Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

BALDOCK (3,290 new houses) including 2,800 north of the town in BYGRAVE PARISH (the Blackhorse Farm site)

We are both very concerned about the effects of this development on the village of Bygrave and the town of Baldock. We would like to make the following representations:

A comprehensive history of Bygrave & Bygrave Common:
We think this needs to be explained so that the issues can be put in the correct context.

Bygrave is a hamlet divided geographically into two parts: the "lower village" is nearer to Baldock; the "top village" is based around Manor Farm, the parish church and the medieval settlement.
In the lower village, many of the houses were built in the early1930s. The reason these houses were built was to form a community of self-sufficient households with large gardens to grow vegetables/fruit and to encourage animal husbandry. The Second World War and animal disease put an end to this ideal.
A property company purchased the houses and a majority were sold to the public in 1956.
So the statement in NHDC's submission, that the houses were built "in mid-century", is wrong and proves that the lower village does have an interesting history, even though dating back less than 100 years. The 1930s houses were designed in the style used in Letchworth Garden City in the early 1900s. Even though changes have been made to dwellings , one can see the underlying bones of these original structures today.

It is the lower part of Bygrave that will be affected by this planned development, especially that part along lower Ashwell Road.

We would also add that the Blackhorse Farm development is situated in Bygrave parish, not Baldock, on what was Bygrave Common. In 1919, the Common and some nearby land in North Herts, was purchased from the landowner by Hertfordshire County Council. This happened at a time when there were disputes over land use on the Common and, we think, to provide "Land for Heroes" returning from the First World War. The land was partitioned into leased small holdings.
These exist today, although probably fewer than in the beginning. Two of the families working these small holdings have been in situ for about 50 years. Now they are to be uprooted, lose their land and their livelihood, including their business contacts and a future for their sons or daughters. Once this land is gone, it is gone forever!! The Count Council's policy to lease out agricultural land to small farmers, especially those who supply locally grown food and farm animals, as here, seems now to have been abandoned, in favour of a quick profit.

The hamlet has a Heritage Verge that is visited by nature enthusiasts every summer. This is marked by signs on the east side of Bygrave/Ashwell Road near Halfway Farm and was recognised two to three decades ago. The farmers agreed not to disturb this area too much. The road is an ancient trackway and the verge contains many unusual plants. This verge will be desecrated by housing and road construction, unless plans are made to protect it.

Fairness to Baldock and Bygrave:
Baldock is a small, market town, with both historical and architectural importance. It has 15th century almshouses, many Georgian houses, lots of listed buildings and a magnificent 17th century church, which is being restored. Several of the town's roads have existed for hundreds of years; they are narrow and easily become congested.

It does not seem fair that Baldock, the smallest town in North Herts, (30% smaller than any other town in North Herts) should have 35% of these new dwellings, as proposed for the whole area in NHDC's Local Plan.
The proposed number of houses would result in a 80% increase in the size of Baldock. The town's population is estimated to have been 10,600 people in 2015.
No other town in North Herts has had to face such a large increase in population over past decades. The only reason for this seems to be that HCC owns the land on the Blackhorse Farm site and is determined to sell it to developers.

Bygrave is a small village. In its lower part, there are over 50 houses. This housing development would, when finished, merge with this part of Bygrave. This would not comply with the need to keep settlements (villages and towns) separate, as set out in a recent decision on a proposed solar farm near Sawston in Cambridgeshire.
In this case, the Secretary of State confirmed "The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England"s view that the longstanding Green Belt purpose of preventing neighbouring "towns" from merging, applies equally to towns and villages. (CPRE Winter 2016 Newsletter for Hertfordshire.)

The Green Belt
It seems that the whole area of the housing development on the Blackhorse Farm site IS/WAS Green Belt. We were informed by North Herts District Councillor David Levitt at a public meeting, that Green Belt was not a legally enforceable space and that the area in question would stop being Green Belt to enable the building of houses. The acreage of the Green Belt removed from Bygrave, will bring about urban sprawl which was originally the Green Belt's raison d'être. This extensive change of use of land does not comply with the NPPF&S new guidelines.

NHDC states that 200 metres of HCC land to the north east of the development, along the line of the new housing would be allocated as playing fields and green space. If this is so, where then is the new road going to go? Does that mean that new residents would have to cross this road to reach the playing fields?


Transport: Roads
We know that a link road between the roundabout on the Royston Road and Redwell will be needed. Yet a Traffic Assessment has not been done to define where and how large this road should be or its effect on Baldock. There is, also,no indication in the Local Plan of how the Blackhorse Farm development would use this new road link.

