1:20pm Monday 15th March 2010
By Manisha Mistry
A RESIDENT faced daily with anti-social behaviour, speeding cars and constant fly-tipping says there is a long way to go before a danger lane is closed.
Lynn Myland, of Barley Mow Lane, told the Review although an exhibition has been held to showcase plans for a temporary gating order the problems are far from being banished.
Four options have been put forward by Hertfordshire County Council for the proposed temporary closure of the village lane. Each option suggests different points where the boundary will start and end.
However Lynn and her husband Martin, who live in the former Barley Mow pub, hope that after a four-year battle with problems in the lane a resolution is met.
She said: “The lane is just too dangerous for the amount of people who use it. There are blind bends and every time you go out you face a different problem.
“The gating order is the only option and way forward to help us.
“Some one in Highfield Lane says things have improved but as Anne Main heard from the neighbourhood sergeant things have not changed.”
Supporting the couple is St Albans MP Anne Main who hopes the option three, which will see the lane closed between the Barley Mow mobile home park, to the Barley Mow stables, is considered.
She said this was the option favoured by Lynn and Martin and most of the residents she spoke to at the exhibition this weekend.
Mrs Main said: “There were a lot of people at the exhibition on hand to speak about the plans.
“I spoke to a few residents who wanted to know what was going on because aside from the residents who are backing the gating order there are others who have no idea why it is being proposed.
“The option I do not favour in the consultation is the do nothing option. This is not a permanent structure this is a temporary thing which will be reviewed annually.
“We owe it to the residents to try it. It will not be blocking the road forever it will be a temporary measure which will hopefully bring peace to the residents who have experienced at first hand the anti-social behaviour.”
Mrs Main said she understood the feelings of people around use use Barley Mow Lane and say it should not be closed.
But she added: “For all the anti-social behaviour and problems the small amount of residents in Barley Mow Lane have had to put up with over the past few years we owe it to them.
“I am fighting for the residents in the immediate area. There will be people who do not want it but if you lived in that lane you would hope it is at least tried.”
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