Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

I have lived in Bygrave for more than 30 years and I was born within one mile of the A507 in Bedfordshire. Because my parents both had parents living in Essex I regularly travelled on this route from a young age. My first memory of a traffic jam dates from 1950 when we were stuck on the A507 between Stotfold and Baldock which gave me a feeling of complete desperation that we might never arrive. Traffic gridlock is stressful for adults also and having worked in Letchworth Industrial Area for 12 years in the 1980's and 1990's I know that the bottleneck on the A507 entering Baldock is a continuing and progressive problem. It took me three times as long to drive to my workplace in the 1990's as it had done a decade earlier, and this was almost entirely due to traffic jams on the A507. I have driven the length of the A507 for both business and leisure for more than fifty years, and it is the proposed developments close to this road in the vicinity of Baldock that I most strongly object to in the NHDC plan. At a time when the Government is promising to spend more than one billion pounds to tackle congestion and claiming to promote "joined-up thinking" the NHDC plan appears to be completely at odds with Government policy.
The following points relating to the A507, to Baldock and its surrounding towns and villages should demonstrate the deficiencies in the local Plan.
A 507
1. This road provides an important east-west route with good links to the A1 and M1 motorways west of Baldock, and good links to Stanstead Airport and the East Coast ports to the east of Baldock.
2. There are no good alternative routes in this region.
3. Every town and village along this route has been bypassed in Bedfordshire. In Essex improvements to the route to both Stanstead and the coastal ports have been made. No improvements to the A507 have been made in Hertfordshire since the Buntingford bypass was built many years ago.
4. The only traffic lights and the only one way system on this road are in Baldock, which hosts the only section of this road that is subject to regular congestion and delays.
5. Lessons learned by most councils in the twentieth century should have informed NHDC by now. Most councils try to move major through roads out of town ( bypass ) rather than building the town around a through route, which is what the NHDC plan appears to do.

BALDOCK
1. It is an historic coaching and market town that benefited well into the twentieth century from the confluence of three major roads ( A1, A505 & A507 ) in the town. The rapid increase in traffic volumes during the last century meant that this became the main problem for Baldock which became the site of the worst traffic jams in North Hertfordshire.
2. Planning mistakes of the past, notably the extension of Baldock, Letchworth and Hitchin along the route of the A505, have resulted in one large built up area in which each town suffers from the proximity of its neighbours. Baldock is the the least accessible and most congested town in this conurbation .
3. It has become primarily a dormitory town with the majority of its working inhabitants employed elsewhere. Baldock ranks as the worst shopping venue of any town in the region according to Venuescope UK shopping index, as well as having the smallest projected growth of retail space. Lack of ready access makes it an unattractive location for most types of business. It would also almost certainly rank amongst the most deprived towns in terms of its recreational facilities or most other amenities. More housing will destroy rather than revive the town.
4. Previous bypasses - the A1M and Baldock Eastern bypass - have provided only temporary or incomplete solutions to the towns traffic problems., While A1 through traffic has been removed from the town, the attempt to divert traffic from the A505 has been less successful. The Whitehorse Street junction where the A505 crosses the A507 will always remain the focal point for the towns traffic problems, and it is stating the obvious to say that further building along either of these routes in Baldock will compound an already intractable problem.
5. Unfortunately the Council have contributed to the congestion in Baldock by siting an Industrial area on the A505 immediately north of and close to the Whitehorse Street junction with the A507. Lorries turning left at this junction from the A507 towards this industrial area often navigate the junction so slowly that traffic inevitably backs up behind them. Lorries travelling north along Whitehorse Street towards the Industrial area are usually wide enough to block the filter lane left onto the A507 when traffic is stopped at the junction. Apart from this badly located Industrial area, the building and infilling with resid ential properties on the north of the A507 all contribute to congestion in and around the Whitehorse Street junction.
6. Access to Baldock railway station is often compromised by long queues of slow moving traffic approaching the junction ( as is access to and from the Ashwell Road ). Thus it may soon become as difficult to depart from Baldock as it is to enter the town.
7. The solution to this growing problem is a moratorium on all building north of the A 507 and no further extension of Baldock along this road unless and until an A507 Baldock bypass has been built. In the meantime the Green Belt should be extended on the north side of Baldock to ensure no further infilling contributes to the congestion.
NHDC LOCAL PLAN
This plan fails to meet any of the NPPF soundness criteria. It is not positively prepared because it fails to take into account regional travel requirements, and the major developments are planned in the most inappropriate locations ( Area codes BA1 & BA2 ). It is not justified because even if this large number of new houses is required in North Hertfordshire, which I doubt, it is easy to identify more appropriate locations. I note that this plan proposes a large new retail park
park in Royston together with a limited amount of new housing. Venuescope reveals that Royston already has much better shopping, as well as better recreational facilities than Baldock. It lies on the same London-Cambridge railway line and even a large scale retail and housing
development would have minimal effect on through traffic. Thus it is a more suitable location for such development.

