The SUDBURY SOCIETY

Caring for the Past and the Future

Hamilton Road Quarter Decision

You will know by now that Babergh’s Strategy Committee voted for Option 3.

Although this has to be ratified by the full council later this year this is probably a done deal and we shall have to live with whatever consequences ensue.

Since this Society spent time and money on seeking to move Babergh away from what was clearly their preferred option, all to no avail, what is there left to say?

The voting figures resulting from the public consultation were “massaged”. The figures/proportions for the 3 options were the “formal” ones. This discounts those responses made as a result of the Society’s own meeting and the open one which the Society sponsored, all of which opposed all 3 options, including the emasculated option 2 which the Society originally put forward, in favour of “option 4” – the alternative site included in the Local Plan. This option was not included in the consultation so no one could have responded formally.

If one adds up all those not supportive of option 3, then it received minority support – a bit like a General Election.

Whereas the Draft Planning Document counselled against putting the bus station on the development site on the grounds that it would then attract secondary retail outlets rather than the primary ones that Sudbury needs to safeguard its future, the final document blithely ignores this although it is alarmingly vague about what uses might be provided. Down to any willing developers perhaps who may not take the bait, leaving the bus station forlornly alone unless we are unlucky enough to end up with a revamp of what is there now.

The rejection of option 1 was inevitable and the space if developed sensitively will form part of the pedestrian link from Market Hill. However this will come to an abrupt halt  at Great Eastern Road since the chance to turn what the SPD calls Sudbury’s poorest street into a lively one with shop frontages in place of the current eyesore has been thrown away. Instead we will have a large and potentially valuable space devoted to manoeuvering buses, when they are running, otherwise a bleak empty space to walk past or around.

A roundabout is proposed at the junction with Station Road, not a solution attractive to pedestrians - the attractive options floated, like shared space, found no favour with Suffolk Highways who have driven the whole process with minimal input from the hired urban design consultant who on his own admission was given the brief to locate the bus station on the development site.

And no input from the bus companies strangely enough. And to think we were naïve enough to think this was all about attracting greater bus use and easing the pressure of ever increasing numbers of cars

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