Cassiobury book launched and a reminder of traffic-free days in Watford

It might seem a long way to travel for the launch of a book and, it transpired, no one at the Watford Museum party could rival the distance I had journeyed, but it seemed the least I could do. I have the £20 book back here in France. I have dipped into it a couple of times, and it is now in my “To read” bookshelf.

The fact is that, having written a few local histories myself, I know what is involved and once undertaken, it is not a route to riches. They are invariably a labour of love, taking up far more time than envisaged when first approaching the project. Not only Sarah and the Watford Museum, but also Watford’s and several local libraries, have been of considerable help to me in the past. I thought it was the least I could do to return the compliment.

News of the launch had filtered through to me on the last day during our trip round the capitals. We were in Prague and, after going on the Internet, I determined I could make the round trip, hiring a car, for less than £100. Originally I had planned arriving Wednesday and leaving Friday afternoon, but by the time I had made up my mind, the Friday option on Ryanair had gone and so I returned on Saturday.

It was an excellent, well-attended launch and it was good to see some familiar faces but the next morning, sitting in the car on Watford’s ring-road, I wondered if the journey had really been necessary. I had left my daughter’s in Bushey at 8.45, intending to head for the Watford Observer, thinking the worst of the traffic would be over. How wrong can you be?

Three quarters of an hour later, I was still five minutes shy of the Watford Observer, and I thought I had played it shrewdly by avoiding Bushey Arches and taking the route down Water Lane instead.

I checked my watch, not for timing, but to see if it was still some way to go until the Christmas shopping boom.

Of course the Watford Observer, in the Watford Business Park, is one of several businesses suffering at the hands of parking restrictions and a one-way system imposed by Hertfordshire County Council.

It epitomises the woolly thinking that predominates, not only in Watford, but all over, as councils introduce a series of after-thoughts, losing sight of the original plan.

Businesses were encouraged to go “out of town” to business parks with a view to freeing up the centre of town. Of course, because of the inadequacies of public transport, you needed to drive to these businesses, but now the dipsticks at County Hall have made it hard to function.

The man-hours involved in trying to find a parking place in a park that did not have enough when you were allowed to park in the street, is just one consideration. Hardly a business-friendly Hertfordshire council.

Ironically, had they just introduced a one-way system, their problems would have been solved and they could have turned their attention to making things awkward elsewhere.

So when I arrived in Watford Business Park belatedly that morning, I realised I would have trouble parking. Then the penny dropped. I am no longer an employee but a visitor and I duly headed for the visitors’ parking slots. They were full, temporarily, and I realised that too was logical. No longer can you park in the road and drop off a delivery or quickly place an advert. You have to drive in and wait your turn while some fatuous planner at County Hall parks in the large car park they designed for themselves in Hertford. No shortage of space there.

Of course the Herts CC is not alone in this: the country is too small, overpopulated and there are still thousands waiting to immigrate to the UK. We have a new supermarket in West Watford, there are plans for more houses, here and there, and no one it seems considers the impact on traffic.

If, for instance, Watford Business Park, when launched, had restricted parking to the car parks attached to each unit, how many units would have been leased or rented out? The Park would have been declared a dead duck, lacking in vision from the outset.

I was glad to hit the open road over the mountains from Beziers on my return home on Saturday evening but I was reminded, the UK is not alone in planning myopia.

I drove up to Castres on the Monday. They have a big retail area just outside the main city, which can be reached by the main road out to the central station. Beyond that there are some 40 to 50 units: supermarkets, DIY stores, electrical, furnishing etc – you name it and you can buy it.

The road is single lane in either direction with a central lane, which drivers can use if they should want to turn right or left into one of the superstores. Why they did not design it as a dual-carriageway I don’t know, particularly as Castres is the biggest city in France without a motorway link. You would have thought a dual-carriageway was at the forefront of thinking.

Instead you always hit a queue of traffic in both directions as shoppers and commuters inch along this road. On Saturday’s it is positively painful.

There is one extra detail I forgot to mention: Castres is only effectively accessible by any notable volume of traffic coming from the west. There has been much discussion and signs bedeck fields with regard to protests over the concept of providing a motorway link. It is not as if France does not have the room when compared to the UK. However, the main route to Toulouse remains largely single carriageway,

Oh yes, and as you head out of the Route de Toulouse in Castres, you pass the station, and run right into the Business Park with those 40 units dotted each side. It is even worse than the concept of tearing down the houses on Hempstead Road and putting retail outlets along it, all the way to Langleybury.

As far as I can ascertain, Castres planners are not twinned with Hertford. Now where did I get the idea that they might be?