Proposed Car park alterations at Roaring Meg

Over the last year, Cycling UK Stevenage have worked with invis-Ability to highlight concerns about access for walking, wheeling and cycling at Roaring Meg. 

See more here.

There is now a second planning application for a new link road between the south and north carparks submitted by Nine Yards the site owners. A previous application, submitted last year was withdrawn. 

We are very pleased to see that some accessibility concerns that we have raised with Nine Yards have been specifically addressed in the current application. These improvements - shown on the Design and Access statement are:

• Trimming back of hedges between Nando's and Burger King to enable better visibility (this has already happened).
• New pavement on the north side of the entrance to London Road near Miller and Carter.
• Removal of a bollard near Currys to improve wheelchair access.

Our concerns about the creation of the link road remain.

The objection comments that we submitted to the previous application are here.

Another key proposal is the creation of a continuous pedestrian only path from the link to the cycleway between Burger King and Nandos across the car park there and all the way to Marks and Spencers. 

• This path will be for pedestrians only - people cycling are expected to use the main road entrance to Monkswood Way to join the cycle paths there - as seen in the picture above.
• Any cyclist coming into Roaring Meg site between Nandos and Burger King will be expected to dismount and push their cycle as soon as they leave the Monkswood Way cycleway.

Cycling UK Stevenage will be submitting a full response to the planning application, meanwhile here are some key points about this particular proposal:

The entrance between Nandos and Burger King is currently used by people cycling and we are very concerned that this safe and easy route is to become clearly designated as pedestrian only. 

If more people are going to be encouraged to chose to cycle to the increased range of stores now at Roaring Meg, it is essential that they have a safe and easy route into the site and across the carpark.

People should be allowed to cycle on the new link between Nandos and Burger King across to Marks and Spencers.

There should be clearly designated routes for cycling throughout the site.

Public comments can be submitted to Stevenage Borough Council on this LINK