During consultation for the Neighbourhood Plan congestion outside the surgery and safety in Church St was a big issue. A comprehensive package of measures was put forward by the then PC & NP including a raised table & speed bumps to support a 20mph limit, double yellow lines from The Green to surgery and off-street parking for surgery overflow. Consultation on the southern end of the Footpath within the village framework for complementary parking was overwhelmingly supported (93% agreed to NP policy HAR 19).
The Neighbourhood Plan, however, did not look at the area of land to the north of the safeguarded land for parking as the issue was not raised as the large allotment there was well maintained and other small allotments of land opposite the Footpath houses were rented by Footpath residents.
It would now appear that the present PC would prefer to change all the land in The Footpath to allotments, including the section safeguarded for parking, and open it up to other people in the village to rent. (There are many allotments open to Harston Residents on the Harston/Haslingfield border already).
To get the opinion of those most affected, HRG delivered questionnaires to 19 households in and around The Footpath about the future use of this land owned by S Cambs.
13 households responded. Of those, 4 who already rented allotments wanted to carry on renting them. They all lived next to them. The majority of responses said they didn’t want strangers coming into the Footpath access road, which is in fact a private road, and said there was no water supply for people from outside. About half said they agreed some of area could be for nature and the majority said that the land safeguarded for parking should remain as a natural area until the parking was provided.
S Cambs have now agreed to mow this area 4 times a year to keep it tidy. Should the large allotment become vacant one Footpath household have offered to rent it and provide an orchard for the benefit of the Footpath residents and this has the support of the majority. Details of the survey can be found here.
