Local residents put forward an impassioned plea to the authorities to address the issue of fires as well as dangerous traffic linked to Hitchin's industrial estate at a meeting on Friday (28th March) 

One resident of Hillfield Road expressed her fears for children's health; either from fumes from the fires or from the threat of traffic from the site.

Hosting the meeting Hitchin's MP, Alastair Strathern, recognised that "in an ideal world this wouldn't be the optimal place" to base the sites but promised to "pull all levers available to us" to improve things. 

The MP updated as to what he described as "short term wins" as well as outlining longer term plans to either relocate the facilities or have them linked by roads that don't travel through the middle of Hitchin.

District and County Councillor, Ian Albert, revealed the figures that there were 19,000 lorry journeys along Grove Road in 2024 to the Global Ardour site alone. 

Positive news related to increased coordination and a more joined up response across the various responsible agencies going forward.

Fire safety has apparently been improved with a series of task force meetings resulting in more CCTV on site, more secure lithium battery storage and the locating of a million gallon water tank on site. 

Although the focus of the meeting was focused on the issue of fires residents raised wider concerns of traffic safety. Frustration was expressed as to the lack of relief road to the industrial estate, in particular using money linked to the Highover Farm development. 

One suggestion was to incentivise the facilities to move to newly developed sites near to Stevenage and main road access. Meanwhile Alistair Strathern encouraged residents to send him photos of lorries without netting reminding the room that "you are our eyes and ears".