Petition to improve Harvest Hill Road in Maidenhead for pedestrians and cyclists has 400 signatures

A petition to make improvements to Harvest Hill Road has been launched and has collected almost 400 signatures so far.

The petition asks the Royal Borough to ‘consider pedestrian and cycle improvements to Harvest Hill Road to encourage sustainable travel.’

The suggestion is to create cycling access on the flyover across the A404, creating a direct route to Ockwells Park.

Currently, anyone outside the Cox Green area has little option but to drive to Ockwells.

The petition reads: “With additional pedestrian and cycle improvements, Harvest Hill Road would provide a direct link between Ockwells Park and Braywick Park, which would also encourage enjoyment of the outdoors.

“The Maidenhead Golf Course development may well bring forward future improvements and we believe it would be good for RBWM to start thinking about what this may look like now and – if possible – bringing forward plans sooner rather than later.”

Residents have previously highlighted problems with Harvest Hill, which has been the site of some accidents and can be ‘quite dangerous’ in the dark.

Petition leader Councillor Ross McWilliams (Con, Cox Green) said:

“One of the things that came out of the [Shoppenhangers Road] bus gate consultation was concerns over traffic being forced to go down Harvest Hill, which is much less suitable for heavy traffic.

“The bus gate wasn’t the right scheme, but what came out of that was people flagging that Harvest Hill could potentially be a road that could be improved.”

A potential change would be extending the pavement that prevents walking from Shoppenhangars Road to Braywick Park safely, given the business of that road.

Currently, its pavement only extends to halfway up the road, which makes walking the route safely more difficult.

Cllr McWilliams explained that the reason he put forward a petition, as opposed to just making a suggestion within the administration, is because it was necessary to gauge public support first.

“It would take too much of officers’ time to look at a scheme which only has the support of a single councillor.

“A petition lets us demonstrate public support in a formal way, rather than going forward with a consultation that isn’t going to work.”

Harvest Hill has been the site of a number of serious accidents in recent years, including the death of a cyclist. 

The petition closes on September 10. Visit it at petitions.rbwm.gov.uk/HarvestHillRoad