A NEW-look high
street with a European-style piazza could be in store for Tring with proposals
to transform the Rose and Crown Hotel.
In a bid to boost
business, the historic building’s central courtyard would be opened up - making
it look similar to how it was in 1905 - and a large eating area would be created
outside.
The proposals are part of plans to safeguard the future of the hotel
and planners hope it will attract more visitors to the town.
If given the
green light by Dacorum Borough Council the road in front of the hotel would be
raised linking it with St Peter and St Paul Church opposite to form a larger
town centre square which could be used for special events.
Project manager
Innes Gray said: “The most important thing is that it will give Tring a focal
point, it will give Tring a square it doesn’t have, an opportunity for a new
arena to encourage more people into the town. The piazza is where people will
sit and pass the day."
Inside the hotel the courtyard will become a walkway
to shops and offices and there will be extra space for outdoor seating.
The
hotel would be downsized from 27 bedrooms to 19 and the restaurant moved to
where the bar now stands at the front of the building.
The proposals for the
site also include a residential development of 33 luxury flats and houses at the
back of the hotel including the conversion of the old stable barn.
Consensus
Planning, the company dealing with the proposals, is holding an exhibition at
the Rose and Crown Hotel on Saturday from 9.15am to 12.30pm.
Power cuts should be in the
past
TRING is set to have
a massive £22,000 ploughed into its electricity service in a bid to combat
blackouts that have plagued parts of the town.
An investigation was launched
by electricity supplier EDF Energy after more than 1,000 homes in parts of the
town were left without electricity on three separate occasions in less than a
month.
Pendley Manor Hotel manager Michael Tadros slammed the supplier
following continuous power cuts at the hotel which shut down computer booking
systems, put lifts out of action and disrupted the pool temperature forcing him
to call out engineers.
EDF Energy engineers have decided to replace an
existing transformer on the circuit providing electricity to parts of the town
to boost the supply.
Power checks revealed that the circuit had a history of
problems because of environmental disturbances like debris being picked up by
the wind and hitting electrical equipment.
The transformer, mounted on an
electricity pole, will be replaced with an enclosed ground-mounted transformer
in a substation. Transformers convert electricity from high voltage to low
voltage so that it can be used in people’s homes.
EDF Energy spokeswoman
Marjorie Barnes said: “We are confident that this work will improve the
reliability of power supplies for our customers in the area.”
Work is due to
start this week and is expected to be completed by the end of the
summer.
Residents sign petition in protest at ward
reshuffle
FEARS that Aldbury
and Wigginton will be bunched up with Tring East in an electoral boundary
reshuffle have prompted local councillors to launch a petition.
More than 100
people from Aldbury and Wigginton have signed the petition headed by Cllr Penny
Hearn and Cllr Richard Jameson in favour of keeping the two villages separate
from Tring East.
The electoral wards are being reviewed by the Boundary
Committee for England which is running a public consultation until September 12
to gauge the public views before forwarding its decision to the Electoral
Commission.
Residents who signed the petition feel that if the two villages
merge with the Tring East ward to make up electoral numbers they will lose their
community identity.
As part of the consultation Tring Town Council decided
last week to put forward a proposal to the Boundary Committee for England to
merge the two wards – despite strong opposition from Cllrs Hearn and Jameson.
But at another meeting Dacorum Borough Council opposed the idea.
Now it is up
to the Boundary Committee for England to consider the wards and decide whether
villages Aldbury and Wigginton would benefit from being joined with Tring
East.
Committee chairman Pamela Gordon said: “At present, the electoral
arrangements across North Hertfordshire are significantly unbalanced.
“The
aim of the review is to ensure that, as far as possible within each district,
each person’s vote should have the same value as another’s, without disrupting
community identities.”
The last review was in 1998 when it was decided to
keep the villages separate to maintain their rural character.
Aldbury
resident Mr Jameson said: “The overwhelming feeling in the two villages is
against it and both parish council chairs feel the same.
