Potential bypass near house

studentguy

Hi All,

We've seen a house we really like, and it looks out onto lovely coutnryside on the edge of a town and an old historical abbey (still with monks!) - however, there are proposals for a bypass which could take one of 7 routes with varying degrees near the house, anywhere from 150m, to 500m, none of the routes go right past the front (ie, they don't go between you and the abbey), they all go round the back of the abbey, and potentially up to your right.

It's the only real thing we're concerned with this house - however an identical house with a better plot, but will be much closer to at least some of the routes of the bypass, is currently Sold STC with an asking price £11,500 more than this house. So it doesn't appear as if it's scaring anyone off. It's also still in the consultation stages, it could fall through, there's been talk of a bypass round here for 50 years and it's yet to happen. They haven't even decided if it's going to be a single or dual carriageway yet.



Key: The hatched lines are potential routes, there are 7 in total, but at this area they all merge into 3 different routes. The red circle is the house we're considering, the green line behind it symbolises it's garden, the black lines symbolise it's view (as it's slightly angled so it looks towards the abbey at the bottom of the picture) - there are trees at the estate limit which according to street view, do basically block out the field during the summer months. The green circle is the house that is STC, with the green symbolising it's garden which is very close to some proposed routes.

We're umming and arring about it. Neither of us are massive outdoor people, we see us only using the garden for BBQs/hosting during the summer, and potentially a hot tub one day. Possibly opening the back double doors too. But we're not green fingers going to be spending hours in the garden. The house is about 15 years old, so I doubt any noise will be audible inside the house, with it's double glazing etc (at least I hope not as we work from home!)

I suppose the question is, would you go for the house? The house ticks a lot of our boxes, is nice, and is in a nice area with decent views and is quiet, with not a lot of people around you. We don't see houses like this popping up very often. But with the uncertainty of the bypass, it makes us nervous.

What do you folks think?

davidmcn

Consider the risk of it still being proposed (or under construction) by the time you sell - it'll undoubtedly put buyers off. If it's actually finished then it's less of an unknown quantity and people can decide for themselves whether there's unacceptable noise.

studentguy

That's a good point, although the house nearby was only on the market a couple of months before selling (STC). I don't know if we could negotiate harder on price because of the uncertainty or not.

ThePants999

Well, if they pick the option that goes straight down the river, there probably won't be much road noise.

spadoosh

You can more or less guarantee it will be built, thats for sure. Might not be now, in 5 or 10 years but in 50 it will be built.

Most bypasses that get built get built in nice country fields. Every mile or so youll get a roundabout, which youll think odd at first as its a single straight road, then a planning application goes in for a few houses near the roundabout. Seems odd that they put such a big roundabout in for a few houses. Then the next phase comes along and houses are being built between the round abouts. Then they all link together. Then you have a new village.

The good thing is about yours is it involves a bridge and theyre expensive so should be delayed as long as possible. But they will build a bypass at some point and with that will come with new build housing estates dotted along it.

Ours started 25+ years ago. The bypass got started about 20, the houses started coming about 10 years ago, second stage houses are now being built and the bypass is being widened.

You dont build new roads to maintain old villages, you build new roads to build new villages.

EachPenny

Looking at the map in the local paper I'd say there is a high probability of one of the routes closest to the house being adopted. They clearly have difficulties in finding a route which avoids sensitive areas, hence the number of options and serpentine nature. The council also seem confident of getting the funding to go ahead.

All the routes except the green one pass closer to the house you are looking at. They will also try to minimise the impact on the golf course whilst keeping a reasonable distance from the abbey. To me it appears the green route has been added as a consultation alternative, whilst the decision has to some extent already been made.

One of the impotant points to think about is the road would be crossing the river here, and the crossing point will need to be built above the flood level. This means the road going on an embankment or viaduct, rather than dropping into a cutting. This is absolutely key in terms of noise - roads above ground level propagate noise far better than those in cutting. The council will probably need to look at noise attenuation measures (walls) to reduce the impact on surrounding properties, but these in turn can increase the visual impact.

The other thing to consider is that if the value of the property is affected by the road being built there is legislation - the Land Compensation Act 1973 - which deals with issues such as noise and vibration. This is a complex area of highway law and claims can drag on - hence councils now tend to buy affected properties outright (and then resell) rather than compensating the owners. As a minimum you might see new double glazing installed at the council's expense.

The property is already affected by planning blight by the sound of it, the question for you really is whether you are buying this house for the long-term or might want to move before the bypass is completed. Selling in the middle of the construction period, or with open LCA claims, may not be easy.

BTW my money would be on the red route, but moved slightly closer to the yellow one.

studentguy

Thanks for the replies so far, just to answer some points raised:

Most bypasses that get built get built in nice country fields. Every mile or so youll get a roundabout, which youll think odd at first as its a single straight road, then a planning application goes in for a few houses near the roundabout. Seems odd that they put such a big roundabout in for a few houses. Then the next phase comes along and houses are being built between the round abouts. Then they all link together. Then you have a new village.

True, and is one of the reasons they're doing the bypass - they're planning on building houses further to the north of this section, with the bypass going straight through it. Quite how they can call it a bypass when it's planned to go through a housing estate is beyond me!

Looking at the map in the local paper I'd say there is a high probability of one of the routes closest to the house being adopted. They clearly have difficulties in finding a route which avoids sensitive areas, hence the number of options and serpentine nature. The council also seem confident of getting the funding to go ahead.

Yeah possibly, they do probably have their minds made up already, and are consulting to placate people. They were considering an eastern bypass but that got scuppered due to environmental reasons, so are now looking at the west - there's a lot of opposition to this as well, mainly because people don't think it bypasses the city enough, it's too close.

All the routes except the green one pass closer to the house you are looking at.

Yeah, it's hard to judge just how close, as it won't be straight across the property, coming in from a sort of S shape - although all the routes (apart from green) are VERY close to the red house which has just Sold STC, interestingly.

One of the impotant points to think about is the road would be crossing the river here, and the crossing point will need to be built above the flood level. This means the road going on an embankment or viaduct, rather than dropping into a cutting

Yeah good point, not sure when the route would begin to be elevated, the publicly released plans aren't that detailed yet

I'm assuming that based on your analysis, you'd recommend to leave well alone?

Lorian

There is no option that runs down the river. I have some knowledge of the site.

Dont expect any logical order to this post.

I'm sure the road WILL now be built. The council have in the last few days started the prep work on southern link road that will join to this, running from the B4399 to where this road starts on the A465.

Personally I am pretty certain it will be single carrigage way, with no cycle lane, as per the spec of the Southern link road.

Your black line indicating view is too optomistic IMHO. Your view stretches in an arc, emcompassing much of the proposed road, and while the few scrubby trees and bushes to the west of the propery, you WILL see the road. If you get lucks and the the greenroute is built on the - personally as long as I knew it was happening, and was priced in, then I might take the gamble. If you get unlucky and get the yelow or red then it WILL be significantly worse.

For the rear garden, it will be shielded from view, and a little for noise - but certainly not completely. I dont think the council have made any noise maps public yet, might not even be comissioned yet.

If you want to better imagine what the road will look like go sit on the side of the B4399 between the A49 and Rotherwas. This is what to expect size and grade wise.

The proximity will mean noise and dust during the construction phase.

The council will no doubt plan to convince the highways agency to de-trunk the A49 and send all though traffic on this road, so its not going to be a country lane.

Are you also aware that the open space to the east of this set of houses (the raised land towards the community centre) is the capped, vented old Hereford Landfill site? I'm not telling you this to necesarily detract - but its better you are well informed. Its because of this "feature" that I know the spot.

Dont assume that the routes are not scaring people off - they have only been annunced since about the end of January.

EachPenny

studentguy wrote: »

True, and is one of the reasons they're doing the bypass - they're planning on building houses further to the north of this section, with the bypass going straight through it. Quite how they can call it a bypass when it's planned to go through a housing estate is beyond me!

It is the modern way - build houses right up the the boundaries of trunk roads and bypasses, then have a nightmare of a job if anyone wants to widen them in the future.

On that subject, something else which I should have mentioned in my previous post is that all the routes sever part of the golf course. It is unlikely a bridge will be built to link the two parts, so the area which is cut off is likely to be prime housing development land. An obvious and easy means of access into that area of land would be via the end of the close, where there is currently a turning head and area of green space.

On the plus side this land being developed would shield the house you are looking at from the road, but on the down side the view from the front of 'your' house would be of a housing estate rather than green areas.

studentguy wrote: »

I'm assuming that based on your analysis, you'd recommend to leave well alone?

As per my previous post - it depends on how long you are planning on living there and your assessment of risk of needing to move unexpectedly. If you can ride out the work until the road is finished and all claims settled, then you shouldn't really let the scheme put you off. The impact of the scheme is difficult to predict for sure, but any of the routes would change the character of the house (more so at the front than the back).

The bottom line is that if the green view is replaced with more houses and a road, will that put people off to the extent it would devalue your new home? That is a very difficult call, because for every person who enjoys a countryside scene, there will be others who find the fields 'creepy' and would prefer to have more neighbours instead.

studentguy

As per my previous post - it depends on how long you are planning on living there and your assessment of risk of needing to move unexpectedly. If you can ride out the work until the road is finished and all claims settled, then you shouldn't really let the scheme put you off. The impact of the scheme is difficult to predict for sure, but any of the routes would change the character of the house (more so at the front than the back).

The bottom line is that if the green view is replaced with more houses and a road, will that put people off to the extent it would devalue your new home? That is a very difficult call, because for every person who enjoys a countryside scene, there will be others who find the fields 'creepy' and would prefer to have more neighbours instead.

Our intention is to stay somewhere for long term, we wouldn't be looking to move for a while - obviously unless circumstances change, but nothing foreseeable. We don't have a problem with seeing a road outside (as long as it's not RIGHT outside), but it's the noise and pollution that would worry us, and resale value for when we do resale, I worry about negative equity!

Good point about the houses potentially being built. Think that's likely? It seems so silly to build houses right next to a potentially noisy road.

EachPenny

studentguy wrote: »

Good point about the houses potentially being built. Think that's likely? It seems so silly to build houses right next to a potentially noisy road.

Silly or otherwise doesn't really come in to it these days... MORE houses is all that matters.

For an example search for "Lilianna Road Colchester" - for best effect see Google Maps with satellite images. Would you want to live at the end, almost on top of the A12? And the A12 carries far more traffic than the bypass you are looking at - plus a large percentage of A12 traffic is made up of HGV's on their way to and from Harwich and Felixstowe docks.