Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

Please may I make the following comments to object to the plan as a resident of Graveley, therefore my comments are principally referring to site NS1 and also to some extent, GA1:

1. Destruction of Green Belt land in this instance is not justified. In towns across North Herts and Stevenage there are still many untapped brownfield sites that would benefit these locations bringing life back intro these business centres, reducing the inducement of traffic congestion through commuting into such towns/railway stations and already using a ready-built infrastructure. Locating housing in areas such as this is not convenient for rail travel being around 2 miles from Stevenage station and traffic congestion along North Road makes any linking bus journey time-consuming and unreliable. There is plenty of brown field land to the west of Stevenage that is only 1/2 a mile from Stevenage station that remains derelict yet is only a 10 minute walk from the town's station.

2. There is insufficient transport infrastructure in this area already and we have heard no proposals as to how such saturated roads can be improved to cater for such growth, caused by both the proposed housing developments and supermarket. Both the A1 J8 and North Road Junction with Graveley Road are already accident black spots and Graveley village will not cope with much higher traffic flows down Church Lane from Great Ashby. This road cannot already cope when it's used by many residents of Great Ashby in the peak periods and with very tight corners and listed buildings backing onto the road on the approaches to Graveley there are no ways it can be widened. The land take of the new sites also appears to only provide an road connection to the east and south-east placing massive stress on the Stevenage to Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock corridors.

3. A loss of the potential to ever expand the hospital and associated facilities. Lister Hospital and its immediately adjacent sites catering for palliative care and mental health are now ( critically important to all of North and East Herts and Stevenage. There has already been huge upheaval and expense in consolidating care there and downgrading other sites such as QE2 in Welwyn Garden City and Hertford Hospitals which was justified at the time that Lister is better suited to expand. A housing scheme of such a size running right up to the hospital site will restrict what would have been a far more justified reason to threaten Green Belt land in the future.

4. Stevenage and it's immediate surrounding areas have been woefully neglectful of the history and culture that has, and still remains. EM Forster and the notion of 'Forster Country' would greatly improve the image of this area. Such swathes of blanket development with no focal point and the associated destruction of woodlands and hedgerows does undermine such efforts by a great many people in the past to increase the profile of the area as a pleasant and sustainable place to live, work and visit. The relief of the proposed area would make such a development visible from many aspects to the north of Stevenage and undermine the historical importance of sites such as Manor Farm.

5. The density of housing that is proposed and lack of strategic infrastructure to cope is an insult to foresight and concepts of Ebenezer Howard, again another unique selling point of this area. He was an early proponent of sustainability and I would question the overall environmental credentials of this scheme.

Please may I make the following comments to object to the plan as a resident of Graveley, therefore my comments are principally referring to site NS1 and also to some extent, GA1:

1. Destruction of Green Belt land in this instance is not justified. In towns across North Herts and Stevenage there are still many untapped brownfield sites that would benefit these locations bringing life back intro these business centres, reducing the inducement of traffic congestion through commuting into such towns/railway stations and already using a ready-built infrastructure. Locating housing in areas such as this is not convenient for rail travel being around 2 miles from Stevenage station and traffic congestion along North Road makes any linking bus journey time-consuming and unreliable. There is plenty of brown field land to the west of Stevenage that is only 1/2 a mile from Stevenage station that remains derelict yet is only a 10 minute walk from the town's station.

2. There is insufficient transport infrastructure in this area already and we have heard no proposals as to how such saturated roads can be improved to cater for such growth, caused by both the proposed housing developments and supermarket. Both the A1 J8 and North Road Junction with Graveley Road are already accident black spots and Graveley village will not cope with much higher traffic flows down Church Lane from Great Ashby. This road cannot already cope when it's used by many residents of Great Ashby in the peak periods and with very tight corners and listed buildings backing onto the road on the approaches to Graveley there are no ways it can be widened. The land take of the new sites also appears to only provide an road connection to the east and south-east placing massive stress on the Stevenage to Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock corridors.

3. A loss of the potential to ever expand the hospital and associated facilities. Lister Hospital and its immediately adjacent sites catering for palliative care and mental health are now ( critically important to all of North and East Herts and Stevenage. There has already been huge upheaval and expense in consolidating care there and downgrading other sites such as QE2 in Welwyn Garden City and Hertford Hospitals which was justified at the time that Lister is better suited to expand. A housing scheme of such a size running right up to the hospital site will restrict what would have been a far more justified reason to threaten Green Belt land in the future.

4. Stevenage and it's immediate surrounding areas have been woefully neglectful of the history and culture that has, and still remains. EM Forster and the notion of 'Forster Country' would greatly improve the image of this area. Such swathes of blanket development with no focal point and the associated destruction of woodlands and hedgerows does undermine such efforts by a great many people in the past to increase the profile of the area as a pleasant and sustainable place to live, work and visit. The relief of the proposed area would make such a development visible from many aspects to the north of Stevenage and undermine the historical importance of sites such as Manor Farm.

5. The density of housing that is proposed and lack of strategic infrastructure to cope is an insult to foresight and concepts of Ebenezer Howard, again another unique selling point of this area. He was an early proponent of sustainability and I would question the overall environmental credentials of this scheme.