Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

I write to formally object to the above Local Plan proposal to build new homes in North Hertfordshire, adjacent to Luton, and in the vicinity of Mangrove Green, Cockernhoe, Tea Green, Wandon End, Wigmore, Brick Kiln Lane, Rochford Drive, Copthorne and Putteridgebury, just to meet LUTON'S UNMET NEEDS or to be more precise their desire to extend their boundaries. Luton has adequate sites within their own county boundaries without having to come into North Herts. Green Belt. If they were in such a great need of housing why did they not utilize the Vauxhall site, on which they are currently building, for well over 10 years or more. Why are they building a night club and other buildings instead of housing? These buildings should surely be built on the empty site next to the new hotel and the Parkway Railroad Station across the road from the Vauxhall site which would not be appropriate for housing.

The West of Luton is certainly a much better place to build the homes with promised infrastructure and adjacent roads to the M1, Luton Airport and the Town. The developer promised a large food store, schools and park if given permission to build. It is not of such outstanding natural beauty compared to that of the East Luton. It is much flatter too. Luton should be made to use this land rather than Hertfordshire's.

The roads infrastructure is totally incapable of supporting a massive increase in vehicle movements which will occur daily. Roads into Luton, Luton Airport, and access to the M1, are already gridlocked at critical times of the day, with a knock-on effect to the surrounding area. The increased volume of vehicles moving in and out of the site, cars, heavy lorries would have a devastating impact for the local residents going about their everyday lives. The lanes adjacent to the site, in North Hertfordshire, were designed for "horse and cart", and are totally unsuitable for the proposed traffic increased numbers. The existing roads are in continuous disrepair. The county currently has difficulty maintaining them so it would find it impossible to cope with even more. Any traffic not needing to go through Luton would undoubtedly go through our North Hertfordshire villages. Some villagers, like those in Breachwood Green, do not have pavements in front of their homes and have to step straight onto the road. Existing traffic tends to travel too fast through the village and any increase in this traffic would compound this health and safety hazard.

I understand that Traffic Survey for this proposal was not carried out to industry standards e.g. for a month and also the results of this survey showed a negligible or nil effect on local congestion when the results and thus the underpinning of the proposal were based on a road that doesn't exist and hasn't been proposed.

Add to this the proposed doubling of the flights at Luton airport and the increase traffic and noise that will bring will certainly enhanced the nightmare! Before any additional housing is built, the planners and the public need to be told just how many near misses have occurred around the airport and surrounding area within the last ten years. New housing, as well as established homes, within the vicinity of the airport will be adversely affected by air and noise pollution as the airport continues to expand. Luton airport is planned to grow to 22 million passengers by 2030 which will stretch the road network in Luton and North Hertfordshire to breaking point. On top of this, I understand that even the most recent growth in traffic has not been taken into account in the traffic surveys carried out which leaves them completely inaccurate.

Our beautiful Green Belt land is graded as "of special significant landscape value". It is in line with Government intentions that "settlements shall not coalesce", and provides an important "buffer" between Luton and the much- loved Hertfordshire countryside. What about the wild life? The owls and kites for example and all the small insects, bees, butterflies etc. There are many small wooded areas within the proposed housing site that would be destroyed. We need these trees for oxygen and woodland habitats. The expansion of housing in North Hertfordshire and of Luton Airport is also going to create further stress on the area's natural environment. The Council needs to be looking to place more trees around the East of Luton/North Hertfordshire in order to absorb the pollution sprayed out from the huge increase in vehicular and air traffic. It should not be taking trees, bushes and green land away! There are a huge number of tree preservation orders covering sites LE1, LE2 and LE3, there are a total of 18,381 metres of tree preservation orders (Ref: "4._planning_constraints_matrix.pdf" document at http://www.north-herts.gov.uk/4._planning_constraints_matrix.pdf). This countryside provides a vital social and leisure area, enjoyed by Lutonians, local residents, and visitors from further afield, providing walking, bird watching, cycling, horse riding, and countless other leisure activities, in tranquillity rarely experienced so close to a busy industrial town. Surely, greenbelt cannot be built on to meet unmet needs.

The possibility of 2000+ homes will put an intolerable strain on already overcrowded schools. Despite the promise of a modest primary school, there will still be an insatiable demand for schooling, especially at the already over-subscribed secondary schools. Medical centres, pharmacies, access to hospitals, emergency services, public transport, and policing is already under strain. I understand that the L and D is already growing at 6% per annum without this development. No adequate provision is proposed to ease these. Indeed, we are facing constant "cut-backs" in essential services.

I understand that this area has sites of Archaeological and Historical Significance that Luton and Hertfordshire have not considered.

I believe that there has been a breach of the planning process because the developers haven't consulted the local populous in this application. We have been told that the objections from previous applications do not count against this planning proposal so how can it be right that the planners can use consultations from a previous proposal.

Luton Borough Council should be made to submit a thorough Local Plan that takes account of all the concerns of the residents of North Hertfordshire and East Luton and that the Government as a whole and in particular the pertinent Governmental planning department and its minister should be made aware of our concerns.

PLEASE REFUSE THIS APPLICATION ADDITIONALLY, AND FURTHERMORE ...

PLEASE ACCEPT THIS AS A FORMAL OBJECTION TO ANY PROPOSAL, OR SUBSEQUENT APPLICATION, TO DEVELOP LAND ON THIS SITE OR ANY OTHER SITE ADJACENT TO LUTON'S EASTERN BOUNDARY WITH NORTH HERTS., COCKERNHOE, MANGROVE, TEA GREEN & WANDON END, etc.

I wish to "participate in all examination stages and change parts of the plan". "I object to the NHDC Local Plan 2011-2031. I want to change many parts of this Local Plan. I want to participate in the Examination."

