Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

At the moment we live in Wood End East Herts and we are in the process of moving to [...] Baldock. I only saw by chance a small paragraph in The Comet saying that there was a meeting at Knights Templer School regarding a NHDC Local Plan: up until this moment we had no idea what was going on. When we arrived at the meeting there must have been nearly 200 people in the hall and it was only then that we realised that all these homes were going to be build around Baldock by 2031.

I realise that people have to live somewhere but to build that amount of housing in Baldock is a disgrace. How can Baldock cope with that amount of cars and people. Say all these people living outside Baldock have 2 cars to each house, how is Baldock going to cope with all the traffic? The relief road around Baldock was built some years ago for the very same reason you are now building all these houses. It will be impossible for Baldock to cope with all that traffic especially when cars will be travelling to Letchworth and Hitchin for work and shopping, it will be a nightmare in Baldock with all that traffic.

What about all the services ie Doctors/schools/shops and all the everyday uses. Surely someone must realise that the roads will never cope with the traffic, it will be impossible to move around Baldock in a vehicle.

Do you think that the plan quoted in NPPF section 4 ie ''Promoting sustainable transport'' is applicable. It states that Transport Statements and Assessments should be carried out, that developments should take up opportunties to reduce the need for major transport infrastructure and that plans should take account of whether ''safe and suitable access to the site can be achieved for all people''.

Will Baldock town choke? NPPF Chapter 2 is entitled ''Ensuring the vitality of town centres''. It covers aspects including requirements to ''retain and enhance existing markets'' and ''promote competitive town centres... which reflect the individuality of the town..'' By having all these houses built we will lose the town centres.

NPPF paragraph 177 describes that ''it is...important to ensure that there is a reasonable prospect that planned infrastructure is deliverable in a timely fashion...the local planning authority must understand district wide development costs at the time Local Plans are drawn up''

All these new residents need to go somewhere in the evenings and in Baldock i can imagine that we will have crowds of youngsters milling around Baldock High street with nothing to do. This is going to add to the crime figures.

I do not like the plan as it will kill Baldock, i hope you will reconsider and scrap the plan around Baldock and build somewhere else more suitable.