Air, noise and light pollution from the new road is of increasing concern to us as is the visibility of the road to residents.
So, wherever this road goes, in a cutting, below the level of the development and the existing houses in Ashwell Road.To the east of Ashwell Road, the road should go through a tunnel, under the railway line.

Note: at the moment, Bygrave has no street lighting.

The current road through the village is heavily used by resident's cars, Ashwell traffic and lorries delivering to Manor Farm. It is a narrow road and is should not be available to be used by the developments' residents. Several serious accidents and a fatality have occurred on this road in the last two months.

As for Baldock, the Great North Road out of Baldock and the A1M to which it connects are already very congested. The railway bridge on the Great North Road near Baldock station is hit by high lorries frequently, causing delays and repairs. Only two weeks ago, a lorry piled high with pallets, hit the bridge. Major delays result from this hazard and Network Rail is forced to do numerous checks on the viability of the bridge.

Within Baldock, the streets are very narrow, especially after HCC's work to further narrow them, a few years ago. Coaches and lorries are forced up onto the pavements or have no choice but to restrict the flow of traffic in turning at the junction of Station Road, Clothall Road, Whitehorse Street and the Royston Road, past the railway bridge.

At the three way junction, further along to the right, at Whitehorse Street, Hitchin Road and the High Street, the space is very limited for turning and large vehicles have a problem traversing the intersection.

In both cases, the buildings surrounding the intersections are ancient and cannot be moved or altered. They are also suffering damage from this heavy traffic.

The 3,290 houses planned for Baldock over the next 15 years will introduce between 5000 to 7,000 extra cars to the area.The street parking in Baldock is very restricted and is fully utilised.
The new northern bypass near Bygrave will encourage new residents to drive elsewhere, if they want to visit a larger stores. Their need to come into Baldock, will be thwarted by long queues to the south and north of the town, the lack of parking within the town and the prospect of visiting stores elsewhere, for instance Biggleswade's new large Retail Centre.

Thus, the new development at the Blackhorse Farm site will become a distinct community with its own shops, schools, surgeries etc. Its residents will not contribute to the vibrant, community life existing in Baldock today. So, two towns will exist next to each other, neither improving the other.
This does not comply with the National Planning Policy Framework that proposes housing developments should promote the vitality of associated town centres.

Transport: Train Service:
Recently, Great Northern/Thames Link/Govia have expressed a need to reduce the number of high speed trains stopping at Baldock railway station. If this come to be, then the owners of the new houses in and around Baldock will have big problems getting to surrounding towns and to London or Cambridge. Since NHDC only spoke to Network Rail in the past few weeks, we have no idea of the changes, we can expect here.

As for parking at the station, three or four years ago, Network Rail sold off all the spare land around Baldock Station for apartment housing. As a consequence, we assume, more Green Belt land will be used for additional car parking at Baldock railway station.
What a lost opportunity! If only NHDC or HCC could have talked of their housing plans to Network Rail earlier. This was done only three weeks ago. The problem could have been avoided with some afore thought.




Need for Housing:
Baldock and Bygrave residents need new housing for their elderly people (low-rise), singles, young couples and families and people moving to Baldock for work. We know several couples in Bygrave and Baldock, who have had to move away from their core family, due to the lack of affordable housing in Baldock.

It is encouraging that 40% of the housing in the development is designated "affordable". We hope this becomes a reality. "Affordable" house prices in this area of Hertfordshire will, we expect, be in excess of £250,000, ten times the average national salary. Disappointingly, this amount is beyond the budgets of many local families.
The HCC and the developers involved should be looking to put something back into the communities they are planning and into the existing town and village. Local needs should be addressed, rather than looking to profit as the superior motive.
The number of self-build homes in the Local Plan is very few, considering the total number of houses proposed. We should be encouraging this type of building today. To plan for more would encourage variety and, hopefully, some interesting house designs.

Stress on Local Amenities:
In the short term, local schools, doctors' and dentist surgeries will be put under stress; they are already full to capacity. In the case of our doctor at Astonia House in Baldock, a regular appointment means a wait of two weeks. A more immediate health problem usually involves a trip into the town at 7:45 am to stand in a queue, for an appointment that day. We know this is not unusual for the North Herts area. New residents will have to look outside the town for these services until they are built within the development.


Conclusion:
We are not opposed to new houses being built in and around Baldock and Bygrave. However, we want a vision for the future for the area, not a Local Plan that is the best of the worst, as inferred by NHD Councillor David Levitt at a public meeting in 2014.

We need the Local Plan to be sustainable, ensuring better lives for ourselves and not making worse the lives of future generations. We do not believe this to be so of the Local Plan now proposed.

We wish to be invited to attend any Public Hearing and to be informed of any developments in this matter.

