Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

This development is small and in keeping with developments along South Road all of which have improved the street scene.

The site is adjacent to the Weston Hills Nature reserve which is rare chalk downland and home to slow-worms and the rare chalk blue butterflies. The number of houses is too large for the site and for its proximity to the above. It is valuable farmland and an important recreational area.
This site will have an adverse impact on traffic through the town and will significantly increase congestion and pollution as most of the new traffic will pass through the town to access the A1M (north- and south-bound), the supermarket, and to get to other North Herts towns.
There is insufficient infrastructure to support the development of 4 sites in the Clothall Common area without detriment to the life of present residents.

The scale of growth proposed is likely to have a serious negative impact on the local highway network. Already the crossroads at Whitehorse Street / Royston Road is a key pinch point (acknowledged in the Plan (13.29)) with congestion and long queues in all directions at peak and non-peak times. Alteration to the crossroad is not possible because of the presence of listed buildings on both sides of the road. A large proportion of trips from site BA1 (North of Baldock) is likely to be towards Letchworth and Hitchin. The Plan stresses that these towns are interconnected (paras 2.31, 4.27, 13.14) and that many new residents will commute out of Baldock (paras 4.25-6). The employment allocation deliberately provides for more employment than the town needs (policy SP3) and this is likely to increase the peak time trips between Baldock and Letchworth and Hitchin. The proposed link road through site BA1 would involve a long trip to the other towns for most residents, and experience following the opening of the Baldock bypass shows that people tend to take the shortest route rather than the least congested.
Air traffic quality standards in Whitehorse Street / Hitchin Street areas are likely to be breached. They are already close to be exceeded (para 9.28). Former site 209E was considered unsuitable for this reason.

The proposed allocation of 2800 homes on site BA1 (North of Baldock) under policies SP8 and SP14 would have a serious negative impact on the Green Belt. This is acknowledged in the Plan and supporting documents (Housing and Green Belt background paper para 3.14) as making a significant contribution to Green Belt purposes and is identified as having moderate to high landscape sensitivity.

The scale of growth proposed is likely to have a serious negative impact on local roads. Whitehorse Street / Royston Road crossroads is a key pinch point (Plan (13.29)) with congestion and long queues all day. Alteration is not possible because of listed buildings . Many trips from site BA1 are likely to be towards Letchworth and Hitchin. The Plan stresses that the 3 towns are interconnected (paras 2.31, 4.27, 13.14) and that many new residents will commute out of Baldock (paras 4.25-6). The employment allocation over-provides (policy SP3) which is likely to increase the peak-time journeys. The proposed road through site BA1 would involve longer journeys. Experience following the opening of the Baldock bypass shows people take the shortest route rather than the least congested.

Baldock is a historic town with a mediaeval street pattern. It has a lively pub and restaurant scene but few shops. Since the development of Clothall Common, shops have closed and there is no reason to expect the new development to be any different. Residents will probably use the town for commuting and not for their every day needs. This will mean more cars through the town making access to the shops more difficult and will not encourage a variety of retail provision. Pollution is likely to exceed the legal minimum and to cause material damage.

Site BA10 deliberately allocates more employment places than the expanded town needs (paras 4.25-6). This is likely to increase the number of journeys through Baldock undertaken each day especially at peak times. Paras 2.31, 4.27 and 13.14 stress that Baldock, Letchworth and Hitchin are interconnected for movement.
An increase in traffic will increase the pollution levels in the town especially in Hitchin Street / Whitehorse Street area and could well cause damage to the historic buildings.
As with the proposed number of dwellings, this places a disproportionate burden on the smallest town.

Increased traffic because of the scale of the development of sites BA1 to BA4 and BA10 will cause serious pollution in the town and surrounding area. It is likely that air quality standards will be breached in the Whitehorse Street / Royston Road areas and possibly in much of the rest of the town. Para 9.28 notes that these areas are close to breaching these standards already.
The loss of so much Green Belt will remove the "green lung" which surrounds the town at present and helps mitigate this problem.

The Plan has adopted as the proposed sites for development in and around Baldock land belonging to Hertfordshire County Council(HCC) - mostly Green Belt used for small-holdings and recreation. Baldock has more HCC owned land than the other North Herts towns and so it has been proposed that the town will take a disproportionately large number of new homes which will increase its size by more than 70% during the Plan period. Other sites of similar size in Letchworth and Hitchin were originally put forward but were withdrawn and it is not apparent that these sites have been assessed for suitability which could have spread the load more equitably. In particular there has been insufficient co-operation with Letchworth Heritage foundation over the site North of Letchworth (LG1) which has been allocated only for the needs of Letchworth. The West of Stevenage site has not been considered for this stage of the Plan, again for no apparent reason, and its adoption would have reduced significantly traffic movement through Baldock's historic town centre.
Site BA1 is Green Belt land and the Plan acknowledges that it has moderate to high landscape sensitivity as well as being difficult to integrate successfully into the rest of Baldock.
The sites on and close to Clothall Common (BA2, BA3, BA4, BA5) will deliver several hundred homes when complete but are not treated as strategic sites and so won't provide the infrastructure that so many new residents will need.

This site will have an adverse impact on traffic through the town and will significantly increase congestion and pollution as most of the new traffic will pass through the town to access the A1M (north- and south-bound), the supermarket, and to get to other North Herts towns.
There is insufficient infrastructure to support the development of 4 sites in the Clothall Common area without detriment to the life of present residents.