Hatton residents continue to voice concerns over lengthy roadworks near development site

Residents in and around Hatton are continuing to voice their concerns over lengthy roadworks near a housing development site.

In February, Warwickshire County Council held a meeting at Holy Trinity Church in Hatton to provide an update about the ongoing work on the A4177 Birmingham Road.

Work began on the scheme in November 2023 with identifying depths and positions of existing buried utilities and site clearance.

Prior to the public meeting, the council said the next phase of the scheme focusses on constructing highway drainage; consisting of root cutting and lining existing sections together with installing new concrete pipework and connecting this back into the existing drainage system.

Back in January, Warwick District Council’s planning committee also approved amendments to two conditions of the planning application for the Union View to allow temporary access for up to 40 residential occupations in addition to the current sales and construction traffic.

After the meeting some residents were still unhappy with the roadworks.

Speaking about the meeting, Elaine Kemp, a Hatton resident and campaigner, said: “By now residents of Hatton Park have already had enough of the apparent incompetence shown by Highways.

“Attendees were presented with a number of slides on what changes had been made to minimise the current traffic delays outside Union View on the A4177.

“Residents have frequently aired their complaints about Taylor Wimpey activities but have found that this development company has, on the whole, been uncooperative and have continued not to listen to residents’ concerns.

“It seems that actual development of Union View, as well as changes to the A4177, is creating chaos for all travellers on the Birmingham Road.

"In addition it is causing frustrations to those purchasing or trying to purchase homes on Union View.

“In addition we believe there should be traffic cameras and pollution detectors installed.

“Hatton park residents are also annoyed and frustrated that the proposed amendments to the temporary access onto Union View will not be completed for almost another year.

A spokesperson from Warwickshire County Council said: “We acknowledge that the works are affecting traffic but we are also receiving feedback that supports the scheme and accepts that some disruption is inevitable.

"The work is essential to allow anyone living in the Union View development to have safe access to and from the site.

“The team is looking into the possibility of installing any traffic cameras and, although not a statutory requirement for such schemes, pollution detectors and will feed back to residents as soon as the position becomes clearer.

"We urge any drivers who are stationary in traffic to turn engines off to help with air quality around the works.

“The project is due to be completed within schedule in the autumn.”

A Taylor Wimpey spokesperson added: “We would like to thank everyone who attended the meeting on February 20, during which we provided local residents with an update on the progress of the highway improvement works to the A4177 and outlined our response to previous feedback.

“We are grateful to the residents of Hatton and surrounding areas for their continued patience while we complete these essential works.

"We can confirm that we have been operating in accordance with the conditions imposed by the relevant local authorities at all times.”

Last week, many Hatton residents and people travelling along the A4177 took to social media to warn others about some of the temporary traffic lights not working.

A spokesperson from Warwickshire County Council said the issues had been caused by a fault in one of the batteries used to control the pedestrian crossing, which then caused the others to fail.

They said that this was fixed.