CD5 Land south of Heath Lane

This land is green belt, it consists of lovely fields with views over rolling countryside and acts as a buffer between the village and the Mimram river valley. Government policy allows for the building on green belt in acceptional circumstances, increasing the size of the village by almost 25% in an area that clearly can not cope now with services and amenities is not exceptional, not when one of the smaller proposed brownfield sites is preferable (CD2 on old garden centre). Codicote is a small village set in rural countryside in what is an ever increasing urban commuter belt. This expansion here would alter it's character detrimentally, affect the tight knit community and most importantly destroy yet more habitat for wildlife. We ourselves moved to the village 3 years ago from a large town, we live in the same road is the primary school but had to appeal the council's decision at a hearing as our son was not allowed at the school due to class overcrowding. I understand there will be some school expansion however that is only finite as the school is hemmed in by housing and could not cope with the numbers proposed with such massive building. Codicote suffers from traffic congestion as it acts as a back route for traffic travelling north and south avoiding the congested A1(M) and traffic travelling east and west across the country avoiding the clogged A roads. I am a local traffic police officer and have attended serious collisions within the village boundaries, believe me they are not reducing and I worry for my children. The campaign to save rural codicote has commissioned a detailed traffic survey, the conclusion of this is that development of Codicote would substantially increase car journeys, there being very poor public transport and limited and expensive shopping. I have to concur with the reports author. The nearest doctors surgery is located in Welwyn village, this is practically groaning under the weight of patients with waiting times extending to weeks. Quite where these extra families are going to get there medical care is beyond me. In short this village will have its sole ripped out and will not be the place we wanted to live when we moved from a big town should this level of development go ahead.

I am writing to strongly oppose the development and over-residentialisation of sites in Codicote and specifically that of Heath Lane.
Codicote is an ancient village of historic interest, the character and preservation of which is of enormous importance.
Traffic
The main road through the village is lined closely on both sides with attractive, period cottages and houses and the road is further constrained by parked cars belonging to the cottages.
The High Street is the main thoroughfare between the A1 and Welwyn and Hitchin, Knebworth, parts of Stevenage and the surrounding villages and is regularly blocked by weight of traffic, especially during the rush hours, following an accident on the A1 or at any time of lorry deliveries to and from the quarry, to businesses or at refuse collection times. Traffic is already way in excess of capacity.
The roads leading from Codicote to the surrounding villages are single track lanes at many points and are already totally unsuitable for either the volume or size of vehicles that use them. There are many serious accidents along the lanes, often caused by rush hour speeding. These lanes are shared by many horse riders and cyclists and are already extremely dangerous. Our children already have a very treacherous journey to school, many of whom travel in from this residential area, with only one safe crossing on the high street. More houses, more cars, more danger.
The road surfaces are already unacceptable and these standards will only descend to almost impossible levels with an increased level of traffic using roads in the area. Loss of greenbelt off of Heath Lane impacts housing and traffic on St Albans road which will now have to contend with a new car park to the school and double the number of families accessing it.
Public transport is simply not comprehensive enough to be practical for the vast majority of residents.
The levels of pollution will rise with increased traffic with resultant health issues for any residents with asthma and other breathing related illnesses. There will also be pollution damage to historic buildings, flora and fauna.
Schools
The school provision is plainly inadequate for the large influx of children that this new housing will produce. Codicote Primary School is already over-subscribed from the current population.
Under the National Planning Policy Framework 2012, the Government states that 'key facilities such as primary schools ....should be located within walking distance of most properties. The Government attaches great importance to ensuring that a sufficient choice of school places is available to meet the needs of existing and new communities.'
There will also be increased pressure on the secondary schools in the wider area and the necessarily increased transport links.
Green Belt
Codicote stands in the Green Belt and is therefore protected from development and expansion.
According to the National Planning Policy Framework 2012, the idea of the Green Belt 'is a ring of countryside where urbanisation will be resisted for the foreseeable future, maintaining an area where agriculture, forestry and outdoor leisure can be expected to prevail.' The Framework continues: 'Once an area of land has been defined as green belt, the stated opportunities and benefits include:
* Providing opportunities for access to the open countryside for the urban population
* Providing opportunities for outdoor sport and outdoor recreation near urban areas
* The retention of attractive landscapes and the enhancement of landscapes, near to where people live
* The securing of nature conservation interests
* The retention of land in agricultural, forestry and related uses
* Green belt in England is protected both by normal planning controls and against "inappropriate development" within its boundaries.'