I write to formally object to the above Local Plan proposal to build new homes in North Hertfordshire, adjacent to Luton, and in the vicinity of Mangrove Green, Cockernhoe, Tea Green, Wandon End, Wigmore, Brick Kiln Lane, Rochford Drive, Copthorne and Putteridgebury, just to meet LUTON'S UNMET NEEDS or to be more precise their desire to extend their boundaries. Luton has adequate sites within their own county boundaries without having to come into North Herts. Green Belt. If they were in such a great need of housing why did they not utilize the Vauxhall site, on which they are currently building, for well over 10 years or more. Why are they building a night club and other buildings instead of housing? These buildings should surely be built on the empty site next to the new hotel and the Parkway Railroad Station across the road from the Vauxhall site which would not be appropriate for housing.

The West of Luton is certainly a much better place to build the homes with promised infrastructure and adjacent roads to the M1, Luton Airport and the Town. The developer promised a large food store, schools and park if given permission to build. It is not of such outstanding natural beauty compared to that of the East Luton. It is much flatter too. Luton should be made to use this land rather than Hertfordshire's.

The roads infrastructure is totally incapable of supporting a massive increase in vehicle movements which will occur daily. Roads into Luton, Luton Airport, and access to the M1, are already gridlocked at critical times of the day, with a knock-on effect to the surrounding area. The increased volume of vehicles moving in and out of the site, cars, heavy lorries would have a devastating impact for the local residents going about their everyday lives. The lanes adjacent to the site, in North Hertfordshire, were designed for "horse and cart", and are totally unsuitable for the proposed traffic increased numbers. The existing roads are in continuous disrepair. The county currently has difficulty maintaining them so it would find it impossible to cope with even more. Any traffic not needing to go through Luton would undoubtedly go through our North Hertfordshire villages. Some villagers, like those in Breachwood Green, do not have pavements in front of their homes and have to step straight onto the road. Existing traffic tends to travel too fast through the village and any increase in this traffic would compound this health and safety hazard.

I understand that Traffic Survey for this proposal was not carried out to industry standards e.g. for a month and also the results of this survey showed a negligible or nil effect on local congestion when the results and thus the underpinning of the proposal were based on a road that doesn't exist and hasn't been proposed.

Add to this the proposed doubling of the flights at Luton airport and the increase traffic and noise that will bring will certainly enhanced the nightmare! Before any additional housing is built, the planners and the public need to be told just how many near misses have occurred around the airport and surrounding area within the last ten years. New housing, as well as established homes, within the vicinity of the airport will be adversely affected by air and noise pollution as the airport continues to expand. Luton airport is planned to grow to 22 million passengers by 2030 which will stretch the road network in Luton and North Hertfordshire to breaking point. On top of this, I understand that even the most recent growth in traffic has not been taken into account in the traffic surveys carried out which leaves them completely inaccurate.

Our beautiful Green Belt land is graded as "of special significant landscape value". It is in line with Government intentions that "settlements shall not coalesce", and provides an important "buffer" between Luton and the much- loved Hertfordshire countryside. What about the wild life? The owls and kites for example and all the small insects, bees, butterflies etc. There are many small wooded areas within the proposed housing site that would be destroyed. We need these trees for oxygen and woodland habitats. The expansion of housing in North Hertfordshire and of Luton Airport is also going to create further stress on the area's natural environment. The Council needs to be looking to place more trees around the East of Luton/North Hertfordshire in order to absorb the pollution sprayed out from the huge increase in vehicular and air traffic. It should not be taking trees, bushes and green land away! There are a huge number of tree preservation orders covering sites LE1, LE2 and LE3, there are a total of 18,381 metres of tree preservation orders (Ref: "4._planning_constraints_matrix.pdf" document at http://www.north-herts.gov.uk/4._planning_constraints_matrix.pdf). This countryside provides a vital social and leisure area, enjoyed by Lutonians, local residents, and visitors from further afield, providing walking, bird watching, cycling, horse riding, and countless other leisure activities, in tranquillity rarely experienced so close to a busy industrial town. Surely, greenbelt cannot be built on to meet unmet needs.

The possibility of 2000+ homes will put an intolerable strain on already overcrowded schools. Despite the promise of a modest primary school, there will still be an insatiable demand for schooling, especially at the already over-subscribed secondary schools. Medical centres, pharmacies, access to hospitals, emergency services, public transport, and policing is already under strain. I understand that the L and D is already growing at 6% per annum without this development. No adequate provision is proposed to ease these. Indeed, we are facing constant "cut-backs" in essential services.

I understand that this area has sites of Archaeological and Historical Significance that Luton and Hertfordshire have not considered.

I believe that there has been a breach of the planning process because the developers haven't consulted the local populous in this application. We have been told that the objections from previous applications do not count against this planning proposal so how can it be right that the planners can use consultations from a previous proposal.

Luton Borough Council should be made to submit a thorough Local Plan that takes account of all the concerns of the residents of North Hertfordshire and East Luton and that the Government as a whole and in particular the pertinent Governmental planning department and its minister should be made aware of our concerns.

PLEASE REFUSE THIS APPLICATION ADDITIONALLY, AND FURTHERMORE ...

PLEASE ACCEPT THIS AS A FORMAL OBJECTION TO ANY PROPOSAL, OR SUBSEQUENT APPLICATION, TO DEVELOP LAND ON THIS SITE OR ANY OTHER SITE ADJACENT TO LUTON'S EASTERN BOUNDARY WITH NORTH HERTS., COCKERNHOE, MANGROVE, TEA GREEN & WANDON END, etc.

I wish to "participate in all examination stages and change parts of the plan". "I object to the NHDC Local Plan 2011-2031. I want to change many parts of this Local Plan. I want to participate in the Examination."

See attached