It is the fastest growing area of Hull and is hugely popular with families looking to new homes and shoppers using the busy retail park. But are councillors right when they argue all of Kingswood looks the same?
They say a confusing road system and similar-looking houses is leading to confusion for visitors to the area.
It is the fastest growing area of Hull and is hugely popular with families looking to new homes and shoppers using the busy retail park. But are councillors right when they argue all of Kingswood looks the same?
They say a confusing road system and similar-looking houses is leading to confusion for visitors to the area.
"It's a nightmare for us posties," said one postman on his daily round yesterday. "We have even completely changed our system of doing the post around here because we can't keep up with everything.
"They are building the place so fast that most of the streets don't even have signs on them yet. If you don't have a regular postman here, don't be surprised if they're walking around for a few hours before they find where they are going."
The question was raised as councillors discussed adopting a new long-term plan for the increasingly sprawling estate. While the plan's broad policies were supported, some eyebrows were raised over a section in a chapter highlighting the need for high-quality design.
According to a sub-heading, Kingswood should be "a place where it is easy to find your way around". However, unless you happen to be a long-term resident, this particular aim is currently a challenge for even the most experienced of urban explorers.
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Much of Kingswood resembles a never-ending series of cul-de-sacs all linked together in a confusing fashion, seemingly designed to bewilder Amazon couriers and takeaway delivery drivers.
Politicians who have experienced Kingswood's streets by knocking on doors during election campaigns disagreed with the suggestion that it is an easy place to get your bearings.
"I got lost there all the time," recalled Conservative councillor John Fareham. "It doesn't help when you've got street name signs 400 yards away from the first house in a particular street."
Does Kingswood all look the same?
Planning committee chairman Councillor Sean Chaytor agreed. He said: "It's not a great deal of fun trying to find your way around, especially when some houses have front doors at the back."
However, at Kingswood Retail Park, where a new £12m multi-storey Next is being built, Beatrice Biggs had a different view.
The 94-year-old, who comes to the area from Bilton Grange once a week to buy groceries, said: "It's not confusing at all. The only reason councillors get confused is because they sit all day in an office and rarely come out to the real world.
"If I'm 94 and I can do it with no problems, so should they."
Heading further into the estate, we found people enjoying the sun at the Village Green Café Bar. Dean Ashton, who has lived in Kingswood for 13 years, said he had no problem finding his way around the area, but has issues with the roundabout at Runnymede Way, which has been altered to accommodate the new Next.
He said: "We used to have a beautiful fountain area with grass and a pond, and now we have a roundabout and a three-storey building going up. The whole place is looking like an industrial estate and the thing is so high that I don't even get TV signal any more.
"And the roundabout itself is a total mess. If you ever see it on a weekend, the traffic is unbearable and it can take 45 minutes just to get out of your own home."
The council's planning manager Alex Codd acknowledged some housing areas in Kingswood could be confusing to newcomers and that improvements need to be made. He said: "We accept it's not easy to negotiate around at the moment.
"That's the feedback we got from the design groups we set up as part of the process of drawing up the area plan. It's something that needs to be improved in the future."
