including Beech Bottom Dyke and Sandridge Road Wastes
We were very grateful to everyone who contacted the press and their local Councillors when we got the shock news, only a week ahead of the Cabinet Panel meeting on 9 December, that Hertfordshire County Council (“HCC”) was going back on its previous decision in 2014 to support discussions with the District Council to transfer the Lower Heath to them.
Continue reading “The Lower Heath – what’s happening now?”
Work on the removal of hundreds of tons of sand and hardcore which made up the road across the Lower Field has been going ahead this week and it looks as if it will be completed next week beginning 30th January. Material is being transported to the old fire station yard before removal from the site.
Continue reading “Farewell to the temporary Road”
It must be a great relief to residents of Fontmell and Bridle close that almost all traces of the sinkhole have gone after 14 months of repair works. The Grand Opening is on Saturday, 3rd December.
FoBH looks forward to the removal of the temporary road across the Lower Heath, scheduled for early next year.
The news of a sinkhole in Fontmell Close, which appeared dramatically in the early hours of the 1st October 2015, rapidly hit the national media.
Not only were residents stranded in Fontmell Close and Bridle Close, but the event prompted a long sequence of investigations on the adjacent Bernards Heath and the construction of a relief road across the Lower Field.
The 12m hole has been partially filled with concrete and most services restored. You can read a press release by the Herts County Council, who hope to have the road through Fontmell Close open again by Christmas.
There is no news yet about the removal of the temporary road across the Lower Field.
There are more links to the sinkhole in our document archive.
A verdant sward of new grass now runs across the Lower Field towards Fontmell Close. This was recently an unsightly mess following attempts to provide access for residents of Fontmell and Bridle Close after the sinkhole appearance last October. Photo: MN.
Work started this week to restore the Lower Field. The photo on the left shows how it looked after the Fontmell/Bridle Close sinkhole episode and the photo on the right shows how things are beginning to look now. Photos: MN Peter Bone, Senior Surveyor – Public Sector Services, Lambert Smith Hampton writes:
I should like to let you know that remediation works to the area of ground that was disturbed by the original temporary access route to Fontmell Close and Bridle Close will be commencing next week. The works will comprise levelling of the rutted areas and cultivating the topsoil ready for grass seeding.
The reinstatement area will need to be temporarily fenced off with cones and tape whilst the works are carried out, and the fencing will be left in place after the area has been seeded to give the new grass a chance to establish itself. The advice we have on that is that it would be best if the reinstated area could be left for the grass to re-establish the root system until May 2017 if possible. It would therefore be helpful if you could help to let users of the field know that a period for the grass cover to regenerate itself will be beneficial in the longer term.
We are also arranging for other works such as grass cutting, weed spraying, and a tidying-up of branches across the larger field area.
Last October the country thrilled to the drama of the sinkhole on Bernards Heath – and the story is not finished yet.
Much was written and said in the media, but there is nothing like being on the spot to hear an explanation of the factors which came together to ‘make the earth move’.
Over the summer, Roger Miles, member of FoBH Committee, longtime resident of the Heath, amateur archaeologist and local historian, will be leading small group tours of the Heath on the theme of the sinkhole.
Geology, industrial archaeology, local history and even literature all figure in the story, but there will be nothing ‘difficult’ to understand.
If you would like to join one of the tour groups, which can be on a weekday, weekend or evening – state preference – let us know, plus how many you would be. You will be notified when a tour is planned.
Peter Bone, Senior Surveyor for Public Sector Services, writes ‘Please note that the County Council has arranged for some further survey works to be carried out to check the ground conditions at the Ariston Works site.
Continue reading “Ariston Site – Further Survey Works”
If you have walked along Heathlands Drive recently, you will probably have noticed clearance work near the Judo Club building. Following on from work on the Lower Field, ground checks are being made on this area and the possibilility of having to divert the road.
Chris Parkes FRICS, director of Lambert Smith Hampton, informs us that:
‘Survey work is required to check out some gravitational anomalies that have been found in the vicinity of the entrance to Heathlands School.
There are 2 elements to the work:
1. Thursday 11 February and Monday 15 February- clearance and microgravity survey of an alternative route to the school behind the Judo Club (to allow for the unlikely event that the other survey work causes concern over ground stability of the existing access road). The clearance work is being carried out with a JCB, so there will be some noise.
2. Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 February drilling in the access road outside the school gates to check on subsoil conditions. Depending on what that reveals, further intrusive survey works may be required.
The current intention is that the access road will be narrowed whilst the works are carried out, but will ‘remain in use’.
Friends of Bernards Heath met with representatives of St Albans District Council and councillors Roma Mills and Richard Curthoys to review the current condition of the Lower Field. The new road across the field from the old fire station works well, but many objects have been left, seemingly at random, which make the area look untidy and in some areas, dangerous. It is hoped that contractors will be able to tidy up in the near future.
Continue reading “Objects left on the Lower Field”