THE one-way ring-road around Watford could be opened up to traffic flowing in both directions, as part of a plan to improve transport in Hertfordshire.

It is one of the measures contained in Hertfordshire County Council’s draft ‘South West Hertfordshire Growth and Transport Plan’  (SWH GTP).

But the idea has already been slammed as “ludicrous” – and there have been calls for it to be removed, before the plan goes out to public consultation.

Liberal Democrat councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst says changing the flow of the ring-road would be too costly.

He says, it fails to take account of all the car park entrances, positioned on the ‘outside lane’ of the Watford ring-road.

Cllr Giles-Medhurst also claims it does nothing to encourage people to get out of their cars – at a time when the county council aims to move towards public transport, cycling and walking.

“Not only would this be costly, but it would mean changing all the entrances to the car parks, which are on the outside edge,” said Cllr Giles-Medhurst.

“This is a scheme that is car-driven, but we want modal shift – how does that help with modal shift?

The councillor does concede that there may be an advantage to looking at the flow of traffic around Watford Junction Station, to make it easier to access some of the car parks.

But he says that instead of the ring-road, the council should be looking at other ideas, such as increasing the frequency of the Abbey Flyer, putting in tram lines where the Met Line extension would have been or hop-on hop-off bus routes to the hospital.

But Cllr Phil Bibby, the county council’s executive member for highways and environment, says the current ring-road can act as a barrier in Watford.

He stresses that the idea – still at concept stage – will go out to public consultation, so everyone will get the chance to express their views.

“Currently, the ring-road is a barrier to movement for sustainable modes of transport between the town centre and the rest of Watford,” said Cllr Bibby.

“Through the South West Herts Growth and Transport Plan, the county council wants to improve how it works for buses, pedestrians and cyclists in order to encourage and enable more sustainable travel and support the economy of the town.

“The schemes in the Plan are only concepts at this stage and haven’t been developed in detail.  The ring road scheme is just one idea; there may be other ways to achieve the same outcome.”

The South West Hertfordshire Growth and Transport Plan sets out to provide an improved transport network, for future housing and employment development across the county.

It aims to improve ‘connectivity’ in the area – with an emphasis on walking cycling and passenger transport.

It includes nine packages of suggested improvements in Hemel Hempstead East-West corridor; Maylands; Hemel Hempstead-Luton corridor; St Albans-Watford corridor; Watford Western Gateway; Watford-Hemel Hempstead corridor; Watford Central; Watford South; and Rickmansworth.

It was considered by the Council’s Growth, Infrastructure, Planning and the Economy Cabinet Panel earlier this month(July 5).

It is expected to go out to public consultation later this month. It will run for eight weeks, until mid September.

“There will be a public consultation on the Plan in the near future and this will provide an opportunity for people to comment on the concepts and give their views,” said Cllr Bibby.