Selfsufficientish.com

I live in a house that fronts onto a busy road. Over the years it has become worse and worse. I double glazed the windows when I moved in, but now there is little escape from the sound of traffic pretty well 24 hours a day. To aggravate the problem, a couple of hundred yards down the road is a notorious bottleneck of two consecutive bridges under a railway that restrict the traffic to single file (that is, when a truck hasn't missed the height restriction signs, and got stuck under one of them). This means that as the traffic passes my house, it is either accellerating away from the bottleneck in one direction, or it is crawling along in a fuming queue in the other. Needless to say, all this is accompanied by a share of throbbing boom-bass speakers, howling exhaust magaphones, revving engines, squealing tyres, and the like.

From time to time, some councillor suggests a plan to solve the bottleneck problem, widen the bridges, and ease the flow of traffic. This, of course, would make things much worse for the houses fronting the road, attracting more vehicles travelling faster as the road would become a major cross-town route. There has clearly been a long term plan to make the road a dual carriageway (a wide verge has been specially reserved for this). So far, none of these plans have ever come to anything, and have all quietly been dropped.

The latest plan has just been announced, and for once it looks like this one could actually happen. Budgets have been proposed and dates to start work suggested. A key feature of this plan is that it involves diverting the road under the railway before it gets to these houses. This would by-pass the current bottleneck bridges altogether, and mean the road outside here would be largely unused, as the main road would now run the other side of the railway. That, of course is rather wonderful news for these houses.

Unfortunately, on the other side of the railway are some allotments. The 'Save Our Allotments' signs are already up.

Who's side should I be on?

If the council are able and willing to find alternative allotment space then I would go for the road improvements.

Your health and well-being should come first, but I can sympathise with the allotment holders, I do wonder how many of them drive there though!

Not an easy one. Even if the allotment owners are offered a new plot - that doesn't make up for trees etc that have taken years to become what they are...

I would probably take the coward's way out of this dilemma and try to move away! Weren't you looking for the escape route, too?

I'm with Ina in the move away category - if at all possible. I do feel for the allotment holders, though.

Inefficient busy roads are a such nightmare. My house is right on a 5 road intersection - busy streets, but fortunately the original builder (the toll collector who collected the tolls for the road usage!) had the foresight to plant a thick, high pittosporum hedge about 3 boundaries of the property which absorbs both noise and fumes.

Hang on Stew! I'm coming and we'll storm the council barricades together!

Assuming that the moving option is not possible, hassling the council to provide alternative allotments sounds like the best option. Sympathies for the existing allotment holders, but this is Muddy we're talking about here!

Nev

That is a hard call. How many people are affected like you, and how many people have allotments that will be lost? I think you will have to work out what will cause the greatest disruption to the most people. Look at it from all angles. Everybody can offer good advice, but in the long run the decision will be yours. Best of luck.

Robin

With the local elections coming up it might be worth contacting your councillor and his rivals and point out that ensuring the replacement of the allotments could be a vote winner

I think the road improvement might be the winner - although I am sure I would feel differently if it were my allotment. new allotments would have to be secured. (although I realise its not the same)

Sorry, nothing useful to add cos I'd hate to have traffic outside my house but I also wouldn't be happy to be told after the clearing work that's been done and planting that's been done so far is all for nowt cos I'm loosing my plot to a road!
I agree with going to see the local councillors though.
mithril.

new allotments would have to be secured. (although I realise its not the same)

Only if the allotment is a designated allotment site, if it's a site which is being used as allotments by the council but not designated then they don't have to do anything! A lot of allotments are like this as it makes life easier for the council.

nah I realise that the law is different

what i was thinking was i came in on the side of road improvement.. *with* new allotment site.

would be interesting to know how long the allotments were there - was that land always earmarked for other things?
Its like car parks in town - often the land has been purchsed by the council to buildon etc - but in the short term its made into a car park. when the building begins, everyone gets upset at losing the car park. if the allotments were always on that understnaidng then well tough - but if they were there long beofe any other plans.. well then its different.

Hi Muddy
It was very tempting not to reply to this as it was too difficult to make a decision, so I can really appreciate your dilemma.

I totally understand how the road affects you as I, too, live on a busy main road. I have a roundabout a few yards up from my house and it causes lots of traffic problems.

I wonder if it would be possible for the local residents and the allotment holders to get together to discuss how the issue affects both parties? It may be that the majority of the allotment holders would rather move somewhere else if the plots were better located. Or that they would be willing to make the sacrifice as it would ease their journey to work etc.

It never hurts to talk although the meeting is likely to get heated. Few people, in my experience, are willing to consider another person's point of view.

I admire you, Muddy, for seeing both sides of the story.
Zoe