Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

I strongly object to this planning application for the following reasons:

* Both North Herts District Council and an inspector from the government's Department of the Environment have rejected planning applications for this site on previous occasions - July 1987, November 1978 and August 1996. Nothing has changed to make this a suitable site for development.

* The site is outside the village development boundary and there has been no consultation within the village to extend this.

* The site failed NHDC's own environmental criteria - see your Landscape Character Assessment p151. Nothing has changed on the site.

* The site fails to met the requirements for highway safety as defined in NHDC's planning policy on highway safety (policy T1). With no pavement or adequate room for access to and from this site it is unsafe for pedestrians who will therefore use their cars to use village amenities. Each house is likely to have a minimum of two cars which means the potential of another 66 cars on Ashwell's streets! The village is already turning into a car park - it cannot sustain yet more vehicles. How can this support the government's declaration to reduce vehicle emissions?

* Without a pavement to walk into the village from Claybush Road and with nowhere to park in Ashwell, the potential residents of Site AS1 will turn their backs on Ashwell's shops and amenities and drive to the nearest town. How does this fit in with the Strategic Policies for North Hertfordshire's alleged support for local retail and service outlets?

* Ashwell's infrastructure cannot sustain this site. Our sewerage system is old and will not cope with additional demand. Building on any field in elevated parts of the village will increase rainwater run off with subsequent increase in the flooding which Hodwell and Mill Street already experience.

* Ashwell Parish Council has repeatedly offered NHDC alternative sites within the village but these have been ignored.

* The response to a survey undertaken by Ashwell's Neighbourhood Plan Group was clear on housing needs. We need small units for the elderly of the village in the centre of the village. These would free up family homes of which about a quarter are currently single (mainly elderly) person owned and occupied. An opportunity to provide small units was lost when planning permission was given for large properties on the Whitby Farm site. NHDC clearly has no intention of providing what Ashwell actually needs!

The NHDC Local Plan for Ashwell fails to meet highway safety requirements, fails to protect valued landscapes and the historic environment, fails to consult on the extension of the settlement boundary and fails to take into consideration the needs of the people of Ashwell.

I strongly object to the current NHDC Local Plan particularly regarding Baldock for the following reasons:

* The needs and wishes of the people of Baldock have been ignored.

* The Government has reduced the need for 14,400 houses in North Hertfordshire to 13,800 so why is NHDC still pressing ahead with its plan to build the former number? What has it done to question the real need for this number bearing in mind that these numbers are decided on in an office far removed from North Hertfordshire?

* Where are all these new people going to work - London, Cambridge, Stevenage? How will they get to work?

* Trains are already overcrowded at peak times. We now know that the capacity of the trains is to be reduced by the train operator - how does this match up with hugely increasing numbers of people needing to use the train service which will be the inevitable result of building 3,290 houses in Baldock?

* If the trains cannot accommodate thousands more commuters then inevitably travel by road is the only option for many. The A1 is already gridlocked at times - what does NHDC propose to do about this? Are our villages to become 'rat runs' - what is NHDC doing to ensure this does not happen?

* No-one from the proposed housing between Bygrave and Baldock will walk into Baldock. It is already difficult to find a parking space in Baldock and there is now a plan to increase the size of parking spaces to accommodate the current vogue for larger cars with the inevitable result of reducing the number of parking spaces. So, what is NHDC doing to increase the number of parking spaces for the thousands more cars their Local Plan will release on to our roads?

* It is already difficult to get a place at Knights Templar School - what is NHDC proposing to do to increase school places at both secondary and primary level?

* GP surgeries and hospitals are already experiencing an unprecedented demand on their services which they are having difficulty in managing. Has NHDC got a plan to increase capacity as they double the number of people needing to use medical facilities?

I would very much appreciate an answer these questions.