BALDOCK (3,290 new houses) including 2,800 north of the town in BYGRAVE PARISH (the Blackhorse Farm site)

We are both very concerned about the effects of this development on the village of Bygrave and the town of Baldock. We would like to make the following representations:

A comprehensive history of Bygrave & Bygrave Common:
We think this needs to be explained so that the issues can be put in the correct context.

Bygrave is a hamlet divided geographically into two parts: the "lower village" is nearer to Baldock; the "top village" is based around Manor Farm, the parish church and the medieval settlement.
In the lower village, many of the houses were built in the early1930s. The reason these houses were built was to form a community of self-sufficient households with large gardens to grow vegetables/fruit and to encourage animal husbandry. The Second World War and animal disease put an end to this ideal.
A property company purchased the houses and a majority were sold to the public in 1956.
So the statement in NHDC's submission, that the houses were built "in mid-century", is wrong and proves that the lower village does have an interesting history, even though dating back less than 100 years. The 1930s houses were designed in the style used in Letchworth Garden City in the early 1900s. Even though changes have been made to dwellings , one can see the underlying bones of these original structures today.

It is the lower part of Bygrave that will be affected by this planned development, especially that part along lower Ashwell Road.

We would also add that the Blackhorse Farm development is situated in Bygrave parish, not Baldock, on what was Bygrave Common. In 1919, the Common and some nearby land in North Herts, was purchased from the landowner by Hertfordshire County Council. This happened at a time when there were disputes over land use on the Common and, we think, to provide "Land for Heroes" returning from the First World War. The land was partitioned into leased small holdings.
These exist today, although probably fewer than in the beginning. Two of the families working these small holdings have been in situ for about 50 years. Now they are to be uprooted, lose their land and their livelihood, including their business contacts and a future for their sons or daughters. Once this land is gone, it is gone forever!! The Count Council's policy to lease out agricultural land to small farmers, especially those who supply locally grown food and farm animals, as here, seems now to have been abandoned, in favour of a quick profit.

The hamlet has a Heritage Verge that is visited by nature enthusiasts every summer. This is marked by signs on the east side of Bygrave/Ashwell Road near Halfway Farm and was recognised two to three decades ago. The farmers agreed not to disturb this area too much. The road is an ancient trackway and the verge contains many unusual plants. This verge will be desecrated by housing and road construction, unless plans are made to protect it.

Fairness to Baldock and Bygrave:
Baldock is a small, market town, with both historical and architectural importance. It has 15th century almshouses, many Georgian houses, lots of listed buildings and a magnificent 17th century church, which is being restored. Several of the town's roads have existed for hundreds of years; they are narrow and easily become congested.

It does not seem fair that Baldock, the smallest town in North Herts, (30% smaller than any other town in North Herts) should have 35% of these new dwellings, as proposed for the whole area in NHDC's Local Plan.
The proposed number of houses would result in a 80% increase in the size of Baldock. The town's population is estimated to have been 10,600 people in 2015.
No other town in North Herts has had to face such a large increase in population over past decades. The only reason for this seems to be that HCC owns the land on the Blackhorse Farm site and is determined to sell it to developers.

Bygrave is a small village. In its lower part, there are over 50 houses. This housing development would, when finished, merge with this part of Bygrave. This would not comply with the need to keep settlements (villages and towns) separate, as set out in a recent decision on a proposed solar farm near Sawston in Cambridgeshire.
In this case, the Secretary of State confirmed "The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England"s view that the longstanding Green Belt purpose of preventing neighbouring "towns" from merging, applies equally to towns and villages. (CPRE Winter 2016 Newsletter for Hertfordshire.)

The Green Belt
It seems that the whole area of the housing development on the Blackhorse Farm site IS/WAS Green Belt. We were informed by North Herts District Councillor David Levitt at a public meeting, that Green Belt was not a legally enforceable space and that the area in question would stop being Green Belt to enable the building of houses. The acreage of the Green Belt removed from Bygrave, will bring about urban sprawl which was originally the Green Belt's raison d'être. This extensive change of use of land does not comply with the NPPF&S new guidelines.

NHDC states that 200 metres of HCC land to the north east of the development, along the line of the new housing would be allocated as playing fields and green space. If this is so, where then is the new road going to go? Does that mean that new residents would have to cross this road to reach the playing fields?


Transport: Roads
We know that a link road between the roundabout on the Royston Road and Redwell will be needed. Yet a Traffic Assessment has not been done to define where and how large this road should be or its effect on Baldock. There is, also,no indication in the Local Plan of how the Blackhorse Farm development would use this new road link.

