Travel Plan Fiasco.
After waiting 257 days for a detailed and specialist Travel Plan for the Hamptons Mosque, it’s finally arrived, And what a complete pile of bullshit it is ! DOWNLOAD IT HERE
No Attempt To Reduce The Number of Cars
The “Plan” merely looks at a number of options for packing in more cars into a car park designed for 98 spaces. Based on the size of the venue, a mosque of this size will need 220-240 spaces to accommodate the worshippers. Here’s what happened during Ramadan 2023.
Why is there:
No suggestion to appoint a Travel Plan co-ordinator
No suggestion of reducing the number of private vehicles or encouraging car sharing.
No talk of increasing the number of cycle racks.
No mention of promoting healthier and more sustainable methods of transport.
And lets remember that the number of worshippers using the Hamptons mosque and madrassah has increased year on year since 2020.
No Attempt To Improve The Flow of Traffic
There are some lovely diagrams, showing great places for the Hamptons marshalls to stand. Sadly, what they do is walk into the road, and obstruct the highway, something that Essex Police have confirmed is illegal.
The marshalls focus on allowing access and egress from the car park, which causes tailbacks of traffic down Tydemans and Beehive Lane. Placing “advisory”cones along Tydemans, will do nothing at all. A stupid idea !
Fig 1 from the Travel Management Plan
If you are a resident seeking to access your property, tough. The marshalls will give priority to the worshippers, and you have no choice but to sit there for up to 20 minutes.
It’s Not An “Occasional” Occurrence
The description of the use of the venue, and the assessment of the main issues, may as well have been written by Ayman himself. There’s nothing “occasional” about 30 consecutive days of parking problems and traffic congestion during Ramadan, and let’s not forget it can be multiple times a day from 5am-12midnight.
There’s nothing “occasional” about the parking issues every Friday, and the marshalls holding traffic to allow parking on the grass verge. Live in Pearl Square, you’ll just have to wait !
Pretty much a pointless exercise
No residents were consulted, but Hamptons were. And therein lies the problem, no one cares about the point of view of the residents, and the impact of the mosque use by CMS.
If you’d like to contact the author of the Plan, Mr Binder from South Essex Parking Partnership, you can give him your feedback here: nick.binder@chelmsford.gov.uk
Will hamptons follow this masterplan ? Not a chance !
KBO