Page 36 - Phonebox Magazine December 2014

Bedfordshire Railway & Transport Association
Olney is facing a crisis. When Scott Handley undertook a study into re-opening the old Bedford - Northampton
railway in 2001 they took into account ease of access for Olney’s High Street for pedestrians, cyclists and bus/road users by providing an alignment of the old track-bed. Now today a proposed new Sainsbury’s supermarket, 33 houses and a new Yardley-A509 road is on the exact alignment. In order to get a bird’s eye view, one member of the Bedfordshire Railway & Transport Association (BRTA) recently noted that some of the land immediately to the north is still unploughed, dating back to the plague - like that besides the foot of the Bedford Modern School in Manton Lane - the humps, to increase grazing yield, whether for wool, cloth or just meat, he claimed was always a bit of a mystery!
But due to the flood-plain (where the Lavendon Road acts as a border between river flood sweep and ground above) it is river-based access community. The River Ouse is actually north of the fields where Sainsbury’s will go further across.
But if lost, housing will surely have to go
north and west or east of Yardley Road and the A509 respectively. The other side of the northern hill is the Warrington area and Lavendon. North of Lavendon is heritage lands of an old Castle and Monastic settlement.
So Lavendon expanding seems likely, given the design of the A509/A428 Bypass.
Olney is already congested and whilst the new Yardley-A509 road would remove the lorries from the town centre, it will be a threat to small shop trade, and so would the supermarket.
Some people highlight a fuelling point desert, but the tail-backs along the narrow Lavendon Road, given it will be behind the food store, could hit No. 41 buses and future settlement commuters trying to get onto the A509 to go through Olney for MK/ commuting. They may be tempted to drive in Bedford’s direction.
In short, it is in BRTA’s interest to ensure the understanding that supermarkets and fuelling points can go anywhere – like up near the school or on the Emberton side or where the bypass will link up south of Olney, even nearer Chicheley where there is dual trunk access.
Meanwhile Astwood has no garage and that corridor could be a growth one in future years.
But if we lose the Scott Handley alignment (unless the old one and the bolt-on Lavendon Road south side is accepted for railway purposes with a walk-on, walk- off halt on a single track fanning out from both sides of the urban area) then maybe a new trajectory from Piddington/Castle Ashby Southern Estate – Warrington and South Lavendon to link with Picts Hill Farm/ Stevington Walk alignment (some 10 miles of virgin new rail build), creating an East- West Garden ‘mini’ settlement could go in
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36 Phonebox Magazine
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