The owners of houses on the Princes Gardens outer loop  received formal notice in early 2021 of plans to repair the service road running behind their homes. This service road also serves some odd numbered houses on Vale Lane and Tudor Gardens.
 

The service road hasn’t been maintained for many years and the concrete surface is breaking up badly in some places. It needs to be fixed so rubbish and recycling trucks can get through and residents can access their garages safely.

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This is a capital project, to be paid for by the properties concerned rather than from HHGERA reserves. The owners concerned were therefore put on notice to expect an invoice of up to £400 per house (on top of the normal annual service charge of £60) to pay for the work. 

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The 2021 Annual General Meeting approved the project in principle and agreed funding arrangements that avoid the risk of a long term strain on Residents Association reserves.

Meanwhile, the working group organising the project identified the areas most in need of repair (see map) and met six specialist contractors on site. (We can’t resurface the whole length because it would cost millions of pounds and there is no Council or government funding because it is owned indirectly by residents.) Three companies were invited to tender and one was chosen as the preferred bid.

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Unfortunately, at that point it became clear that neither prices nor timing could be guaranteed because of raw material bottlenecks in the aftermath of Covid. We have therefore decided to delay the repairs for 1-2 years, until the construction market is more stable. The work already done won’t be wasted, though, as specification and contractor details will be kept on file. Contact the team via serviceroads@hhgera.com if you have any questions