I would like to register my objections against CD5 building plans, under the Local Plan 2011-2031.
This is based on:
*Existing traffic issues, set to worsen
*Lack of availability at the local Codicote school - also set to worsen
*Loss of open space
To address the issues mentioned above:

Existing traffic issues
*The St Albans Road already struggles with large vehicles, as result of activity at the local quarry, making it a dangerous place with large speeding vehicles through a small village - particularly for the elderly and young families. Adding further homes to CD5, the largest of all those planned, will only exacerbate these issues as construction takes place and more people move in
*The high-street, which effectively operates as a single lane due to parking, is regularly clogged during rush hour (and around these times too). Buses struggle to get through the streets as it is, affecting neighbouring villages including gridlocking Old Welwyn. Tailbacks from the A1M can be felt throughout the surrounding areas (Welwyn Garden City to Hitchin), particularly when the Codicote high street is used a "back road" option to avoid A1M traffic. Adding further homes will make this issue considerably worse. A usual six minute journey from our home to Welwyn North train station, to commute for work, can take 45 minutes in rush hour.
Lack of availability at local school
*Villagers are already refused entry into the local school - adding further homes is going to increase demand, without the infrastructure to support it
Loss of open space
*Green belts are protected for a reason and the CD5 proposals will directly and negatively affect the wildlife in the area - as well as the health and wellbeing benefits is gives to local villagers. There are limited spaces to walk dogs, play in fields and generally see greenery - yet the proposed CD5 area provides just this to villagers currently. Adding more housing will cram more people into an already limited space, creating more of a town rather than village feel - which goes against what residents have chosen for their lifestyle
*We have plenty of wildlife in the area too - including kites, rabbits and pheasants, as well as farm animals including cows and horses. Wildlife and their habitat is at risk, as a result of proposed buildings - as well as space for farm animals that provide so much joy to young children in the area
I just wanted to add a few personal points too, which I understand inspectors don't like but I think is important for context:
We bought our house 18 months ago, which was based on thorough consultation that nothing would be built on the land behind our house. We are bitterly upset to learn that not even a few years later, our home and lifestyle is in jeopardy as a result of proposals to build on CD5. We have worked so hard and spent our entire life savings to buy a derelict house in the area, so we can start a family that will benefit from the open space we so desperately want our children to grow up in. Now 18 months later, having spent all our money and vast amounts of time in making our Codicote home livable, I am six months pregnant and devastated to learn that our dream home is at very real risk of being turned into a living nightmare with planned works in CD5.

I would welcome the opportunity to personally show the inspector the negative ramifications building with have to the Codicote area - in terms of traffic, access to schools and green space.

I would like to object to the plans to build houses in Codicote on the Heath Lane site and the various other sites planned for Codicote. I am more concerned about Heath Lane plans as this is close to where we live. It worries our family about the amount of traffic we are already encountering in St Albans Road regarding cars and huge numbers of lorries going to the quarry.

Due to the quarry traffic with huge numbers of lorries travelling down St Albans road I have contracted a dust allergy, the extra traffic of 375 cars, which most families have at least 2 cars per family making it at least another 750 cars travelling in our rural village will be a nightmare not only to the environment but to the already dangerous village roads. Where we live on St Albans Road, I have witnessed so many near misses (some collisions) with lorries and large vans, I can't begin to imagine the detrimental affect of at least 750 more cars on these village roads. I did take photos of a lorry and white van colliding, I would have to search through hundreds of photos if required. NHDC have completely ignored the quarry traffic in their section on Codicote in the Local Plan. The roads in question Heath lane, St Albans Road and the High Street are already dangerous roads, for driving and our children to walk along and cross.

I am also concerned about the fact that the land is in fact green belt, which I believe allows open spaces to not be built upon. There is so much wildlife that comes into our garden from the fields planned for development. We have rabbits, birds (woodpeckers/robins and huge numbers of other wild species) owls, bats, mice, hedgehogs, foxes, muntjac deer....all have been seen in our garden or in the field behind which is planned for development. What happens when the proposed company Ashill come to dig out all the land for foundations, killing so much wildlife in the process. Also we have 2 dogs, as a family we have always enjoyed using the various footpaths down Dark Lane, St Albans road, Heath Lane and along the fields to walk our dogs in our lovely rural village. That will all disappear to a mass of houses, no longer rural, it will be like living in a town.

