QEB Campaign Group
Traffic Impact Analysis

The Transport Assessment for the proposed housing development at QEB does not fully consider the impact the increased traffic from the development will have on the community.

Hampshire County Council has agreed with the developer to limit the scope of their Assessment to exclude the wider impact of the development. It excludes the effect of additional traffic along Reading Road South to its junction with Fleet Road at the Oatsheaf. The Assessment shows that the Reading Road South/Aldershot Road roundabout at Crookham Crossroads will reach capacity as a result of this development. The study fails to consider other major developments already in the pipeline. The Assessment also assumes that traffic patterns will follow those in Church Crookham which has a high retired population. These erroneous assumptions mean the impact will be far greater than the study portrays.

Hampshire County Council have also been looking separately at improvements to Fleet Road. The County Council have already struggled and failed to accommodate even only one pedestrian phase at the Oatsheaf traffic lights because there is no capacity at the junction. The County Council have also found that Fleet Road has been running at full capacity for several years and traffic is increasing on residential roads around the town. This junction is also receiving traffic from Elvetham Heath which is still only half complete. The extra traffic from Elvetham Heath is not fully included in the Transport Assessment for QEB.

The Transport Assessment for QEB also predicts large flows of traffic towards Farnborough along Aldershot Road, Church Crookham but fails to look at the junction with the A323.

Hampshire County Council have also agreed with the developers to exclude other current and committed development in Fleet and Church Crookham. The Blue Pryor industrial site which has outline planning permission as well as proposals at Redfields Garden Centre are excluded, for example. The recent large scale flatted developments in Fleet town centre such as Rose Farm Dairy, Fleet Coaches site and the Racal site are also excluded. Fleet and Church Crookham have also had an unprecedented level of infill developments in recent years. All of this will mean a rate of traffic growth well above that assumed by the developer.

Even where the resulting traffic does not reach capacity there will be longer queues at junctions adding to ‘rat running’ through adjacent residential areas. Local business will also suffer due to increased journey times and delays.

Gally Hill Road, Crookham Village and Dogmersfield will become a ‘Southern by-pass’ as people try to avoid congestion in Fleet. It is also likely that many will wish to access Winchfield Railway Station, also as a way of avoiding congestion in Fleet.

The Local Plan requires the scale of development at QEB to be subject to ‘capacity of the surrounding highway network and transportation systems to accommodate growth.

Local residents will be relying on Hart District Council to protect their quality of life. The Council will have to make its own judgements about the impact of the traffic and question the agreements reached by Hampshire County Council with the developers.

It is Hart District Council who will be making the decision on this development and it is their responsibility to ensure that the scale of the development will not generate unreasonable levels of traffic.

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