ERTA Ampthill-Flitwick Transport Forum - 11-02-2023 - All Welcome. Please Make it a date!

06-02-2023

Although the Town Council at #Ampthill are going to oppose a new local railway station for the said name of said town, they are being very short sighted, head in the sand and failing to see the wider benefits such a new station offers to a far wider area than mere Ampthill! For example, time is running out.

The Council say they wanted the land as green belt west of the Midland Main Line, whereas Central Beds Council said several years ago that by 2030 it will be built on!

Somewhere between the two is the truth!

Just a reminder that all are welcome to our Ampthill-Flitwick Transport Forum Saturday 11th February at The Swan Pub, opposite Flitwick Rail Station 1pm food (buy your own!) and 2pm business and forum discussion following an agenda.

Mini book stall will also be there.

Come and join us in lively discussion and debate and let's seize the day for retaining the option of a second local station to take pressure in a context of growth off Flitwick roads. See attached for more details and our website: https://ertarail.co.uk/events/

It could be that CentreParcs for example, less than 1 mile from an Ampthill Railway Station, would benefit from such and other outlets too including the Rufus Centre. 

Could it be that with local elections coming up, council representation will be changed and so a more open-minded approach is possible? Could public pressure inform a complete rethink whereby a more rational rather than knee-jerk response is more conciliatory to explore further? 

But will these coincide with land availability and keeping options open? Last field between #Flitwick and Ampthill adjacent to the A507 Shell garage now being built on, meaning physical linkage of the two towns and traffic into and along both B530, Flitwick Road, A5120 as well as along the A507 is growing informing tailbacks and slower speeds on the back of volume to road space. Whatever the merits of triple stacking Flitwick Station, the road impact and congestion is likely to get worse than better. 

The sad thing is, unless we can turn around and redeem the situation at Ampthill, it will be locked-in and nowhere to turn, not for want of BRTA and ERTA successive organisations sounding the alarm and raising these important local-regional strategic and structural issues making development underpinned by sustainability, not mere aesthetical tree-planting and greenwashing per se. 

The model repeats elsewhere and ERTA needs an expanded team to address in a timely manner. Please see https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.0301891,-0.4766218,13.75z?hl=en

Commuters from Milton Keynes and off the M1 drive to catch Thameslink trains to the City, Airports and Eurostar for example and peak or off-peak, these trends will continue surely? So in everyone's interest to help us take this matter forward please.

02-01-2023

11-12-2022 for diaries 2023!

My colleague Mr Brian Brennan has issued a poster which may be of interest.

Our next Forum is: ~ Seeking an Ampthill Parkway Station and associated issues. ~

Saturday 11th February 2023 1pm food*, 2-4pm business

Venue: The Swan Pub, 1 Dunstable Road, Flitwick, Bedfordshire, MK45 1HP

T: 01525 754777 E: steph@theswanflitwick.co.uk https://www.swaninnflitwick.co.uk/

All Welcome, adjacent to the Flitwick Railway Station.

Contact and convenor: Mr Simon Barber, 20 Fitzherbert House, Kingsmead, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6HT T. 0208 940 4399 E. simon4barber@gmail.com

Our website is: https://ertarail.co.uk/

Please mark your diaries, encourage people to support, attend and join and inform leadership to help take the project forward. Reality is on the one hand lands west of Midland Main Line have been earmarked for development, but our conviction is that use for an Ampthill Parkway Railway Station with a car park and access road for traffic off M1-A507 to access rail would compliment existing Flitwick and not be a detraction. We need local people to get the vision and make representation to their MP and Central Beds Council in favour of the extra station idea. Thank you.

