Comments Re-Site WY1 of the NHDC Local Plan.
Traffic:
Is it reasonable to assume that NHDC has conducted a traffic survey in regard to the lanes serving the village and in particular at peak times?
Access to the village with the exception of Stevenage Road is primarily via narrow country lanes which have either limited or no lighting and no provision for pedestrians. Even at current traffic levels these lanes can be dangerous particularly at busy times, in the dark and in bad weather. Further they are used as "rat runs" between Stevenage, Letchworth and Hitchin
Stevenage Road and the lanes become congested when traffic problems occur on the A1(M) or the by-pass and are subject to vehicles travelling at speeds well in excess of the speed limit.
Access/exit to and from the proposed development will be extremely dangerous.
This situation will be aggravated of the proposed industrial developments also take place.
Flooding:
Presumably NHDC has investigated the whole issue of flooding in the village as clearly Stevenage Borough Council indicated earlier in the year that it was unaware of any problems of local flooding.
The Environment Agency recognise that parts of the village are at a high risk of flooding.
It is not difficult to understand why. The village is in a river valley; several watercourses meet at various points within the village; the topography is such that the natural flow of rain water is down to the centre of the village; and the soil structure in the area is sand over clay, hence the ater tower/pumping station in the village. Living in Church Path, this can be seen whenever it rains. Surface water flows down the incline to collect in Stevenage Road but more significantly so does underground water which can be seen as it seeks to rise through the road surface and does so with ease. When Affinity Water undertook pipe repair work a few years ago, every hole dug quickly filled with water from underground and the contractors noted that they had not been made aware of the underground streams that they discovered. This, of course, is supported by the fact that all of the properties originally had hand pumps in their gardens to access water and that the clay is less than 3 feet below the surface.
Stevenage Road turns into a small river when it rain heavily, collecting water from adjacent fields which is exaggerated by the barrier of the A1(M), the railway embankment, and the by-pass.
Flooding is clearly likely to occur more often irrespective of this development as climate change would suggest that we will experience more heavy downpours rather than previous steady but longer periods of rain.
Environment:
Presumably, NHDC has considered the balance between the number of businesses in the parish and the number of residential properties. On a rough calculation this is currently 1:10. This already contributes to traffic levels as the majority of employees are from outside of the village and will increase if further industrial units are also built.
Education:
It has been suggested that the school in the village would be expanded to meet the demands of families in the new development.
Have NHDC investigated what percentage of pupils currently live outside of the village. Given the number of cars dropping children of this would appear to high, but this should be obvious as clearly a village of 300 houses cannot sustain even a 0.5 FE. If HCC agree to add a further 0.5 FE to support the new development, there will still be insufficient children to fill the school but, of course, HCC would see it as an opportunity to allocate children from the local towns where there are insufficient places.