Improvements in Ryde
Added on Sunday 13 Jun 2010
It is great to see all the improvements in Ryde, and this needs to be supported by our Planners and by the Planning Appeals system.
One of the biggest businesses in Ryde is Ryde School. At the moment it is planning a major expansion, the centrepiece of which is to be a large building on Queens Road. This will involve the demolition of two houses adjacent to the school at 11 and 15 Queens Road. As everyone knows, All Saints Church is Grade 2* listed and Westmont, the main building at Ryde School, which will be masked by the planned development, is also a listed building. Many of our visitors to the town come past this point, or wander up from the town to look at the church. The view from the church tower is featured on the I Love Ryde website. It will be greatly altered by this development.
Most of the town is unaware of the proposals which will change the area dramatically and the subsequent increased pupil numbers (in the region of 15%) could potentially bring gridlock to that part of town at certain parts of the day. An increased number of drivers could choose to avoid the route along Queens Road to the town centre, thus reducing passing trade on Union Street, I would suggest.
The Ryde Town Council objected to the proposals, as did the County Council, but the school has now appealed.
There is a very under publicised meeting with the planning appeals inspectorate from Bristol at Ryde School on 24th September 2009 at 10a.m. The meeting is open to members of the public.
The Ryde School appeal was posted on the IOW Planning Portal on 26th June 2009 and is numbered P/00049/09. The relevant section on the traffic implications can be found on 'Supporting Information', Travel Plans Part 3 - appendix L.
Without a Conservation Area design Statement, it has been pointed out by the Isle of Wight Society in a recent County Press article, that towns like Ryde are open to large scale development taking place without proper objective restrictions or consideration of the implications on our Conservation Area.
This development will change the setting of our most important historic building and destroy the treescape in front of it. The period of 18 months needed for the build will disrupt next summer's traffic along Queen's Road. It would seem to be important that as many Ryde Businesses should be represented at the meeting as possible.