For the record, our name is now English Regional Transport Association (ERTA). Any offers to inform a voluntary team or help are welcome. Attend the forum of course, but leafleting offers, transport to stalls/manning stalls and helping get locals on board more is welcome to entertain. Offers/enquiries via richard.erta@gmail.com / 01234 330090

South West Aspirations, Actions and Needs-Must for Rail!

 https://ertarail.co.uk/become-a-member/

Report by Simon Barber:

Climate Change Rally November 2022 - I went on the Climate Change Rally against COP 27 which started at the Shell headquarters on the South Bank and finished up at

Trafalgar Square. As you may know, that summit is taking place in Egypt from 6–18 November. I had heard this from Transport Action Network from their Events list which I receive every month.

It was revealed at that event the top seven oil companies rake in about $150 billion in profits this year whilst half of the UK's households will receive fuel poverty. Several of the campaigners are against the proposed oilfield in Rosebank which is 130km. off the coast in the Shetland Islands in Scotland.

Meanwhile I had distributed a few ERTA newsletters which, as you know, would have a Membership form attached to them.

South Western Railway Stakeholder Conference November 2022 - I attended the virtual stakeholder meeting with South Western Railway and the following points were raised:

·                   Sustainability - South Western Railway is the first railway company to tackle sustainability when the new Class 484 units operated on the Isle of Wight line last year, using electric battery units. They aim to reduce half CO2 emissions by 2030 and aim to be net-zero by 2040. Some stations are now boasting bird boxes, such as Ashurst (New Forest) and about three in Surrey.

·                   Accessibility - South Western Railway has been one of the first company for assisted disabilities other that wheelchair users. The new toilets at Woking will now have a hoist, and London Waterloo earlier on was in fact the first toilet with a hoist. A new toilet block at Basingstoke will also become disabled-friendly.

·                   Partnership with Hampshire County Council - A new pedestrian access was unveiled at Winchester, and also includes a cycle hub. Meanwhile Basingstoke and Fleet also have cycle hubs.

·                   E-bikes Hub - A new e-bike scheme is now installed at Exeter Central, Cranbrook (Devon) and Honiton where there are several housing developments.

·                   New Stock - The Arterio trains (Class 701) will have cycle storage.

·                   TV adverts - That was apparently being promoted by Railfuture in general terms which would tempt people back on to actual trains post-pandemic. South Western Railway is the first company to do this, since commuting journeys had gone down since people were prevented from using public transport.

Contact, offers of support or feedback: Mr Simon Barber, 20 Fitzherbert House, Kingsmead, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6HT T. 0208 940 4399 E. simon4barber@gmail.com

ERTA Events for Winter-Spring 2023 - all welcome

29-12-2022
ERTA Rugby Transport Forum: Saturday 21^st January 2023 1pm food, 2pm business at Rupert Brooke Wetherspoons 01788 576759 8–10 Castle Street, Rugby, Warwickshire
CV21 2TP https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/warwickshire/rupert-brooke-rugby Convenor/contact: Mr Simon Barber: T. 0208 940 4399 E. simon4barber@gmail.com
 
