Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

I would like to object to the suggested 9 houses behind Duncots Close (IC1), because I feel the development is not sound because it is both a health and safety risk and major sewerage risk.

* TRAFFIC DANGERS - Duncots Close was clearly only designed for the number of houses on it - 7. Access to the proposed site through Duncots Close would be a serious problem and I believe extra houses would create a major threat to safety, especially to pedestrians. The road is narrow and not suitable for extra traffic created by extra houses and there is no scope to widen it. In fact there are no pavements on any side at the moment and no way of creating them continuously. At the moment, residents, therefore, usually walk on the road to reach their houses and to reach the main road. This only works because there are 7 houses in the Close and there is an agreement between residents to drive slowly through the close because small children may also be walking on the road. Obviously this kind of "local arrangement" would not work with larger numbers of residents using the road for access. It would clearly not be safe to have larger numbers of cars coming into a road where residents, some of them with push chairs or walking with small children, are having to use the road for access to the main road.

* Also whenever the current residents have visitors, parking is only available on the road and therefore the road becomes a single track road. It would not be big enough to cope with residents and visitors' cars, and vehicles associated with the building construction work which would have to take place. Also the turning circle would not be preserved because it leads to the proposed site. The circle is needed for larger vehicles to back down to the single track private road serving my house and 2 others. Without it acting as a turning circle, it would be very difficult for delivery vehicles to reach my property safely because they would not be able to turn around without great difficulty.

* SEWERAGE THREAT - Ickleford, in general, struggles with sewerage problems during heavy rain because the main pipe cannot cope and temporary extra pumps have been brought in recent years to handle the problem. Anglia Water can provide details of this and I understand that they are very concerned about any extra development. There have been sewerage issues affecting properties in Duncots Close in recent years because of this. Anglia Water had to come out and fix them. There are serious concerns that extra houses would definitely put too much pressure on the sewerage system and that it would not cope at all. Also the pond at the back of my property, to which the drainage from the proposed land flows, has been close to overflowing with the heavy rain in recent years. I fear it would flood my property with extra houses and the resulting surface run-off on the land. This area is, of course, on a flood plain.

* There are also concerns that the extra houses already planned for the Green Man site will already put added pressure on the sewerage system of the village. It is still unclear whether this will work safely for residents, without even considering a further development at Duncots.

The residents in the Close feel very strongly that they would be forced to take legal action to protect their properties if these proposals are given the go-ahead, because they are such a threat to health and safety -- and indeed the value of their properties.

It was also my understanding from studying NHDC maps when I bought my property in 1998 that the proposed land is on green belt land.