Skip to content
Bus link through Tudor king’s Chelmsford estate agreed
A bus link and upgraded cycle path running through Chelmsford parkland once part of Henry VIII’s palace has been given the go ahead.
Plans for a two-way bus link to the future Beaulieu Park Railway from White Hart Lane involves altering and widening the existing access road between White Hart Lane and The Avenue to a 6.5 metre carriageway.
The links are part of the wider Beaulieu Bus Strategy which includes a new service from Chelmsford City Centre to loop further throughout the Beaulieu development.
The bus link will be enforced with ANPR cameras to stop drivers avoiding longer journeys to the station car park via the Boreham Interchange.
A 1.2 metre wide footway is also to run alongside the initial section of the bus link road, from the existing footpath on White Hart Lane, parallel to Beaulieu Park recreation ground, up to the point where it would meet with the shared primary footpath and cyclepath at the edge of the playing fields.
Column lighting is proposed along the length of the bus link road.
The proposed bus link road lies within an area which historically formed part of the parkland of New Hall, a Grade I listed building, once part of Henry VIII’s palace at Beaulieu.
The immediate grounds of New Hall and the Avenue are designated as a Grade II park and garden.
Development of parkland in the site forms one of a series of compensatory measures to offset the acknowledged harm to the Grade I listed building at New Hall and its Grade II park and garden arising from the Beaulieu development.
Karen Short, principal planning officer at Chelmsford City Council said the school’s one entrance in and one exit out system will be improved to once the Radial Distributor Road is open in July t o three access points, alongside a network of cycle and footpaths.
She added: “It’s also important to note then that use of these additional means of vehicular access to the school will inevitably have reduced traffic along that access road where the bus link is to be provided.
“Furthermore it must reasonably follow that with the advent of the station inevitably some of those car trips will transfer to rail and we know from discussions with the school that currently there are students that are transported across from the city centre station to New Hall by minibus.
“And obviously you know it’s quite possible that that that cross-town movement could stop and obviously students could disembark at Beaulieu Park railway station rather than having to be transported across the city area.
“In addition there is an existing permissive path so we are satisfied that the access to the school would not be impeded by the bus link road.”
She added: “Inevitably there will be some pausing of traffic at the pedestrian cycle crossing but as we know from the city centre station that movement across the crossing tends to coincide with when trains are arriving and it’s not constant, there will be pauses in traffic.
“We’re talking seconds, maybe a couple of minutes, and that needs to be weighed against a significant public benefit that will be derived from delivering the bus link road and the footpath and cycle paths.”