Agenda
 
1.     Appointment of a chair for the meeting
2.     Apologies for absence
3.     North of Rugby (Rugby-Magna Park-Lutterworth-Narborough area physical rail linkages)
4.     South of Rugby (Rugby Central Parkway – East-West Rail and Aylesbury for wider linkage to Bicester, Oxford, Bristol, Southampton and all in between, beyond as well as London Old Oak Common/OOC. This via the areas of Willoughby, Woodford Halse area, Brackley East Parkway). Nothing is easy or straight forward. But this is a new 21^st Century railway for the carriage of people and goods, more capacity, modal shift from road to rail and catering for sustainability more amidst spiralling growth and a lack of rail-based infrastructure.
5.     How to get from south of Rugby to Rugby WCML/Northampton Loop and beyond via DIRFT to Lutterworth and associated aforementioned linkages? It needs a study. Indeed, every aspect needs a study to look and identify options from construction/reconstruction, engineering, costs and environmental impact
6.     Seeking backers, sponsors, business interest and political support from councils, agencies and government.
7.     Association needs: This needs to focus on a. upping our presence in Rugby, b. getting and growing a team of support, c. leafleting and marketing, d. rails from Rugby Central south and rails from Rugby WCML to Magna Park, Lutterworth area and linkages to Narborough area existing rails. It needs backers, sponsors and professionals to take the ideas and make progress with them towards delivery. It needs buy-in from councils and public as well as MP’s. How we get there/preliminary strategies. ERTA is not equipped to do studies (they start at upwards of £50k), but we do plant ideas and seek to identify gaps and potential as yet unserved markets by rail to consider and pursue hopefully. Traffic and emissions reduction must be a main consideration in all our endeavours.
8.     Growing support in the Rugby area. Ideas of how best to do that on a very meagre budget. Leafleting is one option, but so far has not roused people to join ERTA.
9.     Any Other Business
10.  Day, Date, Time and Place of next meeting: Suggest first Saturday of whenever, probably November. However, sister meeting at Leicester and Market Harborough, all welcome.
a.      Leicester Forum: Saturday 25^th February. The High Cross Wetherspoons 1pm food, 2pm business 0116 251 9218 103–105 High Street, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE1 4JB https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/leicestershire/the-high-cross-leicester
b.     Market Harborough Public Meeting: Saturday 11^th March from 2pm
Details: To discuss Northampton-Market Harborough (MH) rail link being restored and accentuated others including stations, Rugby-Leicester, Magna Park and Lutterworth.
Market Harborough Methodist Church/Hall, Northampton Road, Market Harborough, LE16 9HE www.harboroughmethodistcircuit.org.uk  Opposite the Market Hall.
ERTA personnel will meet at the local Wetherspoons from 12 Noon. The venue is only a 5-minute walk from the Wetherspoon Pub. The Sugar Loaf: https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/leicestershire/the-sugar-loaf-market-harborough 01858 469231 18 High Street, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 7NJ
Local contact Cllr Peter James: peter341@btinternet.com
ERTA Contact: Mr Simon Barber, 20 Fitzherbert House, Kingsmead, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6HT T. 0208 940 4399 E. simon4barber@gmail.com
 

Note: ERTA has many other calls and we wish to grow a team to delegate these projects to take forward and court support. In short, if you want more, be prepared to be part of that and making it happen. Local people participation and local knowledge is indispensable.
Any volunteers, beit professional, elected or lay people, 

please let Richard Pill know: richard.erta@gmail.com or to talk: 01234 330090

For your diaries:

Any offers to help with donations, volunteering or helping with delivery of flyers in the Ampthill area, would be gratefully received. Please contact Mr Richard Pill, ERTA Bedfordshire Area Rep. via richard.erta@gmail.com and join our email loop or tel. 01234 330090. Media interest always welcome to entertain as is pro-supportive coverage!

Leicester Forum

The High Cross, Leicester

Saturday 25th February 1pm food, 2-4pm business Leicester agenda and getting it underway.

The High Cross, 0116 251 9218 103–105 High Street, Leicester Leicestershire, LE1 4JB  https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/leicestershire/the-high-cross-leicester

As people get their new diaries, I attach our forth-coming programme of events* with which you and contacts are warmly welcome to attend and encourage others as well. 

We are pushing ahead with our grassroots style of campaigning which seeks to inform the public and via recruitment encourage membership and activism to take on campaigns and admin roles beit desktop or out and about and make the case or plant ideas of potential for professionals to adopt and invest in.

At upwards of £50k, we lack the resources to fund formal studies, but are open to collaborate and work with any who are interested in doing so. Our team has a desire to bring appropriate people together and they in-turn to take projects forward and work upwards towards delivery. Delivery is the only way modal choice can be informed and emissions reduced on the back of it.

