Cirencester Park access road
Comments
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It is a new road - it runs parallel (ish) with the old road but slightly further from the college. The fields on the right usually have horses in them. I didn't notice the old classrooms but I think they probably have been demolished, they had been out of use for some time now.
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Huskydog wrote "Note to self. Take sledgehammer"
Use a Kango drill. Much quicker. You'll need a bit more than a 25m EHU cable, of course.
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Thinking of this further who has planned this in this day and age. Looking at the first photo the one where the school gate is. The blue sign on the post below 10MPH say "Shared Space" and shows a car a bike and a pedestrian. How do they get away with that given all the H & S measures which are in place now. And why the bolders, the earth bunds on either side keep the width in check. It will be bedlam when the school comes out.
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Very grateful for the photos of Cirencester new road being put on here. We were booked in for three nights in July, on a service pitch to make it easier to use our own shower and toilet. But after seeing that new road we have cancelled our booking, and will not go again. The old road was bad enough with having to ziz-zag to miss the pot holes and not damage the mover. I would think East Grinstead would say they had no control over the planning because they don't own that land, but our van will never go down it.
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UPDATE
It would appear that the College have no intention of removing the rocks but they have moved some away from the tarmac edge, as shown in the attached photos, that were taken yesterday afternoon. It's a small improvement but.......
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If anyone’s interested the planning applications for this road are on the Cotswold Planing web site, there are two of them, I can’t see if the rocks are shown or not. From my quick look it doesn’t look as if the road that has been built is the same as the drawings, but I’m no expert and you would need to look at the actual road to see what is what.
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Where there are those steep banks beside the road, what is the point of the huge stones? I can see where the verge is flat they might prevent parking, but who would try to park on the banking?
We have been there once, nice site, but with a twin axle outfit that Is a total of 12.75m when hitched, we will not be going there again if the stones stay!
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I've just had a look and the plans seem a bit vague. No mention of who was consulted so there is no opinions from the club, cricket or tennis club. There is no dimensions on the road layout but from the screenshot they've obviously took caravans into consideration. You can see the road with a caravan being towed on the right. If there's any sort of scale then you wouldn't even want to meet a pedestrian It beggars belief that planners could allow this. The new stretch of road in over 200 metres long and forward vision in either direction must be nil so a meet situation doesn't bear thinking about. Given that the speed limit is 10mph it would take you around 40 seconds to clear that new section.
I've never submitted a photo before so I hope this works
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This is the planning document rather interestingly it contains the following statement!!!
"The Tennis and Cricket club were pleased with the design of the road and the emphasis upon safety but wanted some
passing spaces so that caravans did not need to reverse. The Caravan Club did not respond to invitations to this
consultation"The Estates main contention seems to be that the old road was destroyed by thoughtless 4X4 owners! I am not quite sure what the status is of the Club site but I assume it is on a lease. Clearly the Estate did not consider/really understand the requirements of an access road to a caravan site and from some of the language didn't seem much to care. The boulders were mentioned in the planning document and are clearly in place to prevent erosion of the edges of the road. Just a note, also included in the, text that use of the road is at the risk of the user!!!
David
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Obviously the CC were not interested in what width the road was going to be. Perhaps the site's lease is soon due to run out ?
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Nellie
I doubt the lease is up soon as they only recently added a load of serviced pitches. They don't usually do any upgrades if they are not sure of the lease?
David
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Steve not sure what has happened to the link (it must be an internal link rather than a public one?)but if you go to the Planning Portal for the Cotswolds and then search for Cirencester Park it should bring up the case.
David
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If it's too dangerous to reverse a caravan or large Motorhome without the sure knowledge that it is safe to do so, without clouting a rock, then a lot of other users are going to be doing the reversing. Me I would just park up and wait until they move. Poorly designed road, I see many raised tempers in my crystal ball.
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Motorhomes have an advantage here. They could probably manage a stand-off for a couple of days.
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The bit most likely to cause issues is the top end. Unless they are going to stop students parking on the cycle route section up to the turn into the old lane, something they never managed in the past. Before you could look right down the lane before turning in and if anything was exiting, either wait, or if not sufficient room because of all the parking, pull forward into the road to the stables out of the way. Now there is a double bend that you can't see round, with as far as I can see no passing places, and the added peril of rocks.
As you can probably tell, we have spent a fair bit of time at this site. It's one of our favourites. We will hopefully see what the road is like in September, when we next plan to visit. It's about the longest between visits at almost a year.☹️ Just glad we now have a MH with a very good reversing camera, I would fancy having to take our 12 metres of car / caravan down it.
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Thanks for posting. Dash cam shows new road with laybys. It is IMHO going to be an 'awkward' road to negotiate at times.
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The daft thing is the CC could have contacted members who use the site. They do know who they are. Advised them of the planning application, any concerns they might have and the date for comments / objections. Unfortunately these things are a lot more difficult to get amended after they have been approved and built.
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Steve
I can't see the Club actually doing that! Without official comment it is difficult to decide whether the Club dropped the ball or were hoodwinked. Some of the comments in the planning application could be seen as very against the types of cars a fair proportion of caravan owners use, ie 4X4's. I almost got the impression the the Estate didn't want the campsite where it was and now seem to be making it as difficult as possible. If it genuinely decreases visitors to the site that could have implications for the Clubs continuation in that location. The real problem is that because its on private land there is little recourse to the planning department for enforcement.
David
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As I read it David the land actually belongs to the college rather than the Bathhurst Estate, who I assume will be responsible for the CAMC lease. I don't suppose the college are particularly bothered about the site, if they have no financial interest in it.
As far as 4x4's are concerned, in the many weeks we have spent there, we have seen as many going to the tennis and cricket clubs as the CC site. We really like Cirencester Park, however if we still had a caravan I would not want to tow it down the lane as shown in the video.
I certainly agree with your last sentence the time to do / make representations was during the planning process. Now sadly long past.
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This was the first site we went to when we got our caravan, so despite being a fantastic site it also has fond memories for us. We were looking at going back this year but think we'll give it a miss now. This is a ridiculous layout for an access road, what on earth would a first time tower of thought of this when they turn up for their first holiday in their new pride & joy, it would of put me off for life.
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I read through the whole thing, the Estate had asked for a 5m wide road, which the college said they could not afford and was unnecessary. They had apparently not even intended to provide passing places until the error of that was pointed out. The road is supposed to be 3m wide, so not a lot left either side of a large caravan or MH.
The rocks are supposed to be helping stabilise the bankings, and to stop cars going off the side of the tarmac. I doubt there was any consideration of whether they would allow for tail swing of caravans and large MHs on the bends.
The passing places are 15m long and meant for cars to pull in as those towing caravans have priority over solo cars.
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