Vital Footpath Saved

Residents of the Whitehall Avenue/Plummers Hill Pre-Fab estate braved the rain to celebrate after receiving assurances from Bovis Homes that their vital footpath link through to St Georges Park and the Church Road shops will be saved in Bovis’s new development.

Earlier this year residents petitioned the council to keep the footpath between Whitehall Avenue and Howard Avenue open. For the elderly and disabled people living on the estate it is their only direct route to the shops, the library and the park. However the council’s original correspondence did nothing to allay their fears that the residents might lose their path.

St George West Conservatives contacted Bovis and received this assurance from their manager Alan Cook. “We are very concerned to reassure residents that we will maintain free access through our new development for pedestrians and cyclists. The footpath will close TEMPORARILY when work starts, but I will make sure that the builders understand the importance of the access and reopen it as soon as possible.”

Angelo says, “ I have seen the plans (see picture) and the new pedestrian access closely follows the route of the existing footpath. I am very grateful to ‘Bovis Homes’ for being so helpful in reassuring the residents and keeping in touch with them while the new houses are being built.”

This project is an estate of 106 houses some of which are ‘affordable social housing’ on land sold to Bovis by the city council after the rebuilding of the old pre-fab estates. Anyone interested can look at the planed at the planning office behind the council house application number 06/02890/F.