Update - 26 Feb 2013 Feb 26. 2013 | Comments (0)
I received an email from the Forestry Commission yesterday afternoon, they have seen the response to the work carried out on the layby and have decided to reinstate it.
As a result I
arranged to meet their representative on-site this morning - to discuss
and agree the reinstatement works.
In brief, the ditch will be
moved back to enable front-on parking again, the spoil bank will now
border the parking (rather than the ditch), and pedestrian access will be installed to give users
easy level access onto the Plain. The Forestry Commission will also provide public
access at the smaller layby further along the road. However, as vehicles
tend to leave the main road at speed, a small stretch of the roadside
ditch nearest to the junction will be left in it's current position as a
safety measure - to help prevent any collisions when users are reversing
in/out.
The Commission intends to carry out the work themselves (rather than use a contractor) before the end of the week.
This is a great outcome and I would like to thank everyone who has supported this petition, your comments have been particularly useful and most welcome.
I would also like to thank the Forestry Commission for listening to us and offering to address this problem so speedily.
Finally, to help prevent any misunderstandings on what the 'car-free ditching' project is trying to achieve, the Forestry Commission provided me with a copy of a recent article they prepared on this subject for the New Forest Post. As many people may not have seen this I've included it below for information - the 3rd paragraph provides a good summary.