A town without correct amenities to support the number of houses planned for the village. The suggestion for Heath Lane is 140 houses, the property development website in actual fact says 200 houses, link attached. This is in the addition of 73 new Houses on Cowards Lane, 48 House in The Close and 54 House in The Garden Centre areas. That's 375 houses if all developers stick within the suggested numbers, which will most likely be increased.

http://www.ashillgroup.co.uk/developments/codicote-heath-lane/index.htm

We currently have a village school which we chose not to send our children to, as the class sizes were over 36 at the time and unacceptable. We have no doctors surgery in Codicote, so use Welwyn Village Surgery which is already over capacity and so difficult to actually see a doctor.

The list is endless as to why our already large village cannot expand any further, what about water supplies, our water pressure is already pretty terrible, we have had many drainage issues, our power supply is a worry, we are experiencing more power cuts and broadband speeds are already busy, even though we are on fibre optic/BT Infinity. I have complained about all these issues to our suppliers in the past.

It will be so sad to see this lovely rural village be taken over by houses and reduce the rural open space feel of our current village. Please choose a better area to build the number of houses required by the government.

Objections to be noted are based on the current infrastructure of the village in the first instance with the proposed site having poor access which is situated at the crest of a hill on heath lane which will lead to a serious risk to highway safety. The developer has already posted on their web site that they intend to build 200 homes 60 more than NHDC has purposed. 200+ new vehicles attempting to enter the B656 from heath lane will cause an unacceptable strain on the current road network and will be a serious risk to highway safety. Increased traffic on the B656 through the village to all purposed sites will be a serious risk to highway safety and cause congestion the the current highway will not be capable of handling. On these factors alone I believe the site to be unsuitable. Further objection is based on the current primary school which does not have the capacity to cater for 400+ new families. Objection is made that NHDC are attempting to use green belt land when within the district there is sufficient brown field sites for housing. Objection is made that current housing will suffer an unacceptable loss of light and overshadowing of the properties and further more unacceptable overlooking and loss of privacy.

Implication for village in terms of :
Environment
Character
Community
Access to healthcare
Infrastructure
Wildlife
Traffic
Parking
Road safety
Schooling
Power
Water
Drainage

See attachment

I believe the NHDC plan is unsound and will have implications for the village in terms of:
Environment
Character
Community
Access to healthcare
Infrastructure
Wildlife
Employment
Traffic
Parking
Road Safety
Schooling
Power
Water
Drainage

I wish to register the fact that I am totally against the 315 new house building proposal.
The extra influx of residents and cars would be detrimental to the village in terms of environment character community access to healthcare INFRASTUCTURE wildlife employment parking road safety schooling power water drainage.

At the commuting periods in the day the traffic is almost at gridlock when passing through the High Street. As and when there are roadworks or building projects requiring coned off sections of the road, tailbacks develop and often traffic backs up if going north into Old Welwyn. Old Welwyn village is a bottleneck area in the mornings, extra building in this area will just exacerbate the already dire traffic situation.
When an incident occurs on the A1 motorway I have had to on occasions detour via Wheathampstead in order to reach home in Codicote High Street.
If an Ambulance has to get through on the B 197 in either direction it will NOT BE ABLE TO in an emergency.
Further development of housing is shear lunacy. Infrastructure is totally inadequate

See attached

I'm objecting to the use of the Green Belt land to build a proposed 364 new homes within the protected area of CD5.
Does this conform to the Governments policies regarding Green Belt and threat to the vast amount of wildlife and natural habitat?

Having lived within the vicinity of the proposed site for over 15 years, I'm concerned about the viability of the project. One of the access points will be off the St Albans road into Dark lane. The St Albans road is presently a very high traffic link road between Stevenage, Knebworth, the A1 and then onto either the M1, St Albans or towards the south and Hatfield. This right or left turn in either direction is a blind turning with traffic travelling at high speed in both directions - VERY DANGEROUS. Along with the rush-hour traffic there is a huge number of lorries using the quarry just 1/2 a mile away plus the traffic from the travellers site.

