The village of Cookham looks set to take yet another hit next month from key road closures – including the road over Cookham Bridge.
Traffic is expected to be ‘a nightmare’ as the village takes a double hit of road closures near the High Street at the end of March and beginning of April.
In the public notices last week, the Royal Borough announced a closure of Sutton Road travelling north into Ferry Lane, Bourne End.
Keen-eyed residents will have noticed that this takes Cookham Bridge out of action.
This has uncomfortable echoes to 2023, when a 20-week closure of the bridge caused public figures to express strong fears over the impact on High Street businesses.
Then a year ago, the pattern repeated; Cookham High Street faced ‘another nail in the coffin’ when 34 weeks of major roadworks were announced for ‘essential’ Cadent Gas works on Sutton Road.
Though this closure is for a shorter period this time – March 30 to April 12 – the community still remembers the ‘chaos’ of those closures and is not looking forward to this one.
The diversion route is substantial; it turns a trip of a few minutes across the bridge into a nearly 14-mile journey, taking at least 10 times as long.
Maidenhead resident Gavin Pidduck, seeing the road closure order notice, wondered why there hadn’t been more communication, given the likely ‘major traffic delays’.
“You know how much traffic goes across there in terms of businesses – it’s going to affect residents on both sides,” he said.
“I’m just a bit surprised there’s no been no PR by the council to residents [about it].”
Speaking to the Advertiser on Wednesday, Bourne End Parish Council, Cookham Parish Council (CPC) and The Ferry pub all said they were unaware of the closure.
In addition, the Sutton Road closure coincides with another one about half a mile away. This work, split across three phases, runs across six weeks.
It begins with a closure between Lower Road and Crook Cottage in High Road, over the same date as the Sutton Road one – March 30 to April 12 (the Easter school holidays).
Bill Perry, chairman of CPC, says the news of the Sutton Road closure, on top of the High Road one, is an unpleasant surprise,
If the past and experience is anything to go by, the traffic ‘is going to be a nightmare’, he said.
“The problems it will cause are going to be horrendous,” said Cllr Perry.
“It’s going to be very difficult and unpleasant for anyone driving.”
All the closures are for gas mains replacement by Cadent Gas, which says the company has a final stretch of pipe to replace – nearly 100m from St George’s Lodge to Odney Lane – which completes the work it started last year.
It says more than 500 letters about the road closure have gone out this week to property owners, homes and businesses.
Cadent also claims the closure on High Road ‘will not have any direct impact on the road closure on Sutton Road or its diversion route’.
A Cadent spokesperson said the company ‘will visit any businesses to ensure their needs are met.’
A spokesperson for the Royal Borough said the council plans to share information about the closure through its own communication channels ahead of the start date of the works.
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