Stocklake Urban Road receives £5.3m facelift

Landscaping, seeding and shrub planting are now being done, using the winter dormant season to give the 11,000 plants along the road’s wide verge the best start.

As well as shrub planting the contractors, North Midland Construction, have used a technique called hydroseeding to distribute grass and wild flower seed along the verge to promote rapid germination and growth.

In addition 110 semi-mature trees and 700 whips (baby trees) have been planted.

Traffic has been using the new road, built on the old formation of the Aylesbury to Cheddington railway line closed in 1964, since early summer when County Council Chairman Val Letheren declared it open.

With landscaping almost done, the only other finishing touch is to switch on pedestrian crossing lights on Friday.

The new Stocklake urban link road is the first project in the county to be paid for through Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) £44m Local Growth Deal funding from the government.

At nearly a kilometre long, the £5.3 million urban section from Park Street links with a new rural section at Douglas Road junction, providing an east-west link between the town and the new 2,450-home Kingsbrook housing estate being built by Barratt and David Wilson Homes.

Mark Shaw said: “This is an important part of a transport plan that will create a new “gateway to the east” serving the large housing and business development area, and easing congestion in the east of Aylesbury. I’m really grateful to residents and businesses along the route for bearing with us during construction, and to the staff and pupils of Stocklake Park School for allowing the contractor to use their premises.’The new road has enabled the original road to be converted into a service road providing easier access to homes and parking for residents.