Loughton High Road scheme

In the 1990s, LRA encouraged the District Council improve the High Road through an enhancement scheme. Other parts of the district - Ongar, Waltham Abbey, and Buckhurst Hill - had benefited from such projects; Loughton and The Broadway were left to be done.

Following public consultation, the District Council Cabinet accepted the plans, which divide the High Road into four phases. As part of the 2001 planning permission for the Sainsbury's store in Old Station Road, Sainsbury's agreed to fund the southern part of the project to a similar standard to that carried out in Old Station Road, and the District Council funded the central section.

This part of the work on the High Road, from the Crown to the traffic lights, was been completed, except for replacing the trees on Centric Parade. LRA Cllr John Markham doggedly pursued the District Council about this for five years, and four new trees finally appeared in Summer 2010.

Thanks to the LRA councillors on Loughton Town Council, we now have flower baskets on the lamp-posts in the central and southern sections of the High Road. The lamp posts in the northern section are too old to carry them.

The next phase was meant to involve the closure of the exit from Brooklyn Parade into Brooklyn Avenue, with pedestrianisation of that area and a reorganisation of the traffic lights, plus rearranged parking in the remainder and a lay-by, with the refurbishment extending to the lower end of Church Hill. The idea was to bring the whole of the High Road shopping area up to the same design and standard in paving, lighting and street furniture.

However, when the Conservatives gained a majority on the District Council, they cancelled the rest of the scheme; we think that this is outrageous - the High Road is a key District shopping area. So LRA has been pursuing alternative ways of getting the work done.

LRA County Councillor Chris Pond succeeded in persuading the County Council Highways department to renew the pavement on the west side of the High Road from the Drive to the Methodist Church, which was one of the worst in the town, and this has been done. Unfortunately the Council's responsibilities only extend to pavement which is public highway, and not to land which used to be front gardens and which is still owned by the shop-owners. (Exceptionally, when the south and centre of the High Road were resurfaced, LRA Councillors managed to get the whole of the pavements done, including the private forecourts.)

So there are still problems at the north end of the High Road, and in particular we have asked Royal Ribs to repair the potholes outside their shop, which are on private land. They did nothing so eventually the county filled them to minimise public danger. Subsidence of the carriageway by the bus stop was reported by C Cllr CP to the county in January 2008, but nothing was done till summer 2010, by when there had been at least two pedestrian falls.

Essex County Council intends to update and improve the street-lighting throughout the County, and we will be looking for an opportunity to get the columns at the north end of the High Road replaced in the same style as the others.

LRA councillors met the County Highways Department last Autumn and discussed how Brooklyn Parade could be reconfigured to improve the working of the traffic lights and speed up traffic-flow along the High Road. Unfortunately, Highways designed a wholly unacceptable scheme which would have created traffic chaos, and Chris Pond had to formally ask them not to proceed. We will be making another attempt soon. In the meantime, one of the Brooklyn Parade planters has had to be demolished.