Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

I would like to express my objection to the above plans. In particular I have strong objection about the plans for new housing in Baldock.

Whilst I accept that there needs to be some new housing in Baldock I object to:

1) The huge and out of proportion amount of new houses proposed for Baldock town. The plans propose that 34% of North Herts load is to be in Baldock. This will dramatically alter the nature of this small market town and have a magnified impact on a small town. The proposed plans, almost doubling the size of the town are too big a change. They need to be scaled down considerably.

2) The current infrastructure in Baldock would not be able to cope with the proposed increase.

The plan does appear to address this except in woolly terms.

In particular:

a. Education

- Baldock primary schools are already full. In fact children living in Baldock are already having to travel to schools in Ashwell, Letchworth, Norton and surrounding areas as there is no room in Baldock schools currently. Adding 3000+ homes will not help.

Before any new houses are built - new primary schools need to be built.
The Secondary School is full. Again, a new school needs to be built before new houses can be built.

b. Roads - the traffic going into Baldock is already bad, in particular North Road. Adding several thousand more cars to the town's traffic will create gridlock.

c. Trains - there are already problems with parking.

Carriage space is very limited during peak times. This will be exacerbated by the proposed plans to reduce the Baldock train service.

d. There will need to be increased health, police, and fire service infrastructure.

3. Usage of brownfield sites - in Baldock and Letchworth there are areas of brownfield that have been derelict or underutilised for many years.

In my opinion the plans for 3000+ new homes in Baldock are flawed.

I accept new homes are required in North Herts, it is one of the side effects of such a great area to live and work. I accept some houses should be built in Baldock. I cannot accept increasing the size of Baldock as this proposal outlines.

Alternatives would be to look to:

a) Spread the proposed housing far more proportionately across North Herts.

b) Create a whole new, small Garden City within the North Herts area - like Cambourne in Cambridgeshire.

c) Where ever more than a few hundred houses are to be built, schools and infrastructure needs to be addressed, planned and paid for before the house building starts. With punitive damages for not doing so. Referring back to Cambourne the town existed for 10 years before a site for a secondary school was even looked for - and the school then took a further 5 years to open. 15 years to provide the fundamental infrastructure of schooling is too long. North Herts needs to learn from this and ensure the education of our young people - of our future - is not compromised to meet context free targets. The schools, the GP surgeries, the roads, the parks all need to be planned before the builders start building houses and punitive damages applied if and when the planning constraints are breached.

d) There should be a concerted effort to enable development of brownfield sites for housing. That drive must come from our local government. It is not enough for our elected representatives to throw up their hands and say they can't affect brownfield proposals.

Thank you for your time and consideration.