NHDC admit that their plan would have negative effects upon residents in Baldock, which would also apply to residents in nearby settlements. The proposed expansion of the town in area BA1 would effectively turn Bygrave into an inaccessible suburb of the inaccessible town of Baldock.
Among negative effects noted by the Council are the following:
Significant loss of agricultural land.
Reduced access to open countryside.
Traffic congestion and pollution.
Reduction in quality of landscape and townscape character.
Impacts upon amenities and "a reduction in tranquillity for existing residents".

It sounds like a very bad plan. It is. This plan should be rejected.

I have lived in Bygrave for more than 30 years and I was born within one mile of the A507 in Bedfordshire. Because my parents both had parents living in Essex I regularly travelled on this route from a young age. My first memory of a traffic jam dates from 1950 when we were stuck on the A507 between Stotfold and Baldock which gave me a feeling of complete desperation that we might never arrive. Traffic gridlock is stressful for adults also and having worked in Letchworth Industrial Area for 12 years in the 1980's and 1990's I know that the bottleneck on the A507 entering Baldock is a continuing and progressive problem. It took me three times as long to drive to my workplace in the 1990's as it had done a decade earlier, and this was almost entirely due to traffic jams on the A507. I have driven the length of the A507 for both business and leisure for more than fifty years, and it is the proposed developments close to this road in the vicinity of Baldock that I most strongly object to in the NHDC plan. At a time when the Government is promising to spend more than one billion pounds to tackle congestion and claiming to promote "joined-up thinking" the NHDC plan appears to be completely at odds with Government policy.
The following points relating to the A507, to Baldock and its surrounding towns and villages should demonstrate the deficiencies in the local Plan.
A 507
1. This road provides an important east-west route with good links to the A1 and M1 motorways west of Baldock, and good links to Stanstead Airport and the East Coast ports to the east of Baldock.
2. There are no good alternative routes in this region.
3. Every town and village along this route has been bypassed in Bedfordshire. In Essex improvements to the route to both Stanstead and the coastal ports have been made. No improvements to the A507 have been made in Hertfordshire since the Buntingford bypass was built many years ago.
4. The only traffic lights and the only one way system on this road are in Baldock, which hosts the only section of this road that is subject to regular congestion and delays.
5. Lessons learned by most councils in the twentieth century should have informed NHDC by now. Most councils try to move major through roads out of town ( bypass ) rather than building the town around a through route, which is what the NHDC plan appears to do.

