Stoke Mandeville Parish Council asks Government to step in over design of new South East Aylesbury Link Road

Stoke Mandeville Parish Council has asked the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick MP, to exercise his legal power to stop Bucks Council taking the decision about the design of the new road.

The Parish Council think that a planning inspector should design the new road, not Buckinghamshire Council.

They say this is because of 'important national issued involved with the design of the road'.

In a letter to the Secretary of State, the Parish Council says that, because HS2 is only funding the cheapest possible bridge design for the SEALR (South East Aylesbury Link Road ), the road has a ‘particularly brutal and unsympathetic design’.

The Parish Council points out that the SEALR is a straight dual carriageway rising on a steep embankment to a visual height of 12 metres above ground level, some 7 metres above the roof heights of the houses in nearby Stoke Grange.

The Parish Council conclude that the SEALR will be a ‘visual and noise eyesore’ and ‘blight a significant part of Aylesbury Garden Town’.

Graham Stewart, Chairman of Stoke Mandeville Parish Council, said:

“The Parish Council accept that new link roads need to be built to relieve congestion and to serve the housing developments planned for Stoke Mandeville and other areas around Aylesbury.

"But only in Stoke Mandeville is the link road taking the form of a 12-metre-high elevated dual carriageway, towering over the area and blighting hundreds of homes. To protect our residents, we would like a better design for the SEALR, such as an underpass under the rail line or a different highway design altogether, for example like that used in the Hampden Fields development.

"We hope that the Secretary of State will recognise the force of our arguments and prevent this brutal eyesore and blight from being built in the heart of Aylesbury Garden Town”.

Andrew Clark, Chairman of the Parish Council’s Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group, who spoke opposing the SEALR design when it was considered by Bucks Council, said:

“The SEALR design is another way that HS2 is damaging Aylesbury and Stoke Mandeville.

"Because HS2 is paying for the SEALR railway bridge, and will only pay for the cheapest possible option, the SEALR is forced to take the form of a very high elevated dual carriageway.

"If HS2 was willing to look at other options, the SEALR could have a much less intrusive and damaging design suitable for a Garden town”.