This road is also used by families to either park or cross the road to go into Codicote Primary school. To add potentially another 600-800 cars travelling along the road will be VERY DANGEROUS to the school children and quite simply this village / country road cannot cope with that traffic.

Within Codicote there isn't a Doctor surgery and we are presently served by Old Welwyn Surgery who at best offer 4-6 weeks waiting time - it cannot cope with any more patients. To my knowledge there isn't a dentist in the village either. Codicote school is at it's maximum and any growth of the school cannot be supported by the village infrastructure.

The impact will be tragic on this historic country village, it's a conversation area lost forever (it is one of only 2 manors mentioned in the Domesday survey in 1086). There is no train station within 3 miles so all transport will be by car adding to an already overloaded village.

I cannot understand how the planning takes into account the public footpaths and bridleway on Dark Lane which does not have the width to cope with a 2 way road along with a public walking pathway. How is the planning going to handle the public footpaths within the actual site?

The Wildlife will be decimated surrounding the site and the precious biodiversity woodland habitat actually within the site. Living adjacent to the actual proposed site we know that it houses a family of very rare Red Kite hawks protected by the RSPB, along with many other beautiful wildlife, Monk Jacks, Bats to name just a very few. Has Natural England who are responsible for many of the regulations that protect the natural environment, including the management and licensing of wildlife been consulted? Can this planning overcome the deciduous Wildlife and Countryside act 1981 and the European Regulations safeguarding protected species?

I object to the NHDC's plan and believe it is unsound and will have implications for the village in terms of:
Environment
Character
Community
Access to healthcare
Infrastructure
Wildlife
Employment
Traffic including the safety of our children and damage to our vehicles
Volume of traffic and the impact on the road maintenance
Parking
Road Safety
Schooling
Power
Water
Drainage

The proposal is far too big for the village in terms of infrastructure in particularly traffic, School demand. As a governor at the primary school demand often outstrips supply for children of the village and we try to accommodate, with this development the school would have to become a 2 form entry school and not only would that change the culture of the school it would add significant pressures on access to it.
Cars are often parked preventing access around school drop off time and with the regular lorries from the quarry the road becomes impassable at times.
Cowards lane (restricted with size limits) is not suitable for this development nor the other proposed site CD1, as a daily user of this road it is often a car shuffle between drive ways to pass each other. By increasing demand for this lane it will only make matters worse. The junction to Codicote Road is also not suitable for increased traffic flow.

I object to the NHDC's plan and believe it is unsound and will have implications for the village in terms of:
Environment
Character
Community
Access to healthcare
Infrastructure
Wildlife
Employment
Traffic including the safety of our children and damage to our vehicles
Volume of traffic and the impact on the road maintenance
Parking
Road Safety
Schooling
Power
Water
Drainage

High Street already heavily congested with village used as a cut through by residents of Hitchin and surrounding area to avoid A1. Not enough facilities for extra housing. Green belt land and important Codicote remains as a village NOT a town.

See attachment

Loss of green belt land used for public access - green space popular with local walkers and children would be lost
Access - Heath Lane too steep and fast for safe access. St Albans Road too congested with pinch spots at the High Street. High Street already congested at peak times. School access already difficult.
Housing - NHDC are pushing extra houses on local communities to support Luton and Stevenage requirement. Development of a new Garden town/city should be prioritised

Green belt landed surrounded by other houses that would over look this development - This development would destroy nature, and health within the village as its the main route to some of Hertfordshires most beautiful walks. A river runs under this land and therefore would not be suitable for housing

See attachment

Broadband infrastructure is not sufficient to support new houses.

The size of the development is far to large for this site. The access roads cannot take the level of traffic. These are very narrow roads which open onto blind corners or a steep hill. The school does not have enough room for all of the village children at present. The school needs expanding now. New houses will require more school places, the plan to extend the school is not big enough. The damage to the green belt and wildlife is unthinkable and goes against NHDC's 1996 local plan to protect the green belt.