BALDOCK
1. It is an historic coaching and market town that benefited well into the twentieth century from the confluence of three major roads ( A1, A505 & A507 ) in the town. The rapid increase in traffic volumes during the last century meant that this became the main problem for Baldock which became the site of the worst traffic jams in North Hertfordshire.
2. Planning mistakes of the past, notably the extension of Baldock, Letchworth and Hitchin along the route of the A505, have resulted in one large built up area in which each town suffers from the proximity of its neighbours. Baldock is the the least accessible and most congested town in this conurbation .
3. It has become primarily a dormitory town with the majority of its working inhabitants employed elsewhere. Baldock ranks as the worst shopping venue of any town in the region according to Venuescope UK shopping index, as well as having the smallest projected growth of retail space. Lack of ready access makes it an unattractive location for most types of business. It would also almost certainly rank amongst the most deprived towns in terms of its recreational facilities or most other amenities. More housing will destroy rather than revive the town.
4. Previous bypasses - the A1M and Baldock Eastern bypass - have provided only temporary or incomplete solutions to the towns traffic problems., While A1 through traffic has been removed from the town, the attempt to divert traffic from the A505 has been less successful. The Whitehorse Street junction where the A505 crosses the A507 will always remain the focal point for the towns traffic problems, and it is stating the obvious to say that further building along either of these routes in Baldock will compound an already intractable problem.
5. Unfortunately the Council have contributed to the congestion in Baldock by siting an Industrial area on the A505 immediately north of and close to the Whitehorse Street junction with the A507. Lorries turning left at this junction from the A507 towards this industrial area often navigate the junction so slowly that traffic inevitably backs up behind them. Lorries travelling north along Whitehorse Street towards the Industrial area are usually wide enough to block the filter lane left onto the A507 when traffic is stopped at the junction. Apart from this badly located Industrial area, the building and infilling with resid ential properties on the north of the A507 all contribute to congestion in and around the Whitehorse Street junction.
6. Access to Baldock railway station is often compromised by long queues of slow moving traffic approaching the junction ( as is access to and from the Ashwell Road ). Thus it may soon become as difficult to depart from Baldock as it is to enter the town.
7. The solution to this growing problem is a moratorium on all building north of the A 507 and no further extension of Baldock along this road unless and until an A507 Baldock bypass has been built. In the meantime the Green Belt should be extended on the north side of Baldock to ensure no further infilling contributes to the congestion.
NHDC LOCAL PLAN
This plan fails to meet any of the NPPF soundness criteria. It is not positively prepared because it fails to take into account regional travel requirements, and the major developments are planned in the most inappropriate locations ( Area codes BA1 & BA2 ). It is not justified because even if this large number of new houses is required in North Hertfordshire, which I doubt, it is easy to identify more appropriate locations. I note that this plan proposes a large new retail park
park in Royston together with a limited amount of new housing. Venuescope reveals that Royston already has much better shopping, as well as better recreational facilities than Baldock. It lies on the same London-Cambridge railway line and even a large scale retail and housing
development would have minimal effect on through traffic. Thus it is a more suitable location for such development.

NHDC admit that their plan would have negative effects upon residents in Baldock, which would also apply to residents in nearby settlements. The proposed expansion of the town in area BA1 would effectively turn Bygrave into an inaccessible suburb of the inaccessible town of Baldock.
Among negative effects noted by the Council are the following:
Significant loss of agricultural land.
Reduced access to open countryside.
Traffic congestion and pollution.
Reduction in quality of landscape and townscape character.
Impacts upon amenities and "a reduction in tranquillity for existing residents".

It sounds like a very bad plan. It is. This plan should be rejected.

I have lived in Bygrave for more than 30 years and I was born within one mile of the A507 in Bedfordshire. Because my parents both had parents living in Essex I regularly travelled on this route from a young age. My first memory of a traffic jam dates from 1950 when we were stuck on the A507 between Stotfold and Baldock which gave me a feeling of complete desperation that we might never arrive. Traffic gridlock is stressful for adults also and having worked in Letchworth Industrial Area for 12 years in the 1980's and 1990's I know that the bottleneck on the A507 entering Baldock is a continuing and progressive problem. It took me three times as long to drive to my workplace in the 1990's as it had done a decade earlier, and this was almost entirely due to traffic jams on the A507. I have driven the length of the A507 for both business and leisure for more than fifty years, and it is the proposed developments close to this road in the vicinity of Baldock that I most strongly object to in the NHDC plan. At a time when the Government is promising to spend more than one billion pounds to tackle congestion and claiming to promote "joined-up thinking" the NHDC plan appears to be completely at odds with Government policy.
The following points relating to the A507, to Baldock and its surrounding towns and villages should demonstrate the deficiencies in the local Plan.
A 507
1. This road provides an important east-west route with good links to the A1 and M1 motorways west of Baldock, and good links to Stanstead Airport and the East Coast ports to the east of Baldock.
2. There are no good alternative routes in this region.
3. Every town and village along this route has been bypassed in Bedfordshire. In Essex improvements to the route to both Stanstead and the coastal ports have been made. No improvements to the A507 have been made in Hertfordshire since the Buntingford bypass was built many years ago.
4. The only traffic lights and the only one way system on this road are in Baldock, which hosts the only section of this road that is subject to regular congestion and delays.
5. Lessons learned by most councils in the twentieth century should have informed NHDC by now. Most councils try to move major through roads out of town ( bypass ) rather than building the town around a through route, which is what the NHDC plan appears to do.

