Published: 18/04/2008 00:00 -
Updated: 24/04/2008 08:33
RESIDENTS are banding together to fight plans to build up to 200 homes on Herts and Essex High School's playing fields if they are sold off.
They oppose both the girls' school and Bishop's Stortford High moving to a shared Green Belt site off Whittington Way and are furious that their cul-de-sac could be opened up as a possible access route into the Beldams Lane housing development.
Two days after visiting Saturday's public consultation exhibition at Rhodes Arts Complex detailing the proposal by the two Bishop's Stortford secondaries, 20 neighbours gathered at Emmanuel and Petra Bonich's home in Highfield Avenue.
There are just 13 homes in the avenue and Mr Bonich said after Monday's get-together: "We decided unanimously we would oppose the proposals to move the two schools. We are going to write to councillors to make our feelings known."
Retired people and those with young children - like himself - were united, he said.
"There's a link to the housing, undoubtedly, but first and foremost we're against because we don't see what the overriding case is to move the two schools."
Mr Bonich, a teacher in Hertford who has three children aged 3 to 8, felt the scheme would decrease parental choice for those who want co-education for their children. He suggested building a mixed secondary on the county council-owned Hadham Road site - also earmarked for housing under the schools move scheme - because otherwise Stortford would have only one genuine co-ed, Birchwood High.
Neighbour Paul Birch, a surveyor with a son at Bishop's Stortford High, felt the same and was concerned about extra traffic being generated because Whittington Way was on the edge of town.
He added: "Using our avenue as an access is not on. We were told the main vehicle access is from Beldams Lane, but there could be limited access to 25 houses down Highfield Avenue. The school already has some rights of vehicle access."
His wife Jill added that people living in Rosebery and Greenway were also getting together to write protest letters.
Carpenter and joiner Robert Dewen added that Highfield Avenue was not wide enough to take more traffic. "We moved here because it was a cul-de-sac. It was never meant to be a through route."
It would also mean more traffic using Linkside Road, which had a dangerous blind S-bend, he said.
The schools' governors have lined up Countryside Properties to redevelop their existing sites. Associate director Gary Duncan told the Observer it was proposing to build mostly detached and semi-detached houses, rather than flats, to reflect the character of the street scenes. The homes would be similar in style to its development, St Michael's Mead.
The fourth plot is owned by Herts County Council.
At Warwick Road, there could be up to 185 mixed detached and semi-detached, with some affordable homes and some flats up to three storeys.
Vehicle access would mainly be from Warwick Road, but with some from Dunmow Road and Grange Road. The 1910 main building would be kept.
There would be a similar mix of up to 200 properties and flats at Beldams Lane, whereas at Bishop's Stortford High's London Road site it is envisaged the site could take up to 300 private and affordable houses, plus some three-storey flats.
Homes would be in two areas - where the main school buildings are and on existing playing fields - connected by an internal road.
Vehicle access would be from London Road where traffic signals would include a pedestrian crossing. New residents could walk in and out via existing pedestrian routes from Twyford Gardens, Grace Gardens and Park Avenue woodland.
The proposed 250 mainly family housing at Hadham Road would be reached from Patmore Close with emergency lights at the junction for fire and ambulance vehicles to get out from their headquarters in the road.
Houses would be concentrated to the north and west and existing woodland to the south and mature hedgerows around the boundary would be kept, said Herts' consultant Lambton Smith Hampton.
Two days after visiting Saturday's public consultation exhibition at Rhodes Arts Complex detailing the proposal by the two Bishop's Stortford secondaries, 20 neighbours gathered at Emmanuel and Petra Bonich's home in Highfield Avenue.
There are just 13 homes in the avenue and Mr Bonich said after Monday's get-together: "We decided unanimously we would oppose the proposals to move the two schools. We are going to write to councillors to make our feelings known."
Retired people and those with young children - like himself - were united, he said.
"There's a link to the housing, undoubtedly, but first and foremost we're against because we don't see what the overriding case is to move the two schools."
Mr Bonich, a teacher in Hertford who has three children aged 3 to 8, felt the scheme would decrease parental choice for those who want co-education for their children. He suggested building a mixed secondary on the county council-owned Hadham Road site - also earmarked for housing under the schools move scheme - because otherwise Stortford would have only one genuine co-ed, Birchwood High.
Neighbour Paul Birch, a surveyor with a son at Bishop's Stortford High, felt the same and was concerned about extra traffic being generated because Whittington Way was on the edge of town.
He added: "Using our avenue as an access is not on. We were told the main vehicle access is from Beldams Lane, but there could be limited access to 25 houses down Highfield Avenue. The school already has some rights of vehicle access."
His wife Jill added that people living in Rosebery and Greenway were also getting together to write protest letters.
Carpenter and joiner Robert Dewen added that Highfield Avenue was not wide enough to take more traffic. "We moved here because it was a cul-de-sac. It was never meant to be a through route."
It would also mean more traffic using Linkside Road, which had a dangerous blind S-bend, he said.
The schools' governors have lined up Countryside Properties to redevelop their existing sites. Associate director Gary Duncan told the Observer it was proposing to build mostly detached and semi-detached houses, rather than flats, to reflect the character of the street scenes. The homes would be similar in style to its development, St Michael's Mead.
The fourth plot is owned by Herts County Council.
At Warwick Road, there could be up to 185 mixed detached and semi-detached, with some affordable homes and some flats up to three storeys.
Vehicle access would mainly be from Warwick Road, but with some from Dunmow Road and Grange Road. The 1910 main building would be kept.
There would be a similar mix of up to 200 properties and flats at Beldams Lane, whereas at Bishop's Stortford High's London Road site it is envisaged the site could take up to 300 private and affordable houses, plus some three-storey flats.
Homes would be in two areas - where the main school buildings are and on existing playing fields - connected by an internal road.
Vehicle access would be from London Road where traffic signals would include a pedestrian crossing. New residents could walk in and out via existing pedestrian routes from Twyford Gardens, Grace Gardens and Park Avenue woodland.
The proposed 250 mainly family housing at Hadham Road would be reached from Patmore Close with emergency lights at the junction for fire and ambulance vehicles to get out from their headquarters in the road.
Houses would be concentrated to the north and west and existing woodland to the south and mature hedgerows around the boundary would be kept, said Herts' consultant Lambton Smith Hampton.
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