East West Rail launch action plan to minimise disruption for Aylesbury Vale residents

In the plan EWR admits works have caused disruption saying: “the construction of a major project can have undesirable impacts on the local communities and that any such impacts must be managed out or mitigated wherever possible."

They acknowledge "that as the scale of activities has increased over the previous months there have been heightened impacts on the communities along the route and that more needs to be done to address this. As a result, and in consultation with the communities, and their political representatives, this action plan has been prepared.”

Buckingham MP Greg Smith said: "There have been significant issues with the impact of construction of East West Rail on local people. Over recent weeks I have been in, at times robust, talks with both the East West Rail Company and the East West Rail Alliance to find a way to re-set the way they work with communities as they build this railway.

"This has included a number of meetings involving representatives of affected Parish and Town Councils, affected businesses and Buckinghamshire Council. EWR have now produced an action plan to fix the issues we have all been suffering and I will now be going through that in detail to ensure it meets the expectations of local people, then holding EWR to account in delivering on it."

Measures will include providing quarterly updates identifying issues. The plan says: "The provisions required to maintain the cleanliness of the highways in the and neighbouring villages needs to be improved."

It says more sweepers may be needed.

There will be a campaign of improved comms to drivers advising 20 is plenty and liaising with community leads re planned works. The plan admits there's a need to listen to feedback concerning planned works and the need to discuss with Bucks highway team and improve security re signs being stolen. There will be new Traffic ambassadors to monitor traffic hey junctions and villages

To improve community liaison there will be a stakeholder communities manager, a new strategy to improve community relations, a new comms manager, bespoke communication plans for each planned works to communicate with stakeholders at earliest possibility, meeting with stakeholders to minimise disruption, listening to concerns and making changes where possible. Drivers speeding littering and parking across drives will be excluded if they are found to have breached regulations.