises less traffic but their own figures show that as soon as the scheme is implemented traffic, including heavy lorries, will increase. The Park’s Destruction Aldenham Country Park is within the green belt, providing an important open space for local people, a haven for wildlife and a focus for summer events. The country park is an important site for nesting birds including blackcap, garden warbler, tawny owl and rare tree sparrow. The park is also a bat feeding ground for Serotine and Daubenton’s bats, a fact which should protect the park under the EEC’s 1994 Bonn Agreement protecting bats’ feeding grounds and roosts. All these facts were ignored by TBV. The flora was given a cursory inspection in the winter months when there would be little chance of finding anything of note in a wildflower meadow (which does contain county rarities as defined by the County Ecologist). The park is used by the local WATCH club where children can learn about nature. It is also used by a sailing club, disabled groups, for cricket and tennis, and medieval fairs in the summer attracting thousands of visitors. The bypass cuts across several local footpaths making them unusable. Aldenham Country park is also a grade 2 listed garden by English Heritage. The assessment of the garden by TBV was described by the Director of the Conservation Garden History Society as “Derisory”. Numerous local groups have now expressed opposition to the proposed bypass including Bushey and District Footpaths, Herts Conservation Society, and Elstree Greenbelt Society. The need for a Bypass The bypass simply sat in the Council’s plans until planning permission was granted for a major redevelopment at a former bus depot at Aldenham in Elstree. The depot’s claim to fame is an appearance in Sir Cliff Richard’s film “Summer Holiday”! During 1996, buildings on the Aldenham Bus depot were demolished and access roads constructed. The planning permission covers 69,700 sq.m. of office, industrial and warehouse accommodation on a 21.7 hectare site. Plans for the first phase of development, prior to the completion of the bypass for 10,875 sq.m are already ‘well advanced’ according to the company. Slough Estates offered about £4 million of the £8 million the bypass is expected to cost under a section 106 agreement - or planning gain as it is more widely known. This influx of money, rather than any pressure from the village, has resulted in the Council’s current enthusiasm for the scheme. No cost benefit analysis has been carried out and when we questioned officers on this matter we were told they did not need to justify it economically because it was being built for environmental reasons! Yet no alternatives, such as a package of traffic calming, green commuter plans, safe routes to school etc., have been considered . Bypass Democracy Both the Labour County Councillor and the Conservative District Councillor for Elstree are vocal bypass supporters. The conservative councillor, Mr Wernick, has often objected to the threat to the green belt from housing sprawl but seems unable to see the link between road building and planning permission being granted for greenbelt housing. Councillor York, the County Councillor for Elstree, has been a supporter of the scheme for twelve years and is chair of the County Council’s Environment Committee. Both councillors have stated that it is the democratic will of the local people that the scheme should go ahead. Yet their “democratic” process is itself highly questionable. In 1995 people were asked if they wanted bypass route A, B or C and no “no” option. In 1996 people rejected the scheme 3:1 despite being offered no real alternatives. In June 1997 people were asked again but this time only those from Elstree village were asked, with forty-four percent saying “no” to the bypass, hardly a significant majority. Other local people from Bushey, Radlett and Borehamwood, which are less than a mile from Elstree and who use the county park, were excluded from the democratic process. What sort of “democracy” is this? At the Hertfordshire County Council’s environment sub-committee meeting on the 14th October this year it was recommended that the road be re-submitted as a planning application. The Elstree Bypass is the only major road scheme remaining in the 1998 Transport Policy and Programme. It is listed as a scheme seeking funding in the following year. The County Council seems hell-bent on highways development. When it failed to