Buses have been cut, rail suffers breakdowns and strike actions and we very much feel the pinch of the government not seeking to fix these dilemmas meaningfully. Some new money may be required, some compromise on 'modernisation' likewise. One idea is to give a under 65's concessionary bus and rail pass to all on or under £20, 000 p.a. with upwards being able to buy one. That could inform more footfall to public transport, which would boost patronage and usage terms and get people out of car dependency, which is left, right and centre a multiple faceted cost from tax, insurance, fuel and wear and tear/maintenance for example. More freight by rail of all sizes cannot happen without tracks back and accessibility with a more robust network made apparent. Key question is is anyone planning for such a modal shift meaningfully any time soon? COP27 showed where things are heading, there's a human cost to not doing much or merely tinkering at the edges whilst assuming business as usual.

ERTA will try and bring people together where we may and play our part to move things on appropriately.

News and Notes:

Generally: Venues may change or be cancelled at short notice. Stay in touch.

1.            People attend at their own risk. Everyone pays for their own food and drink.

2.            There is a pre-pared agenda, please help focus on the pertinent issues.

3.            Zoom Meetings: we need a Zoom Host Volunteer reliable and capable to host zoom meetings for external growth purposes. Things like reopenings, freight on rail and much else, especially for far flung or immobile people for whatever reason. All offers welcome.

4.            Join us on Twitter @ERTACampaigns and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RichardPillERTA

5.            We welcome our new Leicestershire Area Rep: Mr Kuljit Maan: https://ertarail.co.uk/contact/

6.            ERTA is growing its team and welcomes support in terms of membership, donations and business/council interest to adopt ideas as policy, study, round-table further and get government moving towards funding and delivery. We need the rail links to cut road traffic blight, emissions, noise, pollution and impacts. Rail reopenings have often exceeded expectations and deliver footfall and spend minus congestion.

7.            Other news: we have made contact with Center Parcs in Central Beds and committed to a roughly quarterly meeting of the ERTA Ampthill-Flitwick Transport Forum in pursuit of a new Ampthill Parkway Station. All welcome and to offer to assist whether local or not. Contact richard.erta@gmail.com with offers. Please feel free to forward and invite other potentially interested people. Thank you.

8.          

Our volunteers and other pages on our website:

https://ertarail.co.uk/get-involved-volunteering/ are progressively being updated. Please have a perusal and give us feedback. We need to grow a steady team of volunteers to enable us to do more and better. Please consider what you can contribute, even a donation, all helps. Any enquiries via richard.erta@gmail.com and join our email loop for updates. Thank you.

Contact and convenor: Mr Simon Barber, 20 Fitzherbert House, Kingsmead, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6HT T. 0208 940 4399 E. simon4barber@gmail.com * For all other meetings and details, please email richard.erta@gmail.com and join our loop.

Consultation – Draft Parking Standards for New Developments Supplementary Planning Document - 071122 SC - keep Ampthill Parkway Station 'alive'!

Consultation – Draft Parking Standards for New Developments Supplementary Planning Document - 071122 SC

Good afternoon,

 

We are writing to inform you that an eight-week consultation on the Parking Standards for New Developments Supplementary Planning Document will begin at 10am on Tuesday 8^th November 2022, with the deadline for comments being 10am on Thursday 5^th January 2023.

 

Background

A well planned and managed approach to parking can help make our local communities better places to live, work and visit whilst helping deliver our commitment to tackling climate change. One of the ways in which we can make a positive difference is through effective parking provision for all vehicle types in new developments. We want to encourage more walking and cycling for shorter journeys, and for longer journeys encourage more sustainable options such as using public transport. Ensuring that routes are attractive and useable for pedestrians and cyclists is key to achieving this.  Providing sufficient parking for all types of vehicles so that parked vehicles do not dominate the street scene or prevent access for pedestrians and cyclists is therefore very important.

 

Parking Standards for New Developments is a new Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) which builds upon the parking related policies adopted in the Local Plan. The document covers cycle parking, car parking, disabled parking, powered two-wheeler parking and operational parking requirements. It sets out the number of parking spaces required for new developments in both residential and commercial settings. The document brings together several existing standards into one document. Detail is provided on the types of parking that the Council wants developers to provide and the types of parking that have proven to be less successful and will therefore not be accepted.