See attachment

NHDC Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft
Section Four - Communities
* Codicote(13.77)
* * CD1 Land south of Cowards Lane
* * CD2 Codicote Garden Centre, High Street
* * CD3 Land north of The Close
* * CD5 Land south of Heath Lane
Objections are as follows:
The proposed sites are all on Green Belt land and there are no 'exceptional circumstances' that warrant building on them. As our local M.P. Stephen McPartland states " the local plan is not positively prepared, justified, effective or consistent with national policy". He suggests consideration should be given to a new Garden City. It is not justifiable for Codicote to lose so much recreational space i.e the open countryside. Our local NHDC Councillor for Codicote Jane Gray is also "not in favour of the plan" and states that there should be an "urgent attempt to establish a new settlement in the District". Why has this not been considered by NHDC? This would save the character of so many villages being destroyed in North Hertfordshire.
Codicote does not have the infrastructure to cope with more houses. There is a poor bus service and no train station, therefore people need to use cars to travel in and out of the village. The roads are clogged with parked cars and over run with commuters using the B656 as an alternative route to the A1M. Other roads that allow access to the village, are simple, narrow, country roads. There is no Doctors Surgery in Codicote and getting an appointment at neighbouring Doctors is difficult. What improvements to services are planned to cope with all the new patients? We regularly get power cuts and breaks in Broadband service, what plans are there to cope with the extra draw on power and services?
Parking for the current school is not sufficient, with local residents experiencing blocked drives and difficulty accessing their properties. This situation will get worse if the school is expanded. How will the issue of parking for the School, be addressed? There is no more capacity in the roads surrounding the school. St Albans road near the school is notoriously dangerous for school children to cross, due to the parked cars and HGV lorries that travel up and down the road, to the Quarry. (Reducing the number of lorries has been, so far, unsuccessful by campaigners). A bigger school can only mean more parked cars and more children walking to school on this dangerous road. It is also not sustainable to create a larger school, as there as there is no expansion planned for the local secondary school. The proposed school site has a footpath running through it, how can you have a footpath through a school site? (ref 13.77 CD5 "sensitive incorporation of existing rights of way")
Please consider all the above objections to this plan.

I am writing in reference to the information that has been posted on Save Rural Codicote Facebook site.

Apparently the company behind Heath Lane wants to build 200 houses not the 140 in the local shared planned. The planning consultant has confirmed that this is entirely possible as developers may propose to build more houses. I am wondering if the members of the planning committee at NHDC and my local MP are actually listening to the people of Codicote, it appears you are not and these building developers are able to go ahead and find back doors to allow these houses to be built, even when the whole community of Codicote doesn't want them to be build. Are you not listening to the people of Codicote, it seems you are not so I will spell it out for you.

WE DO NOT WANT ANY FURTHER HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN CODICOTE

What are you actually doing to prevent this housing development to our rural community. From my view it seems absolutely nothing, you are you even considering the damage this will do, for example.

a) Road safely for children and the elderly in the village
b) The village school
c) The increased number of cars that would be running through the village
d) The traffic noise and pollution
e) The country side and the impact it will have on wild life
f) The lorries which are already a pain in the village
g) Heavier traffic in the morning, seems most of the A1M use Codicote as a by-pass when there is heavy traffic on motorway
f) Bus transportation to other schools

I would like to put forward that I completely disagree with all of the housing development within the proposed submission local plan relating to Codicote area.

I have seen some of the information publicised in connection with your proposed local plan and have also read Stephen McPartlands comments in connection with the proposals.

Unfortunately, I have been away and unable to make a detail comment on the whole plan at this stage but I would like to say that I agree with Stephen McPartland comments and would also like to add my own observations and concerns in relation to the scale of the proposed expansion and the potential implications and impact, should the plan be approved, on the rural landscape and character of Hertfordshire and existing infrastructure.

My initial comments in relation to Codicote are as follows:

* The proposed 315 new houses represent a growth of 25% and question whether this growth is actually required. Stephen McPartland also makes comment about additional houses that have already been approved that seem not to be included in these figures.

* The provision of these additional properties will impact on the existing rural character and landscape of the area.

* I understand that there is no new infrastructure planned. The addition of the proposed housing will therefore have a detrimental impact on the existing traffic flow through the village, the car parking and road safety, schooling and the supply of power, water and drainage. We are already subject to repeated power cuts in this area.

At first glance it is clear:

Area CD2 will be visible from the B656 as you drive up and down the hill (on the west and northern boundaries) and will be detrimental to the existing landscape character of the rolling rural landscape along the road. New hedge/tree planting are unlikely to screen the new development due to the existing contours.