“There is quite a
strong feeling in Aldbury and Wigginton that they have had their own councillors
for years and they don’t want to lose that. Aldbury and Wigginton will do there
best to fight it.”
Family fun at museum open
day
Keep the youngsters
happy this summer with a trip to Pitstone Green Museum in Vicarage Road on
Sunday, August 14 for their fun day.
There will be model railways on display
as well as old favourites like the Lancaster Bomber cockpit, working Crossley
Gas and stationary engines and lots more.
Tickets cost £3, (£1.50 children).
For information call 01582 605464 or visit http://website.lineone.net/~pitstonemus.
On
the same day Ford End Watermill, the only working watermill in Buckinghamshire
with original machinery is open to the public.
In Station Road, Ivinghoe this
grade two listed mill, mainly preserved as it was in the late 1980s, is close to
Pitstone Green Museum.
Admission costs £1.20 adults, children five to 15
years old 40p. Parking is free.
Bookworms dig deep to help hospice
fund
THIS year’s annual
Tring Book Browse in aid of the Iain Rennie Hospice At Home has been hailed a
success after raising £800 for the charity in just a few hours.
Along with
local residents, actor Geoffrey Palmer, patron of the hospice was keen to check
out the goods on offer at the annual charity book sale on Saturday, July
23.
From 10.30am to 2.30pm people flocked to the event organised by hospice
volunteer Peggy Bainbridge to flick through books, look for cassettes and CDs
and hunt for a bargain or two.
The event was opened by Tring Mayor Mike
James.
Appeals Director Robert Breakwell said: “It was a remarkable amount to
raise in just a few hours. It was very well attended. People like it because
they’re out there for the chance of a bargain. There is a large range to choose
from and it is a really good social event.”
Bride arrives with orange a-peel in car that is
so fruity and fun
Oh Jay - now that’s a lift to get
hitched!
A TRING woman has
decided to buck bridal fashion by turning up at her wedding in a giant
orange.
Jay Grange, 19, pulled up at The Bury register office in Hemel
Hempstead on Saturday (July 30) in the Outspan car before marrying Robert
Gascoigne, 20, also from Tring.
“I wanted something different that I would
remember for the rest of my life,” Jay, who considered a dustcart, tractor, and
a flat-bed lorry before plumping for the orange, said.
“Robert and I will be
the first people ever to use the Outspan car for their wedding which also
appealed to us.
“The idea is a bit wild, like me, so it suits my personality
perfectly.
Husband Robert said: “At first I thought she was slightly mad, but
I came round to thinking it was a great idea.”
Jay and Robert both work at
Tesco in Tring where they met in November 2002.
Outspan say the car is a real
collector’s item with only four of them in existence in the
world.
Safety work a ‘short-term’
solution
Critics speak out over A41’s fatal
flaws
ROAD safety bosses
have confessed that there will always be accidents on the A41, no matter what
they do as councillors slammed designers who mapped out the road more than 11
years ago.
County and district councillors supported proposals for low key
measures to slash accidents on the perilous stretch of road from Hemel Hempstead
to Tring but condemned planners who originally designed the bypass during a
meeting of Dacorum Highways Joint Members Panel last week.
After a three-year
investigation, Hertfordshire Highways safety engineers have come up with a
two-stage plan to make the road safer.
Since it opened in 1993 it has claimed
12 lives – the latest in March when Berkhamsted nurse Elaine Hawes died after
her Citroen Saxo collided with another car as she joined the bypass at
Berkhamsted.
The first phase of improvements involve installing high friction
surfaces on slip roads to give better car control and braking. Warning signs
will be made clearer with more Slow and Give Way signs being installed and
overgrown vegetation will be cut back to improve visibility.
Safety engineers
plan to reduce accidents by 40 per cent over a three-year period with the safety
moves due to be installed before April next year.
Strategy development
manager for safety engineering Paul Selley said: “These are short-term measures
which I have to admit aren’t going to solve every problem there.”
The work is
estimated to cost £200,000 and will be funded from the accident reduction
schemes budget. Longer term improvements are still being looked at sand include
buying land to make slip roads longer and the possibility of speed cameras to
force drivers to slow down .
