North East Herts MP Oliver Heald has met the
Wilbury Hills Road campaigners together with a representative from HillcrestPark mobile home site, also on Wilbury Hills Road in Letchworth Garden City.
They came to the surgery to update Oliver on their protest and also to talk to him about the future progress of the campaign. Residents are concerned that all the lorries for Network Rail’s Hitchin flyover works will be directed up their road when this should be shared with other routes or even other methods found to get material on site, such as the use of a tipper conveyor from Hitchin railway sidings.
Commenting, Oliver Heald said, “It was good to meet the campaigners and to be able to give my support to the campaign for more burden-sharing and a look at alternatives to the current proposals. I certainly hope that it will be possible for Network Rail to consider what is being proposed and I have written on 2 occasions to make these points. Interestingly, I have had constituents from Baldock and other parts of North East Herts showing solidarity with the residents of
Wilbury Hills Road and making the point that it is not right that they should bear the full burden of this. I have also been in touch with Herts Highways to ask if the road surface can take this number of lorries. It was not built as a road for this sort of heavy traffic and there are worries locally that the effect of sustained lorry movements will be to damage the road substantially.”