SEALR Bulletin #010

Welcome to our latest bulletin which provides local residents and businesses with up to date information on the South East Aylesbury Link Road (SEALR) project.

Project background

The SEALR project will deliver a new, 40mph, dual carriageway road between the B4443 Lower Road and the A413 Wendover Road, as well as two new roundabout junctions on each road. This road will form part of the Aylesbury Orbital and provide connections to the future Southern Link Road and the Stoke Mandeville Relief Road (delivered by HS2). The project has submitted a planning application and detailed design is ongoing. The planning application can be viewed online using the search reference CC/0015/20 at the following web address: https://publicaccess.buckscc.gov.uk/online-applications/

As per our previous bulletin, trial hole surveys will be undertaken in September and October 2020 to find the location of a water main that will need to be diverted.

Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO), Side Roads Order (SRO) and open space

To construct the SEALR, the Council will need to purchase the land necessary to construct the road itself and associated mitigation (mitigation measures such as balancing ponds, landscaping and ecological measures are detailed in the planning application). The Council and its land agents, Carter Jonas, have entered into discussions with all landowners in the hope of reaching negotiated settlements to purchase land. To ensure that the Council will acquire all land necessary, the project has served a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) on the 16 September 2020. It is hoped that the CPO will ultimately not be necessary and that landowners and the Council can reach a negotiated settlement for the acquisition of land.

In order to deliver the SEALR, the Council must designate the new road as highway and also ‘stop up’ existing highways that will not be functional after the project is completed. The Council will make a Side Roads Order (SRO) to perform both of these functions. This has also been submitted to the Secretary of State on the 16 September 2020.

The SEALR will need to use a small section of the public open space adjacent to Patrick Way to construct the Wendover Road roundabout. The design and size of the roundabout has been led by traffic modelling and it cannot be smaller. Therefore, it is unavoidable that the project must acquire open space to construct the roundabout. The Council will mitigate this by providing additional open space adjacent via the Section 19 application process. Upon making this application, the project team will provide further details in a new bulletin and updates to the project website.

Any objection to the Order must be made in writing to:

Secretary of State for Transport, c/o the National Transport Casework Team,
Department for Transport,
Tyneside House,
Skinnerburn Road,
Newcastle Business Park,
Newcastle Upon Tyne,
NE4 7AR

Alternatively, objections can be made by email to:
nationalcasework@dft.gov.uk

Objections must be made before the 29th day of October 2020 and should state the title of the Order, the grounds of the objection and the objector’s address and interests in the land. Objections should not be made to the Council.

Further information about the CPO and the SRO can be found on our dedicated webpage here. Upon making the application for a Section 19 certificate to take and replace open space, information will be found on the SEALR webpage.

Upcoming Works

Please note these works are the same as previously shared in Bulletin 9.

Thames Water trial holes

The project team will be undertaking trial hole surveys to determine the exact location of a Thames Water main underneath the site. These works will be carried out by our contractor, Galliford Try. It is crucial that the project conducts these surveys and identifies the location of the water main as the project will need to divert this water main before main construction works can start. These works began on the 14 September 2020 (following site set up during the week of 7 September) and will continue to approximately 14 October 2020. These works will impact traffic on the B4443 Lower Road and the A413 Wendover Road between 28 September and 14 October.
Traffic management will be in place during the following times:

Traffic management plans for both roads are available below: