New Colnbrook park and ride plan hoped to alleviate ULEZ pressures on Heathrow staff

Heathrow is applying to turn a golf driving range on the greenbelt of Colnbrook into a park and ride – to help its staff be able to afford to get to work in the wake of ULEZ restrictions.

The plans involve the demolition of the old golf clubhouse buildings set on a 27,000sqm golf driving range in Galleymead Road.

It is based in the greenbelt and Colne Valley Regional Park, but has not been used for golfing site since ‘at least 2015.’

The plan is for 961 parking spaces, though the application is for a temporary period of three years.

Transport for London is expanding the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) across all London boroughs later this month, including at Heathrow Airport.

This means that employees travelling to the airport will be subject to the new charge if they travel to work with a non-compliant vehicle.

This represents ‘a significant proportion’ of an employee’s salary, ‘especially given the high levels of inflation and the elevated cost of living’.

The local situation within Slough is even worse given the socio-economic make-up of the borough, added Heathrow.

About 5,000 employees affected by the ULEZ expansion – around 43 per cent – reside either within Slough Borough, or within the area around Slough or the adjacent M25 motorway corridor.

Approximately 2,150 employees reside within the area local to Slough.

The economic need for the development for the employees in Slough, is therefore ‘significant.’

The proposed works at Galleymead Road are to build a temporary park and ride facility to allow Heathrow Airport staff time to transition to ULEZ compliant vehicles or other forms of transport.

One potential issue is that the application site is designated as Flood Zone 3, an area with high probability of flooding (1 in 100 or greater chance per year of flooding from the river).

The Wraysbury River and Poyle Channel are located to the east and south of the site.

Moreover, in some parts of the area there is a high risk of flooding – greater than 3.3 per cent each year – due to runoff from a steep hill.

Another issue is its siting on the greenbelt – although it is previously developed for the golf driving range.

The existing site ‘performs poorly’ in respect of the five purposes of the greenbelt, Heathrow says – ie, detracts from its openness without making good use of the land.

The buildings, structures and hardstanding that exist are planned to be removed to make way for the temporary proposal, before then being permanently replaced with a fully landscaped area.

This will result in ‘a significant increase to the openness of the greenbelt’ – thus, it is ‘clear’ the proposal would ‘be to the long-term benefit’ of it, argue Heathrow.

In addition, once the development has ceased operation, there would be ecological enhancements, leading to a biodiversity net gain of above 10 per cent.

There will be a 5m green buffer on the eastern and southern boundaries of the site.

Another potential issue is noise. – Galleymead Road shows a predicted noise level increase of 4.0dB during daytime and 5dB during night-time and this is due to the relatively large increase in traffic flow on this road due to the scheme.

But noise level increases on Galleymead Road ‘will be masked by road traffic noise using Bath Road,’ and the noise impact will be ‘negligible’, claims Heathrow.

The site is also within 1-2km of a variety of designated sites for nature conservation – including Wraysbury Reservoir, Staines Moor, Arthur Jacob Local Nature Reserve.

To see all documents, enter reference P/10423/005 into Slough council’s planning portal.