Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

There are four proposed sites for residential development,and there appears to be no strategic plan for dealing with the impact that this overall large expansion relative to the existing Knebworth.
There are no new employment opportunities within the Knebworth settlement, the occupants of the new dwellings will be younger people who will have to commute by road or by rail.
Each of the four sites would feed into narrow roads where the traffic volume is high, particularly at peak periods. Sites KB1 and KB2 will lead under the Station Road railway bridge where the road is very narrow, has a bend at each end and very narrow footway on one side of the road only. Pedestrians can only pass each other by one of them stepping into the road.
The alternative for KB2 is the Gun Road railway bridge, also with a bend in the narrow roadway where vehicles meet each other in the middle of the road. Driving under this bridge is a nightmare, particularly during the rush hour in the dark evenings. There is also only one narrow footway.
Regarding KB1 and KB2, there are also the questions of Deards End Lane and Gypsy Lane both extremely narrow, essentially single track roads with no footways at all.
KB3 traffic will emerge either on to Station Road close to the London Road mini-roundabout or on to London Road itself which regarded as a "pinch point" at present.
KB4 traffic would emerge on to Watton Road and/or on to Swangleys Lane both narrow. There is no possibility of widening the built-up sections of these two roads.
There is very limited car parking at Knebworth railway station; commuters already jam up the roads of Knebworth with parked cars and this can only get much worse with a greatly increased population.
No information has been given on the wider environmental impact of the proposed developments. For example, serious flooding has occurred on various occasions for many years because of inadequate drainage. Both KB1and KB2 are above the level of the rest of "new" Knebworth and the decreased permeability of new built-up areas could only make things worse without considerable investment in the infrastructure.
One further point is that the B197 road is used as the diversion for the A1(M) motorway in the event of closure for accidents and maintenance and traffic comes to a standstill in and around the high street in peak periods.