gain central government support for the £40 million Baldock Bypass the scheme was put forward as a Private Finance Initiative. But despite the presence of industrial development, site funding could not be secured. Hertfordshire FoE have now commissioned the Metropolitan Transport Research Unit, who produced alternative reports for the Newbury and Salisbury Bypass to produce a similar report for Elstree. TBV is still owned by the Tarmac group and now trades under the name Stanger Science and Environment. Contacts: Herts FoE: 01923 448131 Alarm UK: 0181 983 3572 Slough Estates PLC: Slough Estates House, 234 Bath Rd, Slough, Berks, SL1 4EE. Tel: 01753 537171 Fax: 01753 820585 Company Reg No.: 0167591 Conservative party donation: £21,500 Turnover: £ 220.2 million Profits: £ 128.8 million Assets: £ 2113.2 million Employees: 444 (Kompass 1996) Notable Directors: C R E (Rodger) Brook, non-executive director Slough Estates is also Chairman of the Audit Commission and a non-executive director of Tarmac. The Rt. Hon. John MacGregor, OBE, MP non-executive director was the former Security of State for Transport until July 1994 and oversaw Twyford Down (built by Tarmac) amongst other road schemes. Source: Slough Estates Annual Report 1996 Principal activities: Founded in 1920 its focus it still Industrial & Commercial property development, construction & investment, as well as supply of utility services , sale of merchandise and provision of services associated with such services. In 1996 Slough Estates had 1,300 tenants in the UK and 2,200 world-wide. Campaign Focus: In 1987 Slough Estates started court proceedings against Welwyn Hatfield District Council. Slough Estates sought £50 million in damages as the Council failed to disclose the relaxation of a tenancy mix agreement at a neighbouring commercial development. This development, the 200,000 sq. ft ‘Galleria’ in Hatfield owned by the Carroll group gained planning permission on appeal from Michael Heseltine, the then Secretary of State for the Environment. In 1984 the Council imposed a five year ‘tenancy mix’ agreement limiting it to leisure stores with Habitat being its ‘anchor’ store. Meanwhile, the Council gave planning permission to Slough Estates for the ‘Howard Centre’, a mixed store development in Welwyn Garden City. However it failed to disclose that it had relaxed the tenancy-mix agreement with the Carroll group - thus creating a competitor. Tarmac Construction built the Howard Centre, starting in September 1988. In July 1996 the Judge awarded damages to Slough Estates who decided to recover £30 million. The Council which has an annual budget of £9 million has spent its contingency reserves, cut new projects and borrowed money. In 1996 alone £10 million was paid by the Council to Slough Estates. This is despite the fact that the Howard Centre is much more successful that the ‘Galleria’ development. A Residents Action Group (RAG) has sought to persuade Slough Estates not to pursue its claim. Beside a petition of 12,000 signatures they wrote to large shareholders and met with Slough Estates’ Chairman Sir Nigel Mobbs. RAG are taking their case to the District Auditor, Mr McWhirr and are concerned about a potential conflict of interest given Mr McWhirr reports to Rodger Brook. Rodger Brook is both Chairman of the Audit Commission and a non-executive director of Slough Estates. If the complaint fails then RAG may pursue a call for a public enquiry. Contacts: Residents Action Group: 01232 377 4444 or write to 32 High Oaks Rd, Wellin Garden City, AL8 7BH Tarmac PLC: Hilton Hall, Essington, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, Wv11 2BQ Tel: 01902 307407 Fax: 01902 307408 Company Reg No.: 0132583 Conservative party donation: £20,000 Turnover: £ 2,600 million Profits: £ 117.5 million Assets: £ 1,545.3 million Employees: approx. 24,000 Source: Tarmac Annual report 1996 Campaign Focus: Tarmac built the M3 extension through Twyford Down, the M65 at Stanworth Valley and in partnership with AMEC are constructing the second runway at Manchester Airport. Tarmac’s Chairman, John Banham claimed they would not build the Newbury Bypass without design changes to reduce its environmental destruction, although they’d tendered for the contract and lost. Despite this, Tarmac Topmix supplies aggregates to the project. Tarmac are also Corporate members of Berks, Bucks, and Oxfordshire Naturalist Trust! Tarmac, in consortium with Group 4, have built PFI prisons. |