 

Details of the Consultation

An electronic copy of the draft document and details of how to respond to the consultation will be available to view on the Consultations page of our website, once the consultation begins on the 8^th November at 10am.

 

Alternatively, a printed copy of the draft document can be viewed at every library in Central Bedfordshire, during their usual opening hours. Written responses can be sent to:

 

Strategic Transport, C/O Strategic Growth

Central Bedfordshire Council

Priory House, Monks Walk

Chicksands, Shefford

Bedfordshire, SG17 5TQ

 

Kind regards,

 

Strategic Transport Team

 

Central Bedfordshire Council, Priory House, Monks Walk, Chicksands , Shefford, Bedfordshire, SG17 5TQ

Direct Dial 0300 300 8860 -  Internal 78860 – Email – Strategic.Transport@centralBedfordshire.gov.uk

 

Please engage and wade in and support us where you feel you may: 

Dear Colleagues,

 

ERTA main interest is regarding protection of lands and an incremental progression to fostering a new Railway Station alias Ampthill Parkway Station. This would help mop up traffic and parking issues emanating from developments across a wider geographic area upwards of 70, 000 population plus the feed off the M1 via A507 to Flitwick. The configuration of roads at Flitwick with a triple stack car park does not lend to easy road spill proliferation and congestion, hazards and delays are likely amidst the chaos of turning out and commuting growth to. Wixams will deal with populations imminent and north of including parts of North Bedfordshire via bypasses, so all at and south of Wixams including the extensive Marston Vale, in bids to get rail to London will commute south - landing at Flitwick. Ampthill could share the load and more evenly distribute the growth in the Central Beds area as well as regenerate and inform sustainable footfall, spend and cycling/walking options in and around Ampthill as a place in its own right. Not all have or want to be tied to cars and parking with no spare land is an acute issue only to be exacerbated in coming years. Elsewhere, reviewing parking at local stations on Marston Vale, East Bedfordshire is also worth bearing in mind and avoiding parking on verges west of Arlesey Station should be avoided. Developing is sprawling fast and so we need a commitment to protect lands and work with us to nurture the ground-level conditions for an Ampthill Parkway Station. In leisure terms, the scope is Wrest Park to the East and Woburn to the West and all in between. Better cycle provision for central Flitwick to/from central Ampthill should be looked at. Our ERTA Ampthill-Flitwick Transport Forum is open to all to discuss these things - see our website for details: https://ertarail.co.uk/events/ We do need a greater appreciation of these things in general, not just specific development related. Unless we protect lands west of the Midland Main Line and adopt policies to negotiate relocation packages to the east of Midland Main Line north of Froghall Road, east of Fordfield Road and West of A507 - keeping accesses 'open', we throw away any Flitwick relief, growth absorption and compound issues, not ameliorate them. Thank you.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

COP27 demands we need modal shift facilitated by redirecting existing funds

Our member, Mr Simon Barber has written to England's Economic Heartlands/EEH with some ideas of what taking COP27/modal shift from road to rail to help meet emissions reduction targets by the date for irreversible change of 2030, not pie-in-the-sky 2050. That gap is not lost on us, but we need professionals and organisations with Government support and permission, to start evaluating the potential contributions local rail-based schemes and connectivity could offer and inform more by rail. The M1 is about 50% juggernaut lorries, likewise A14, so that did not come about overnight by accident, the local rail closures happened, the investment in roads went in and the market used what was available as more of the same informed costs coming down. Now we have a good reason to switch back to rail, the tracks no longer exist, so new ones need nurturing. It is not about panaceas, but a line-side plan for every initiative and other regions need to be drawing up similarly their own plans like South West, South East, East Anglia, North West, North East and the West and East Midlands, Wales and Scotland. Government has a pivotal role, but it needs to make the conditions of 'can do' apparent and for that, at no extra cost, it has absolutely no excuse, it has been heading in the wrong direction and knowingly so. How to turn the 'ship' around? 

re: https://www.englandseconomicheartland.com/ 

The English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) is a voluntary membership-based, pro-public transport improvement association with its main projects initially in Bedfordshire and surrounding regional areas but its remit has since increased since several of its projects have a nation-wide positive benefit and impact.