Air, noise and light pollution from the new road is of increasing concern to us as is the visibility of the road to residents.
So, wherever this road goes, in a cutting, below the level of the development and the existing houses in Ashwell Road.To the east of Ashwell Road, the road should go through a tunnel, under the railway line.

Note: at the moment, Bygrave has no street lighting.

The current road through the village is heavily used by resident's cars, Ashwell traffic and lorries delivering to Manor Farm. It is a narrow road and is should not be available to be used by the developments' residents. Several serious accidents and a fatality have occurred on this road in the last two months.

As for Baldock, the Great North Road out of Baldock and the A1M to which it connects are already very congested. The railway bridge on the Great North Road near Baldock station is hit by high lorries frequently, causing delays and repairs. Only two weeks ago, a lorry piled high with pallets, hit the bridge. Major delays result from this hazard and Network Rail is forced to do numerous checks on the viability of the bridge.

Within Baldock, the streets are very narrow, especially after HCC's work to further narrow them, a few years ago. Coaches and lorries are forced up onto the pavements or have no choice but to restrict the flow of traffic in turning at the junction of Station Road, Clothall Road, Whitehorse Street and the Royston Road, past the railway bridge.

At the three way junction, further along to the right, at Whitehorse Street, Hitchin Road and the High Street, the space is very limited for turning and large vehicles have a problem traversing the intersection.

In both cases, the buildings surrounding the intersections are ancient and cannot be moved or altered. They are also suffering damage from this heavy traffic.

The 3,290 houses planned for Baldock over the next 15 years will introduce between 5000 to 7,000 extra cars to the area.The street parking in Baldock is very restricted and is fully utilised.
The new northern bypass near Bygrave will encourage new residents to drive elsewhere, if they want to visit a larger stores. Their need to come into Baldock, will be thwarted by long queues to the south and north of the town, the lack of parking within the town and the prospect of visiting stores elsewhere, for instance Biggleswade's new large Retail Centre.

Thus, the new development at the Blackhorse Farm site will become a distinct community with its own shops, schools, surgeries etc. Its residents will not contribute to the vibrant, community life existing in Baldock today. So, two towns will exist next to each other, neither improving the other.
This does not comply with the National Planning Policy Framework that proposes housing developments should promote the vitality of associated town centres.

Transport: Train Service:
Recently, Great Northern/Thames Link/Govia have expressed a need to reduce the number of high speed trains stopping at Baldock railway station. If this come to be, then the owners of the new houses in and around Baldock will have big problems getting to surrounding towns and to London or Cambridge. Since NHDC only spoke to Network Rail in the past few weeks, we have no idea of the changes, we can expect here.

As for parking at the station, three or four years ago, Network Rail sold off all the spare land around Baldock Station for apartment housing. As a consequence, we assume, more Green Belt land will be used for additional car parking at Baldock railway station.
What a lost opportunity! If only NHDC or HCC could have talked of their housing plans to Network Rail earlier. This was done only three weeks ago. The problem could have been avoided with some afore thought.




Need for Housing:
Baldock and Bygrave residents need new housing for their elderly people (low-rise), singles, young couples and families and people moving to Baldock for work. We know several couples in Bygrave and Baldock, who have had to move away from their core family, due to the lack of affordable housing in Baldock.

It is encouraging that 40% of the housing in the development is designated "affordable". We hope this becomes a reality. "Affordable" house prices in this area of Hertfordshire will, we expect, be in excess of £250,000, ten times the average national salary. Disappointingly, this amount is beyond the budgets of many local families.
The HCC and the developers involved should be looking to put something back into the communities they are planning and into the existing town and village. Local needs should be addressed, rather than looking to profit as the superior motive.
The number of self-build homes in the Local Plan is very few, considering the total number of houses proposed. We should be encouraging this type of building today. To plan for more would encourage variety and, hopefully, some interesting house designs.

Stress on Local Amenities:
In the short term, local schools, doctors' and dentist surgeries will be put under stress; they are already full to capacity. In the case of our doctor at Astonia House in Baldock, a regular appointment means a wait of two weeks. A more immediate health problem usually involves a trip into the town at 7:45 am to stand in a queue, for an appointment that day. We know this is not unusual for the North Herts area. New residents will have to look outside the town for these services until they are built within the development.


Conclusion:
We are not opposed to new houses being built in and around Baldock and Bygrave. However, we want a vision for the future for the area, not a Local Plan that is the best of the worst, as inferred by NHD Councillor David Levitt at a public meeting in 2014.

We need the Local Plan to be sustainable, ensuring better lives for ourselves and not making worse the lives of future generations. We do not believe this to be so of the Local Plan now proposed.

We wish to be invited to attend any Public Hearing and to be informed of any developments in this matter.