Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

I am writing to object to the local plan which intends to increase the number of houses in Codicote by at the very least an extra 320. I object to this plan because

a. it includes building homes on green belt land which has been labelled as such specifically to stop developers from building on our few remaining local areas of natural beauty and wildlife. Also if all 'empty fields' continue to be built upon Codicote will cease to be a village in its own right and will end up becoming part of welwyn or some other wider conglomeration, thus losing the character of this lovely rural location.

b. the local primary school and surrounding secondary schools are already more or less full to capacity. In particular the secondary schools are of concern as the wider plan includes increases in housing in other local villages that feed into these schools. While I appreciate that some consideration has been made to expand the capacity of the primary school, I don't feel that the secondary school issue has been addressed at all.

c. the local GPs in both Welwyn and Knebworth are also full to capacity and are struggling to cope with the number of new patients arriving. This is the same issue as secondary schools. Thousands more homes but no new provisions for GP care planned.

d. the village cannot sustain any further increase in the level of traffic that goes through the village at rush hours, particularly if there is a problem on the A1M. There is already a slow to static queue every morning and evening. Where will the extra 600 or so cars go? Not to mention all the others from surrounding villages. This is not helped by the fact that there is a very limited (almost non-existent) bus service through the village, so commuters are forced to use their cars due to a lack of alternative. This also impacts on the safety of school children. There are only two official crossing points on the route to school on the High Street even though several other already very busy roads have to be crossed e.g. St Albans Road (a main route to Luton and St Albans) and Bury Lane ( a main route through from Stevenage to Welwyn.

e. I feel that the village also cannot sustain this level of increase in housing, increasing the population (of the official 'Settlement Boundary') by over 30% , especially as many new houses have already been snuck in over the last few years via larger houses being sold off and then several new houses being built in their place. The High Street, lovely Sports & Social centre and primary school were not built to accommodate hundreds (even thousands?) of extra people. Also, to my knowledge no further infrastructure has been included to make this increase work e.g. improved waste water facilities and we already experience regular power cuts - how will this be affected by an extra 300+ homes?

f. Finally I feel that the houses being built are not for, nor are in the interests of, current and nearby local residents. It seems to me that these are being built to accommodate Londoners who can no longer afford to live in London. They can afford much higher prices and so the new houses being built are currently all 'luxury' homes, with 3 bedroom houses being sold for at least £650,000, while the locals cannot possibly move up to a 3-bed at that price from a £250,000 2-bed that they currently reside in. This is not fair, nor local nor sustainable.

In summary I feel that the local plan currently seeks to house more people than the village and wider locality can possibly sustain on land that should not be used for housing but be left to nature in an area full to bursting in terms of schooling, healthcare, public transport and road use.

It needs a total re-think.