Adrian wrote:

Tony Polson gurgled happily, sounding much
like they were saying:

However, the proposal could see seven separate landowners forced to sell
up to make way for the new road. The affected land is currently occupied
by Homebase, T K Maxx and Staples, among others.

It is a bit emotive for the reporter to say "shops will be bulldozed" as
these are low rent retail sheds that could easily be relocated to other
equally or more suitable sites in the borough. We are certainly not
talking about prime retail space here, or even secondary retail!

Hmm. If the perceived quality of the retail space is a factor, then
there's a significant portion of Watford outside of the Harlequin Centre
which should consider itself at high risk...

Indeed. ;-)


That's a reasonably decent sized stretch of large "shed"-style retail.
It's not going to be easy to find a similar area of land to repurpose to
a similar retail park.


Perhaps not all in one place, I agree.


As for Park-and-Ride to London, you seem to forget Luton.


No, I didn't forget it. It is about as difficult to reach from the M1
as Watford Junction is now. When Watford Junction gets a link road
right into the station and a multi-storey car park, it will be a far
superior choice.

As for park and ride for rail trips to the north west, Luton is no use.
It's OK for Derby, Sheffield and Nottingham but the same consideration
applies as for Milton Keynes - once you have driven as far as Luton or
MK and faced the problems of getting to the car park and finding a
space, you might as well do the whole journey by car.

I have often used Bedford as a park and ride for rail journeys to Derby,
Sheffield and even Leeds, but the problems getting to Bedford on the
A421 (due to major road works) on top of the usual congestion in Bedford
mean that I now choose to drive all the way. For Leeds I have also used
Oxford and travelled on Cross Country.