ERTA Website: https://www.ertarail.co.uk

One of the reasons that I am contacting your organisation is that you are involved with building and serving public-private business community networks, including the launch of Runways UK (with the UK Airports Commission), Tomorrows Rail and finally Highways UK. Apparently you are now also hosting the Conference for England's Economic Heartlands, which is one of the several Strategic Transport Bodies.

As regards England's Economic Heartlands are concerned, the ERTA calls for better rail links which are as follows:

East-West Rail Link - the Central Section must be completed before 2030 at the latest, ideally even earlier.

Great Central (Calvert-Brackley-Rugby-Lutterworth-link existing Nuneaton-Leicester line at Narborough)

Northampton-Market Harborough

Bedford-Northampton (particularly Brackmills which is an industrial estate in Northampton)

Luffenham Curve (linking Midland Main Line eastward with Leicester-Peterborough line)

Northampton - Wellingborough

Banbury-Northampton (Northern Arc) needs to link with the Great Central somewhere in the Woodford Halse area.

Midland Main Line electrification(already in delivery)should be extended beyond Market Harborough to Leicester/Nottingham/Derby/Sheffield

The Southern Arc should involve the re-opening of both the disused St.Albans Abbey - Hatfield and Watford - Croxley lines.

Transport Orientated Development - both the Mass Transit systems for Milton Keynes and Cambridge are top priorities. As regards Milton Keynes,its Council's Mobility Strategy Infrastructure Delivery Plan 2018-2036 had proposed a Light Rail Transit. In addition the old Wolverton - Newport Pagnell railway should be reopened and much of the original track-bed survives. As regards Cambridge,the Mass Transit system should be a Metro which should not go underground since this could bring more cars onto Cambridge's roads, many of which are not designed to modern standards.

I would also like to add that the delivery of the rail components must be made at the earliest opportunity to meet Climate Change targets.

Finally, I do not support the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway since it will bring no benefit at all to the England's Economic Heartlands. This new road will affect Green Belt areas,and will also be an incentive to build new housing and will not solve traffic congestion at all,and in fact,the road will bring in more traffic which is already increasing with the significant housing growth between these two towns.This increase in traffic will in turn increase CO2 emissions and also air pollution(a serious health emergency),both of which the Government is pitifully

I would have liked to have gone to the Conference this coming Wednesday but sadly this date clashes with the ERTA's Executive Committee meeting which is now being held every two months.

For comments, interest and offers to help, please contact Mr Simon Barber: Mr Simon Barber, 20 Fitzherbert House, Kingsmead, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6HT

T. 0208 940 4399 E. simon4barber@gmail.com

Send also to: English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) Department for Transport HM Treasury Rishi Sunak Jeremy Hunt

This is what we could expect if we top-slice the £27 billion new roads budget and pep up the mere £500 million Rail Reopenings Budget to parity or tip in favour of rail for modal shift.

The date 2030 is relevant, 2050 is too far away for delivery and you work it back from there. No movement, no money, no concessions using existing funds, not new ones, shows intransigence and a failure to grasp what modal shift demands. This is the problem and needs addressing.

Handing out under 65's bus passes, would give people more options to car dependency, cut congestion and inform more bus usership, making the case to retain routes. We have the frameworks, we are ideologically stalling from putting them to productive use and that is where a sea-change is required. How do we get there? ERTA plants ideas, we need champions to progress towards delivery.