Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

Water and sewerage infrastructure is already struggling to cope with the density of housing in North Herts, one of the driest parts of the country. Local rivers such as the Beane are already over-exploited and suffering environmental damage. The Local Plan avoids all mention of the problem, let alone solutions. It assumes the local water authorities will cope with swathes of new housing, as is their statutory duty, but no-one has come up with an answer as to where the extra water is to come from.
It is assumed that new traffic congestion can be remedied by road-widening but in Letchworth this solution is not available. All Letchworth roads are narrow as its conception as a self-sustaining town would obviate the need for travel. Workers would walk to work, children would walk to school and car-ownership would be low. Narrow roads were bordered by grass verges, generously studded with trees, some of them rare. In this environment, road-widening would be totally destructive of character. The proposed new estate North of the Grange will feed its extra traffic through these narrow roads , causing severe traffic congestion through the Grange and Letchworth Centre, and, as it becomes predominantly a dormitory town (through failing to balance new housing with new local employment opportunity), extreme parking pressure on routes leading to the station (such as Cowslip Hill, Norton way North, Icknield Way) . On the other hand, if to avoid town centre congestion, it is decided to create new routes through to Stotfold Road to the West, or through to form a new junction with Norton road to the East, the new estate will lose its identity with the community of Letchworth. (Presumably, or hopefully, this is not the planners' intention.)
Significant erosion of the Green Belt (the first ever) means there will be only 500 metres between Letchworth and Fairfield to the North and Letchworth and Hitchin to the West. If this isn't Urban Sprawl then I don't know what is, and Green Belt was put in place precisely to prevent this sort of development. Once it's built on the land is gone and the wildlife will not just move to the next field!

Water and sewerage infrastructure is already struggling to cope with the density of housing in North Herts, one of the driest parts of the country. Local rivers such as the Beane are already over-exploited and suffering environmental damage. The Local Plan avoids all mention of the problem, let alone solutions. It assumes the local water authorities will cope with swathes of new housing, as is their statutory duty, but no-one has come up with an answer as to where the extra water is to come from.
It is assumed that new traffic congestion can be remedied by road-widening but in Letchworth this solution is not available. All Letchworth roads are narrow as its conception as a self-sustaining town would obviate the need for travel. Workers would walk to work, children would walk to school and car-ownership would be low. Narrow roads were bordered by grass verges, generously studded with trees, some of them rare. In this environment, road-widening would be totally destructive of character. The proposed new estate North of the Grange will feed its extra traffic through these narrow roads , causing severe traffic congestion through the Grange and Letchworth Centre, and, as it becomes predominantly a dormitory town (through failing to balance new housing with new local employment opportunity), extreme parking pressure on routes leading to the station (such as Cowslip Hill, Norton way North, Icknield Way) . On the other hand, if to avoid town centre congestion, it is decided to create new routes through to Stotfold Road to the West, or through to form a new junction with Norton road to the East, the new estate will lose its identity with the community of Letchworth. (Presumably, or hopefully, this is not the planners' intention.)
Significant erosion of the Green Belt (the first ever) means there will be only 500 metres between Letchworth and Fairfield to the North and Letchworth and Hitchin to the West. If this isn't Urban Sprawl then I don't know what is, and Green Belt was put in place precisely to prevent this sort of development. Once it's built on the land is gone and the wildlife will not just move to the next field!

Water and sewerage infrastructure is already struggling to cope with the density of housing in North Herts, one of the driest parts of the country. Local rivers such as the Beane are already over-exploited and suffering environmental damage. The Local Plan avoids all mention of the problem, let alone solutions. It assumes the local water authorities will cope with swathes of new housing, as is their statutory duty, but no-one has come up with an answer as to where the extra water is to come from.
It is assumed that new traffic congestion can be remedied by road-widening but in Letchworth this solution is not available. All Letchworth roads are narrow as its conception as a self-sustaining town would obviate the need for travel. Workers would walk to work, children would walk to school and car-ownership would be low. Narrow roads were bordered by grass verges, generously studded with trees, some of them rare. In this environment, road-widening would be totally destructive of character. The proposed new estate North of the Grange will feed its extra traffic through these narrow roads , causing severe traffic congestion through the Grange and Letchworth Centre, and, as it becomes predominantly a dormitory town (through failing to balance new housing with new local employment opportunity), extreme parking pressure on routes leading to the station (such as Cowslip Hill, Norton way North, Icknield Way) . On the other hand, if to avoid town centre congestion, it is decided to create new routes through to Stotfold Road to the West, or through to form a new junction with Norton road to the East, the new estate will lose its identity with the community of Letchworth. (Presumably, or hopefully, this is not the planners' intention.)
Significant erosion of the Green Belt (the first ever) means there will be only 500 metres between Letchworth and Fairfield to the North and Letchworth and Hitchin to the West. If this isn't Urban Sprawl then I don't know what is, and Green Belt was put in place precisely to prevent this sort of development. Once it's built on the land is gone and the wildlife will not just move to the next field!

Water and sewerage infrastructure is already struggling to cope with the density of housing in North Herts, one of the driest parts of the country. Local rivers such as the Beane are already over-exploited and suffering environmental damage. The Local Plan avoids all mention of the problem, let alone solutions. It assumes the local water authorities will cope with swathes of new housing, as is their statutory duty, but no-one has come up with an answer as to where the extra water is to come from.
It is assumed that new traffic congestion can be remedied by road-widening but in Letchworth this solution is not available. All Letchworth roads are narrow as its conception as a self-sustaining town would obviate the need for travel. Workers would walk to work, children would walk to school and car-ownership would be low. Narrow roads were bordered by grass verges, generously studded with trees, some of them rare. In this environment, road-widening would be totally destructive of character. The proposed new estate North of the Grange will feed its extra traffic through these narrow roads , causing severe traffic congestion through the Grange and Letchworth Centre, and, as it becomes predominantly a dormitory town (through failing to balance new housing with new local employment opportunity), extreme parking pressure on routes leading to the station (such as Cowslip Hill, Norton way North, Icknield Way) . On the other hand, if to avoid town centre congestion, it is decided to create new routes through to Stotfold Road to the West, or through to form a new junction with Norton road to the East, the new estate will lose its identity with the community of Letchworth. (Presumably, or hopefully, this is not the planners' intention.)
Significant erosion of the Green Belt (the first ever) means there will be only 500 metres between Letchworth and Fairfield to the North and Letchworth and Hitchin to the West. If this isn't Urban Sprawl then I don't know what is, and Green Belt was put in place precisely to prevent this sort of development. Once it's built on the land is gone and the wildlife will not just move to the next field!