Huntingdon ring-road was reduced to one lane again for part of Wednesday and Thursday last week to ensure the safety of the public whilst the upper floors of part of Pathfinder House were demolished.  Earlier in the week Huntingdonshire District Council had been optimistic that this would not have been necessary.  By Friday (14 December) it was finally business as usual in Huntingdon much to everyone’s relief.

On behalf of the district council, Councillor Mike Simpson, deputy leader, apologised to the public and the town’s retailers for the disruption during the busy pre-Christmas shopping time. The retailers’ concerns that shoppers had avoided the town were spelt out at a meeting of the Huntingdon Town Centre Partnership which Richard Preston, the council’s project manager, attended last week. 

Speaking after the meeting Mr Preston said: “Our primary concern had to be public safety and the lane closure was essential whilst there was the slightest chance of any debris flying off into the road.  I accept that the timing was not good but it was a consequence of unavoidable delays earlier in the 40 month project to replace the council’s depot and headquarters buildings.

Our demolition contractor has pushed on as quickly as he could and by Tuesday lunchtime it looked as though we would not need the lane restriction again.  But by late on Tuesday afternoon we had to accept that there was a risk of the building becoming unstable if we just carried on removing the bits that posed a potential problem for the ring road.  I apologise for any inconvenience that was caused by the statement we put out earlier on Tuesday.”

The Town Centre Partnership will now receive regular updates on the Pathfinder House redevelopment which together with the new Law Centre and other redevelopment on Walden Road will send a very strong message about the vitality of Huntingdon. 

The district council has invested close to £2 millions in recent years upgrading Huntingdon’s Market Hill, the High Street and St Benedict’s Court and decided to keep its headquarters in the town centre for the convenience of its customers and because of the contribution that its 400 staff make to the town’s lunch-time economy.

The now demolished depot site at Bridge Place, Godmanchester, will be turned into a new 200+ space extension to the existing small public car park at the front of the site in the New Year.  The cleared site has been opened to the public as additional parking on the remaining Saturdays before Christmas.