Businessman slams 'unreasonable' HS2 traffic measures delaying journeys to and from Aylesbury

Alan Cooper, who runs a cabinet making business at Kemps Farm, has labelled temporary traffic lights on the A418 between Aylesbury and Stone as ‘unreasonable’.

Cooper believes the logjam of motorists attempting to get in and out of Aylesbury via that route consistently adds half an hour to his journeys.

Temporary traffic lights have been put on the A418 in an attempt to limit the disruption caused by vehicles coming in and out of the HS2 site in Hartwell.

HS2 Ltd concedes that additional delays have been experienced on the busy A-road this week due to an abnormal amount of materials being delivered to the site.

Alan told The Bucks Herald: “This Monday afternoon (11 April), HS2 caused unnecessary tailbacks of about a mile in both directions through the use of indiscriminate uni-directional traffic lights for apparently no purpose.

"HS2 should be monitoring the disruption they are causing and not leaving traffic lights which cause long tail-backs.

"Working in my business that afternoon, I was faced with either remaining in that queue of traffic, making very little progress, or turning round and making a long detour to the far side of the town via Cuddington and Winchendon (the route I was compelled to take).

"Either way, it was adding about half an hour to my journey.

"This is just one instance of many and my business is suffering financially and it is also impacting upon the logistics of running my business, which is detrimental to my customers, and also is causing us to travel extra miles in avoidance of routes like this which impacts upon local villages due to increased traffic and use of more fuel and pollution.

"As HS2 unavoidably crosses my route to work, I try to avoid times of greatest impact, which is in itself an inconvenience, but that is not always possible.”

In response to Alan’s frustrations a HS2 Ltd spokesman said: “HS2 takes its responsibility to impacted communities very seriously, and we try to minimise disruption wherever possible.

“The traffic lights in this area are managed to help keep traffic moving and have ensured overall low numbers of queues. Over the past week, however, road users travelling on the A418 may have experienced extended waiting times at the temporary traffic lights due to slow moving vehicles delivering abnormal loads to our Hartwell compound.”

HS2 has previously faced criticism from Bucks Council Leader Martin Tett for traffic delays in Wendover.

While Aylesbury MP Rob Butler was heavily critical of the rail service in Parliament last month, accusing HS2 of being ‘misleading’.

Buckingham MP Greg Smith criticised the quality of roads in Calvert, Shipton Lee, Marsh Gibbon and the Claydons, linking the issue to additional traffic brought on by HS2 and East West Rail projects.

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