BALDOCK
1. It is an historic coaching and market town that benefited well into the twentieth century from the confluence of three major roads ( A1, A505 & A507 ) in the town. The rapid increase in traffic volumes during the last century meant that this became the main problem for Baldock which became the site of the worst traffic jams in North Hertfordshire.
2. Planning mistakes of the past, notably the extension of Baldock, Letchworth and Hitchin along the route of the A505, have resulted in one large built up area in which each town suffers from the proximity of its neighbours. Baldock is the the least accessible and most congested town in this conurbation .
3. It has become primarily a dormitory town with the majority of its working inhabitants employed elsewhere. Baldock ranks as the worst shopping venue of any town in the region according to Venuescope UK shopping index, as well as having the smallest projected growth of retail space. Lack of ready access makes it an unattractive location for most types of business. It would also almost certainly rank amongst the most deprived towns in terms of its recreational facilities or most other amenities. More housing will destroy rather than revive the town.
4. Previous bypasses - the A1M and Baldock Eastern bypass - have provided only temporary or incomplete solutions to the towns traffic problems., While A1 through traffic has been removed from the town, the attempt to divert traffic from the A505 has been less successful. The Whitehorse Street junction where the A505 crosses the A507 will always remain the focal point for the towns traffic problems, and it is stating the obvious to say that further building along either of these routes in Baldock will compound an already intractable problem.
5. Unfortunately the Council have contributed to the congestion in Baldock by siting an Industrial area on the A505 immediately north of and close to the Whitehorse Street junction with the A507. Lorries turning left at this junction from the A507 towards this industrial area often navigate the junction so slowly that traffic inevitably backs up behind them. Lorries travelling north along Whitehorse Street towards the Industrial area are usually wide enough to block the filter lane left onto the A507 when traffic is stopped at the junction. Apart from this badly located Industrial area, the building and infilling with resid ential properties on the north of the A507 all contribute to congestion in and around the Whitehorse Street junction.
6. Access to Baldock railway station is often compromised by long queues of slow moving traffic approaching the junction ( as is access to and from the Ashwell Road ). Thus it may soon become as difficult to depart from Baldock as it is to enter the town.
7. The solution to this growing problem is a moratorium on all building north of the A 507 and no further extension of Baldock along this road unless and until an A507 Baldock bypass has been built. In the meantime the Green Belt should be extended on the north side of Baldock to ensure no further infilling contributes to the congestion.
NHDC LOCAL PLAN
This plan fails to meet any of the NPPF soundness criteria. It is not positively prepared because it fails to take into account regional travel requirements, and the major developments are planned in the most inappropriate locations ( Area codes BA1 & BA2 ). It is not justified because even if this large number of new houses is required in North Hertfordshire, which I doubt, it is easy to identify more appropriate locations. I note that this plan proposes a large new retail park
park in Royston together with a limited amount of new housing. Venuescope reveals that Royston already has much better shopping, as well as better recreational facilities than Baldock. It lies on the same London-Cambridge railway line and even a large scale retail and housing
development would have minimal effect on through traffic. Thus it is a more suitable location for such development.

NHDC admit that their plan would have negative effects upon residents in Baldock, which would also apply to residents in nearby settlements. The proposed expansion of the town in area BA1 would effectively turn Bygrave into an inaccessible suburb of the inaccessible town of Baldock.
Among negative effects noted by the Council are the following:
Significant loss of agricultural land.
Reduced access to open countryside.
Traffic congestion and pollution.
Reduction in quality of landscape and townscape character.
Impacts upon amenities and "a reduction in tranquillity for existing residents".

It sounds like a very bad plan. It is. This plan should be rejected.