On Friday, 6 June 2014 18:05:09 UTC+1, K wrote:
I received an email from my MP today asking me to sign a petition to stop

the council banning local residents from using a road being paid for with

£7m of tax payers money. This is a new one on me. We have toll roads paid

for with private money. Restricted access roads where everybody pays (such

as the congestion charge) but this idea is completely new. Non residents

will get to use this road but residents will get fined if they use it.



Kevin



"Sign my petition to let us use the new Link Road

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Bushey Arches, West Watford and the ring road all suffer from traffic

congestion, and we now have the opportunity to change this and alleviate

some of the pressure on these routes - but I need your help or it may not

happen!



Around two years ago I secured £7million of funding from the Government

toward a new Link Road, which will create access from the M1 via Dalton Way,

to the back of the Hospital near Cardiff Road. This was excellent news and

very welcome, it will undoubtedly relieve pressure by removing Hospital

traffic from other routes, and will ensure faster response times with

ambulances no longer having to battle their way down Vicarage Road.



Since then however I have heard of the Council's plans to install number

plate recognition cameras along the Link Road to make sure that Watford

residents cannot use it. Local residents using the new road to get home for

example, would receive a fine.



I do not believe that local residents are properly aware of this, and I want

that to change. I also do not believe that preventing local people from

using the road is fair; after all it is being paid for with public money.



I have written to the Managing Director of Watford Borough Council and asked

that, firstly, the cameras are not installed. This would mean residents of

West Watford, Vicarage and Holywell could use the road without penalty - it

would not alter the construction of the road itself. Secondly, I have asked

the Council to put in 'turns' at Wiggenhall Road, to allow residents coming

from Oxhey for example, to turn onto the Link Road so that they have an

alternative route of access to the motorways. I think this is particularly

important as no action has been taken to alleviate pressure at Bushey Arches

for a number of years, and we should not miss this opportunity to take

proper action.



Therefore, while the road will ease some pressure and I do still support its

construction, particularly for improved Hospital access, it could do so much

more for local residents. This is an opportunity to finally make life easier

for local residents travelling in and around Watford, and to ease congestion

at Bushey Arches significantly, and this is not a chance I want us to miss

out on"

The MP has got it wrong. The proposal is that part of the new Link Road between the two new roundabouts would be for emergency vehicles only. There would be no distinction between residents and non-residents.