Plans have been submitted to turn the empty bus garage on St Albans Road into two five-storey block of flats and residents aren’t happy.
Fairview New Homes propose to redevelop the former Arriva bus garage into 165 flats with 150 car parking spaces.
The proposal outlined that 59 of the 165 flats are planned to be one-bedroom, 81 will be two-bedroom and 25 will be three-bedroom.
Councillor Amanda Grimston, who represents the Meriden estate, said: “One of the issues residents are concerned about is the parking spaces in the development and surrounding roads.
“St Albans Road is already at full capacity and this will definitely up the traffic during rush hour during both ends of the day.”
The proposed five-storey buildings will back onto the gardens of the residents of Codicote Drive.
Codicote Drive resident, Mark Foster, said: “The proposed plans will effectively mean that my home will be directly looked onto, and into, by a large number of proposed residents.
“Not to mention if this proposal is approved, it not only contradicts local policy, in terms of density and scale, but sets a worrying precedent that in the future a developer can reference ‘the bus garage development’ and then why not build ‘a bit taller’.”
Amanda added: “Residents are majorly concerned about the main issues of air pollution and traffic. We all understand we need housing but it’s the type of housing – they want houses not flats.”
Another local resident who reached out to GarstonNews said: “My concern is the number of housing going up in and around Garston, it seems to be out of control and being a working parent my thoughts are what are they doing about infrastructure such as easing traffic pressure?
“Then with the addition of these flats where are they proposing to school the extra kids? It’s already difficult to get places and the schools that are taking extra spaces are a nightmare to find parking.”
When contacted for a response, Fairview New Homes declined to comment.
To view the planning application, visit pa.watford.gov.uk/publicaccess/ and search 19/00496/FULM.
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