We object to the development labelled LG-1. The local plan does not include acreage therefore the housing density cannot be calculated.
THE SPECIAL CASE OF LETCHWORTH.
The genesis of Letchworth Garden City was Sir Ebenezer Howard's revolutionary project for a healthier society and as such generated a new social movement worldwide. The main principle was Letchworth would be a self-sustaining town with a carefully planned balance between urban and rural living. Tourists and students of town planning from all over the world visit this prototype modern garden city; they would be dismayed at the iconoclasm of the Local Plan. Moreover, to preserve proximity of the countryside, an agricultural belt (later designated green belt) was to provide farm produce and health-giving open space and fresh air. Nowhere was to be more than 15 minutes walk from open countryside. This purposely restricted the growth of the town and the population to a projected 32000. The town was renamed 'Garden City' quite recently to help promote the whole concept of Howard.
Letchworth was to be self-sustaining in the sense that the people would work locally, in local industry, so housing and industry were in exact mutual need. The Local Plan does not propose any new industrial sites to absorb the workforce from new housing in fact the proposal includes plans to repurpose industrial land for housing and this has already happened along Blackhorse Road; the sense of community will weaken as Letchworth becomes ever more a dormitory town.
It is assumed that new traffic congestion can be remedied by road-widening but in Letchworth this solution is not available. All Letchworth roads are narrow as its conception as a self-sustaining town would obviate the need for travel. Workers would walk to work, children would walk to school and car-ownership would be low. Narrow roads were bordered by grass verges, generously studded with trees, some of them rare. In this environment, road-widening would be totally destructive of character. The proposed new estate North of the Grange will feed its extra traffic through these narrow roads , causing severe traffic congestion through the Grange and Letchworth Centre, and, as it becomes predominantly a dormitory town (through failing to balance new housing with new local employment opportunity), extreme parking pressure on routes leading to the station (such as Cowslip Hill, Norton way North, Icknield Way) . On the other hand, if to avoid town centre congestion, it is decided to create new routes through to Stotfold Road to the West, or through to form a new junction with Norton road to the East, the new estate will lose its identity with the community of Letchworth. (Presumably, or hopefully, this is not the planners' intention.)