Area CD3 is more secluded but is at the base of a valley and accessed from a road that already presents severe access difficulties in bad weather due to ice and with added parking problems as residents park higher up the road so they can get out in the mornings.

Area CD5 is more secluded but is shown to have an access onto St Albans Road which is a rural lane and already very busy at peak times.

Extensive tree and shrub planting will be required (not odd trees, grass areas etc as shown on the west of Stevenage proposals in the past) if any of the these schemes are to settled into the fabric of the existing rural landscape.

However, I do not believe this will be sufficient (representing a mere sticking plaster) against what is a fundamental problem of over development of the area. This overdevelopment will impact severely on the character, landscape, infrastructure of the existing village and is completely out of scale and character and therefore should be considered as inappropriate development in the area.

I would therefore ask the Inspector to turn down the proposed NHDC local plan.

See attachment

I would like to register my objection to the amount of housing being planned for Codicote. I appreciate that you must build houses somewhere but I don't understand why you have to destroy villages in the process. I don't think there is anyone in the council that appreciate how much traffic goes through this old village from outside the village let alone the locals. How do you plan on dealing with this?... Knock one side of the high street down. This high street was never built to cope with this amount of traffic, we are now inundated with huge lorries. Obviously we are going too have to take legal action somewhere along the line...as every house you build will have at the very least two cars....there is not in infrastructure here for that amount of housing. Last year we had all the trouble with the school not being able to allocate places for all the local children...that will only get worse. I know there must be some housing, but there is constantly houses being built here on every scrap of land...in gardens...you name it they build there. Please do not destroy our villages...build a new Garden City.

See attached

Land south of Cowards Lane - 73
Land north of The Close - 48
Codicote Garden Centre, High Street - 54
Land south of Heath Lane - 140 (and an extension to the school)

I write in connection with the above planning proposals.
I wish to object to the development of this number of houses and I object strongly in particular to development on Land south of Cowards Lane and Land south of Heath Lane which are on undeveloped farmland.
Green belt is recognised by the government as very important to retain and should only be built on in very exceptional circumstance which in this case I do not believe can be met.
Codicote is a small village reached by a B road and small lanes and as such is very unsuited to this number of large housing sites.
Most working residents have to travel out of the village to work.
The traffic congestion is currently very bad and the increase in traffic which the proposed developments would bring will have a serious impact on the area.
Witness the tailbacks that currently occur between Codicote and Welwyn morning and evening together with standing traffic through Codicote High Street.
The surrounding lanes will inevitably become car and lorry rat-runs making usage increasingly dangerous especially for local walkers, riders and cyclists.
(Many cyclists use the Great North Way Cycle Route which passes through Codicote.)
The extra cars and lorries will cause rapid deterioration in the road surfaces and the destruction of verges where vehicles try to pass on the narrow lanes.
The public transport through Codicote is not currently adequate to serve the residents.
There is no railway station and no suitable bus service to one.
The nearest railway stations to Codicote are at Knebworth and Welwyn North which have inadequate provision for existing car parking resulting in commuters filling up residential streets to their detriment.
For these reasons, I am objecting to the proposals.

Re: North Hertfordshire Proposed Submission Local Plan
As long time residents in Codicote village we have several objections regarding the North Hertfordshire District Council Local Plan and are concerned regarding the impact on the district and particularly our village, Codicote. The plans show no infrastructure work and seem excessive and do not seem to be joined up as there are plans for nearby Knebworth and Woolmer Green , too much for three villages .

Objections

13.77 Local Housing Allocation

Site CD5: Number of houses in the plan states 140 homes for Land south of Heath Lane based on 20 Dwellings per hectare. However, the developer is promoting circa 200. This is an 45% increase on the proposed number of houses than the local plan suggests.

Site CD5 gives a clear example that the Local Plan has not calculated the number of houses on each site correctly. The proposed number of newly built homes in the Local Plan is 20 per hectare. Government Guidance of the number of house built; 30 per hectare has been withdrawn and therefore the actual number being built by developers is far greater sometimes up to 40-50 per hectare.

The NHDC Local Plan has failed to correctly calculate the number of houses. The fact is that there will be a significant increase in the number of homes built in the Local Plan than have been proposed. Therefore, suggesting the Local Plan has allocated at least 45-50% more land than is required. The only logical conclusion is there is too much land allocated in the plan and therefore there is no need to develop on Green Belt sites and Villages which do not have the infrastructure.

