Proposed Main Modifications

I have some serious concerns about the local plan. The first is the way the public consultation has been carried out. In Weston we were presented with WE1 which was initially a proposal to build 25 houses. 11 were supposed to be 'affordable housing' - although the public have never been informed what 'affordable housing' means.I was at a meeting where I was able to ask a Planning Officer and he stated that

'Present definition is 80% of market rental'

It is clear that this is not affordable housing and it was also clear that no definition had been set for the present NHDC proposals. How then, can a public consultation have taken place, when the public don't even know what's planned? Subsequent to this, NHDC then simply added WE2 because a local land owner wanted to cash in on the development, and another 15 houses were added to (to what is now an enlarged WE1) with no explanation whatsoever. The initial proposal presented to residents was that 14 private houses were needed to help build the 11 socially affordable houses. These new 15 houses were added with no explanation at all. It has to be noted at this point that building on the Greenbelt is only allowable if 'socially affordable' housing is built. WE1 is Greenbelt - and there is no justification for the housing numbers proposed.

A more concerning element to the 'public consultation' period however was the fact that the residents were lied to by NHH - the proposed developer of WE1. Three sets of surveyors were caught surveying land that was not on the local plan for development. One was the subsequently added WE2 and one was a play area for children next to WE1. The surveyors refused to say who they were working for and only owned up when threatened with police action for sending men to take photos in a child's play area - refusing to say who they were or why they were carrying out these actions. It turned out that they had been paid to do this by NHH who had categorically denied carrying out the work. I fail to see how the governing authorities have carried out a legally binding consultation process.

The proposal itself to build 40 houses - each having a garage and having only one parking space is madness. The site is next to Hitchin road, which will allow not extra parking. There obviously will be no parking on the roads as developers are looking to cram houses in and yet we are looking at a minimum of 100 extra vehicles if each house has an average of 2.6 vehicles (the national norm). It is clear that the extra 60 vehicles will have nowhere to park. No doubt, NHDC will try and cram them all into The Snipe and Friars Road - where parking pressures are already extreme. It appears developers will take their money and run - leaving disastrous consequences for the local community.

The water pumping station on WE1 is old and constantly floods. It is struggling to deal with present needs, but none of this has been considered in the plan.

Finally, there has been no report on the environmental impact of the proposed site, despite the fact that bats roost on WE1. It is also home to ground nesting birds and deer.

It's clear that if this plan is pushed through - then it is going to be necessary to refer to whole process to the Local Compliance Officer. There has been no consideration of public views and misleading information has been put forward.