Thatcham Avenue Dangers
Created by accountsgeoffI do not know what all the other residents feel but I truly believe that the developers are taking the mick in leaving the pavements in a perilous state especially with the winter approaching. Walking along the pavements should carry a health warning for they are uneven, plastic pipes sticking up, ponds and muck left from the rain as they do not drain properly and the camber in places is truly unblievable but nothing is done. The County Council do not give a damn as they do not live here and say “the roads etc are unadopted so take matters up with the developers” yet they are the sorry people who gave planning consent and should look after the elctorate rather than just posying round for publicity for themselves.
The roads are potential death traps especially between the first and second traffic calming measures coming from the roundabout – cars parked on the double yellows right down to the corner. Mark my words someone will be seriously injured before long. The people who are parking in the road all the time must realise the danger they are causing, or is it the "I’m all right Jack" attitude and people are too lazy to walk to their allocated parking spaces or garages preferring to be a hindrance on the main roadway?
It seems as if the developers have a monopoly on blind tradesmen on this estate! Despite the signs saying "No Construction Traffic" there have been at least 16 lorries, fully laden inwards and empty out, plus umpteen vans and cars of contractors going up and down Thatcham Avenue today, presenting an ongoing danger when linked to the abysmal parking.
On the Taylor Woodrow site the contractors are parking on the pavements – or what should be the pavements – breaking them down even more! Lorries stop to unload, blocking driveways with no consideration for the residents.
When the developers had the little old security man at the roundabout matters improved, but they have slipped back.
I have rung the parking agents and nothing happens, so what the hell is the point of paying a fee for a non-service? Perhaps we should all hold back on the site fees and see whether matters improve!
After 2 years I still enjoy the location but the lack of a shop on this side of the road is a pain and with no pub’/hotel to call our own and create a focal point, the village is just a massive housing estate and does not possess the essential qualities of a village being its own stores and pub’ etc.
We have all heard of the death of Villages because of the closure of post offices and stores and even pub’s but Kingsway has not even been born yet as a village!
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October 20th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Hi Geoff,
Thanks for joining in
I hear you… There has been much complaining about construction traffic (rightly so) and the state of the pavements is horrible!
To be fair to The Council, they aren’t legally able to interfere, because the land is privately owned. So until the roads are "adopted" (officially handed over to the Council), all they can do is try to influence the QUVL.
Sadly, since the death of the housuing market it’s quite obvious that the QUVL have tightened up on all expenditure.
If you want to complain about the construction traffic, the first thing to do would be to contact the individual agents and – if that fails – the QUVL. The numbers and contact details are all available on our Developers page.
To be fair to the residents at the beginning of Thatcham, the double-yellow lines are such a mess now that they are meaningless! Originally they extended all the way down and then sections of them were painted out (to allow some parking where safe), but all of the paint is worn and now there are blank patches where there should be lines and lines where there should be none!
Of course some people do park irresponsibly, although there have also been cars clamped wrongly (which is insufferable when the clamping company enforces a hefty fine for removal)!
Personally I can’t see any good reason to delay fixing the pavements at all.
I also think that they could – and should – add the finished surface along the "established and fully-populated" stretch of Thatcham Avenue (ie: the majority)!
All they really need to do is to put a (proper) stop to the construction traffic.
The only reasons I can think of for delaying these is the possible saving in repair costs (in the event that they need repairing before Council adoption), which simply means that the QUVL are saving money at the expense of our safety and standard of living.
I wonder where accident victims would stand with regard to compensation claims against The QUVL!
With regards to the Kingsway shops and community facilities etc, last I heard they were planning to start this month and finish around next April; so we may not have so long to wait. I’m not sure about the pub’, there was – apparently – a protected species of bats found there which delayed the project and I’m not sure of the current situation.
All of the facilities are also somewhat dependant on numbers of residents (as part of planning permission conditions) and so I’m by no means certain of the current situation.
November 7th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
What does everyone else think about the state of Thatcham Avenue this week?
The road sweeper is invisible again and on Thursday night the road was nothing but mud slurry. The road sweeper did put in a short appearance this morning but the driver must have an eyesight problem as the roads where not very clean after his visit!
I did manage to get Wimpey to fix some kerb stones that had been knocked out by the lorries last month, only for Persimmon to smash them up again two days later! When I challenged the site manager he showed total disregard and wanted photos! It was his lorries though. I saw the damage being caused myself by his lorries dumping (sorry moving) soil over to area 4.