Site CD5, CD1, CD2, CD3. Building on Green Belt conflicts with national Green Belt Policy.

Site CD5, CD1, CD2, CD3. The site will have visual impacts on the Countryside and wildlife, loss of trees and nature, impact on public footpaths.

Site CD5. Access to sites is difficult due to width of the existing roads. Heath Lane and St Albans Roads are lanes with one vehicle road width. Government Inspectors need to visit the village and drive these roads at peak time more cars will be dangerous. There is no highways plan to improve the infrastructure.

Site CD5, CD1, CD2, CD3. Thames Water have spent over £4m investigating drainage in Codicote. It is believed some is pre Victorian and have no records on drainage. Codicote has a high water table and sites are prone to flooding. There is no plan to address flooding more hard staying means less run off more flash flooding .

Site CD5, CD1, CD2, CD3. Building over 364 homes in Codicote will have considerable impact on traffic through the village. More than 364 cars as most homes have multiple cars. Increased congestion and pollution

Site CD5 was a last-minute addition to the plan and there was not proper consultation to the significant increase in size to this site.

There is no employment in the village apart from shops , restaurants and the local garden centre Wyevale. The garden centre is an employer and also a social centre for many local elderly and disabled communities. To loose this to housing is not a good plan. Loss of local employment and local community site Wyevale .

13.81, 13.82, 13.83 Infrastructure and Mitigation

* NHDC have not given reasonable consideration to the impact on traffic through the village and the current road networks to people to travel to employment. The plan is not consistent with National Policy Section 4 "Promoting Sustainable transport"
* Heath Lane/Heath Hill. Route to Luton, regularly floods at CodicoteBottom due to the River Mimram. The road has very poor forward visibility and one vehicle width road.
* High Street, Codicote. Route to A1M, Welwyn, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, London, Hitchin and Luton. It's a through road to A1M significant congestion already at peak travel times. Any hold ups on the A1M already results in very heavy traffic through the village, motor vehicles and HGV Lorries. Significant number of residential houses in the high street with no parking which causes one vehicle lane.
* St Albans Road. Working quarry with regular HGV lorries visiting site. Main route from Codicote to St Albans. Road is one lane with lack of forward visibility and regular flooding at three locations.
* Bury Lane. Busy cut through route to Stevenage, one lane roads.
* All roads feeding the high street are becoming rat runs for the lack of accessibility to the A1M and high traffic load on the A1M.
* Lack of consideration to the Traffic impact caused by new housing north of Codicote. We believe there will be a significant increase without the new housing being built in our village as the regular traffic routes would be those named above.
* Limited bus service to local towns and hospitals.
* A & E Department at Lister Hospital is 9 Miles away with no public transport available.
* A1M is expanding to three lanes and during congestion Ambulance services would rely on the coming through Codicote on the B656. Delays in the Ambulance Service could mean life or death.
* Nearest NHS available Dentist is 5.6 miles in Welwyn Garden city, normal journey time 16 minutes.
* Bridge Cottage Surgery Welwyn is our nearest GP Service. Can wait up to 2-3 weeks for an appointment and daily appointments are taken within 10 mins of opening and queuing starts an 1hour before appointments are released.
* Railway stations Knebworth and Welwyn North are already at parking capacity and not in walking distance and the railway plan proposes fewer fast services to London , again evidence no joined up thinking

* No Local Authority Leisure facilities in the village. The sports centre is funded by residents and opened and operates via a volunteer group.
* Codicote Primary school is already oversubscribed without the additional houses being added to the village. The school currently requires immediate expansion to cope with existing numbers. Building new houses would not solve this issue only exacerbate the problem. The Local Plan has not forecast the correct demand for the Primary School expansion.
* No higher education facilities in the village children rely heavily on buses increase in traffic. There would also be further impact on secondary schooling which has not been considered in the local plan.
* No commuting cyclists as roads are very dangerous and nearest employment and railway stations Knebworth and Welwyn North are too far to cycle.

Under these circumstances I would recommend New Garden City or Cities which be developed that would be able to meet future housing needs at the same time developing public services and employment opportunities and transport networks for the new community. This plan causes more problems than solutions for current residents and indeed future residents.