Cllr Alan Fantham slammed designers of the A41
during Thursday’s meeting. He said: “This is a relatively new road. Before this
road was opened a policeman said it was a road with accidents waiting to happen,
he said it was bad design and he has been proven right.
“It doesn’t take a
great deal of rocket science to work out where you have a slip road that is not
long enough accidents are going to happen and I think that should have been
obvious to the people who designed it.”
During the bypass investigation which
ran from April 2000 to March 2003, 98 accidents were recorded of which 29 were
serious or fatal. Mr Selley said: “Over three years it is a very, very high
percentage. A much bigger percentage than what you would expect.”
He added:
“There have been a number of accidents on the A41 where I think we have to hold
our hands up, whatever we could have done they would have still
happened.”
The safety moves come after years of public calls for the bypass
to be improved. Almost two years ago The Gazette highlighted the A41 as a local
accident blackspot.
West Herts coroner Edward Thomas has called for the
bypass speed limit to be reduced to 60mph after years of holding inquests into
deaths on the road. Even before the road opened top cop of the day Divisional
Commander Paddy Flavin warned the design would lead to cars ‘speeding like
bullets’ and criticised the design with no hard shoulder.
More police patrols after rash of burglaries in
town
MORE police are
patrolling the streets in Tring and residents are being told to lock up in a bid
to crackdown on a burglary spree sweeping the town.
14 homes in the town have
been ransacked by burglars in less than a month and last week alone three more
homes were targeted.
Between 7pm on Tuesday, July 26 and 9.30am on Wednesday,
July 27 thieves tried to force their way into a New Road home by jamming open
the kitchen window but failed to gain entry and gave up.
During the same
night thieves broke into another home in the road entering through the kitchen
window while the occupants were asleep upstairs. A wallet containing money and
bank cards, a Sony camcorder and a Fuji digital camera were stolen.
Between
11.30am on Saturday, July 23 and 1pm on Wednesday, July 27 damage was caused to
the windows of a Gamnel Terrace home where thieves had tried to force their way
in.
PC Steve May who covers parts of Tring said: “We have got extra patrols
and officers from the Tring community team have adjusted their shifts to work
into the early hours of the mornings.”
Berkhamsted based officers are also
sending extra man power to Tring to back up patrols.
From July 14 to July 28
there were 14 reported break-ins compared to none in the period between May 25
and July 5.
Herts Police is issuing advice to help residents avoid becoming a
victim of burglary.
This includes:
Lock all doors and keep windows closed
when you are out.
Keep all valuables out of sight and in a secure
place.
Try not to keep large amounts of cash at home.
Consider installing
alarms and security lighting.
Secure your garden.
Fix heavy duty locks
with back plates to sheds and garages.
Do not leave ladders and tools outside
in case burglars use them to get into your home.
Flower show
success
There was a stampede
to buy at this year’s Pendley Flower Show when prices were slashed at 3pm on
Sunday for the last hour. Keen gardeners snapped up bargains, two for one offers
and discounts with many stall holders completely selling out.
A huge cactus
which had taken one stall holder 25 years to grow was sold off on the last day
for a whopping £750.
Pendley Manor Hotel manager Michael Tadros said no one
left the show empty handed, “The show brings a little bit of Chelsea and a
little of Hampton Court Garden Show to people’s doorsteps,” he beamed.
Judges
from the Chelsea Flower Show, John Wheatley, Mary Payne and Ray Davey ranked the
flowers and gardens on display.
Best in Show went to John Trott of Mendip
Bonsai Studio in Somerset for his impressive range of Bonsai, some of which
dated back to the 1950s.
Best Garden went to Matthew and Trudi Rance of Wood
Image in Berkhamsted for their chilled out display of decking, an impressive
water feature and hammock.
Local charities also had a good show with good
causes like the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home and Hospice of St Francis selling
off homemade cards and novel trinkets.
Herts Police also took advantage of
the event to dish out some home security advice and answer any
questions.