Whilst we have site managers like this nothing will get finished and the damage and mess will continue.
It would seem the Bryant site is also taking the same tack now by blocking pavements and making a total mess of them.
December 13th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
I can do nothing but agree with all comments on parking, pavements, construction traffic and unclean roads.
We do need pubs shops and hotels so we can call Kingsway our village; also if the new road was open to make it easier to get to naas lane, the Bumblebee and Quedgeley Tesco etc it would take unnecessary traffic away from the bypass.
If everyone got involved I’m sure we could put pressure on to get the road open and move on to the future with all the amenities we require.
December 17th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
I completely agree with accountsgeoff.
The road is now heavily pot holed too, causing damage to my car and also making it dangerous to drive along – the council would fix this within 48hrs, but QUVL seems to be shy of their responsibilities.
Also the priority flow of traffic sign needs changing on the pinch point nearest the Woodvale roundabout. How many times have people thought they had right out of way based on the positioning of the pinch point, when the sign is completely contridictory to logic.
December 18th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Hi Steve / mbglos,
Thanks for joining, and contributing.
Sorry for the delay in replying (see here for why)!
I agree with you both and am sick of the seeming lack of effort on the part of the QUVL to sort out any of the problems we’ve all been talking about, or even to bother informing us of the current situation or the latest on their plans/schedule.
The Residents Association has – thus far, been unable to get any real response from them (when we seemed to be on the verge of etablishing a line of communication, the Project Manager was replaced); but then The Police and several local Councillors have been similarly unable to get any cooperation to deal with the myriad issues surrounding road safety, residents safety and access problems!
Personally I’m beginning to think we should start a campaign to deter new buyers until they make an effort to address some of these issues; seems to me that the only time they’re likely to take notice is when we hit them in the wallet!
Ahhh well… perhaps they’re planning to add the road surface to Thatcham Avenue, fix the pavements, remove the Woodvale blockade and build the shops next week… in time for Christmas
January 26th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Hi Clive,
Thanks for your response for my December post regarding Thatcham Avenue.
I have now been living in Marham Drive for two months and I must say our neighbours are great and we have really settled in well. However the condition of Thatcham Avenue is getting more dangerous by the day, not just the condition of the road surface but with more and more cars parked by the side of the road, this was made even more treacherous when we had the snow and ice. Is anyone policing poor parking or is it just a free for all.
I look forward to the Residents meeting on the 12th Feb to find out if you have managed to open any lines of communication with anyone who knows what’s happening.
Regards,
Steve
January 27th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Hi Steve,
Thanks for coming back
I’m glad to hear you’ve settled in so well; it seems to me that the vast majority of Kingsway residents are nice people… my neighbours are simlarly very easy going and friendly.
It seems that parking problems have been – and still are – the #1 problem for local folks and I’m afraid that things will continue in this way for some time to come
The approach from the QUVL has been sporadic and not overly helpful. First they painted double-yellow lines everywhere, then Baz_k (Residents Association chairman) persuaded them to "try a little harder", so they painted out a few areas and allowed parking (where safe and convenient) on Thatcham Avenue.
Meanwhile they contracted a parking enforcement company to come along and clamp cars… Sadly the company have done a poor job; concentrating on only one or two roads, clamping some cars parked in those designated "safe parking areas" (after the balck paint had worn off), and refusing to refund the money taken in fines – even ‘though the QUVL requested that they did so!
Now that the lines are so worn out the situation is pretty ridiculous and I guess folks will park where they see fit!
I am now sitting firmly on the fence on this issue! Having moved in with only one car and then having to get a second when my wife changed her job, I have plenty of sympathy with those who can’t find sufficient space to park, and I also know – from past experience, how frustrating it can be when people park irresponsibly (and selfishly… with empty garages and drives whilst their cars are parked on the roadside etc).
The simple fact is that nobody expects to live in a commuter village with no roadside parking whatsoever… and it’s simply unreasonable to expect that IMHO.
Unfortunately the QUVL have nothing to gain from providing extra parking and no incentive to do so, so I’m rather afraid that things will not move forward until the Council adopt the roads
I’ll be posting a note about the Residents Association meetings shortly… The meeting for Feb 12th has been moved to Feb’ 26th (I can’t remember why) and the venue was mistakenly reported as Quedgeley Community Centre when it should have been Kingsway Community Centre…
I look forward to seeing you then