Proposed Main Modifications

Green Belt and "exceptional circumstances": Main Modification 023 (Policy SP5)

The Green Belt review update 2018 provides further confirmation that the area surrounding Little Wymondley, including the proposed development site WY1, makes a significant contribution to the Green Belt, yet the Main Modifications and Emerging Local Plan fails to explain the "exceptional circumstances" or "very special circumstances" that justify it's removal from the Green Belt. The only justification NHDC have given is that the site is available and that there is a need to build houses in their jurisdiction. The NPPF 2012 against which this NHDC Plan is being tested clearly states that housing need alone does not justify removing land from Green Belt. It is unrealistic that a Green Belt Review can in effect be in entirely re-written yet still arrive at exactly the same conclusion without modification of the Green Belt boundaries proposed for change.

Indeed in their supporting document for the Green Belt Review, HOU1 (Housing and Green Belt Background Paper, including the Housing and Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper, November 2014), NHDC state:

"The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) advises as follows:
If it is necessary to prevent development in a village primarily because of the important contribution which the open character of the village makes to the openness of the Green Belt, the village should be included in the Green Belt. "

This is partly why the village of Little Wymondley was excluded from development in the NHDC Local Plan 1996 and in the saved policies (2007) from this plan.

The modifications to the plan also extend the physical site size of WY1, as a result of a developer's request to build up to a geographical brow. This contour is not a natural physical element of the site, but manmade from the distribution of soil excavated from the bypass construction, which, I believe, may contain contaminated materials unrecorded from the early 20th century.

Additionally, the ONS household formation figures released recently indicate that NHDC have overestimated the number of houses needing to be built in their jurisdiction.

Brownfield sites in the district also seem to have not yet been exhausted, and it is my belief that these should be used in priority over Green Belt land.

Openness (Green Belt/Green Spaces): MM023

The NHDC main modifications to the plan reduces the openness of the area as a result of further extension, and does not take account of the sight-lines from the listed buildings identified in a land assessment survey conducted by NHDC, which is why the original site was considerably reduced in size initially. There has been no practical suggestion as to why the extension has now been permitted.

The NPPF 2012 states in Paragraph 97 (b) that "the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location;" - NHDC's plan and Main Modifications have no compensatory equivalent open space in the locality of Wymondley Parish, or the surrounding areas.

When looked at as a whole for this locality, NHDC's proposals for site WY1 (Little Wymondley), NS1 (1,700 dwellings near Graveley) and Stevenage Borough Council's proposals in their Local Plan for sites HO3 (abutting Graveley), EC1/4 & EC1/7 (industrial estates on the land adjacent to the A1(M) Junction 8 and on Little Wymondley village boundary at Chantry Lane), plus the additional live planning application (Application No 19/00123/FPM) for 133 dwellings on the land to west of A1(M) and south of Stevenage Road (Todds Green) (formerly part of the Wymondley Parish, until NHDC removed this when the parish applied for it's neighbourhood plan area), the rural character of the entire area around Wymondley Parish will be completely eroded, destroying the villages and creating an urbanised area - this is exactly the situation that the Green Belt protection was originally designed to prevent (urban sprawl).

Infrastructure/Traffic & Air Quality Issues:

The cumulative effects of all the above listed sites will also add unsustainable and unacceptable additional traffic movements in and around the parish of Wymondley. This added to the existing congestion issues, particularly around Junction 8 of the A1(M), and throughout the road network in the parish, will exacerbate existing air quality/pollution issues. Plus, the proposed expansion of London Luton Airport (work is proposed to start on a second terminal in mid-2020) from 18 million to 32 million passengers, will also lead to increased traffic from the A1(M) Junction 8 onto the A602 as a main route to the airport and increased air pollution.

Despite the Main Modification 119, Policy T1 of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan stating:
"planning permission will be granted provided that:
a. development would not lead to highway safety problems or cause unacceptable impacts upon the highway network and safety;
b. mechanisms to secure any necessary sustainable transport measures and / or improvements to the existing highway network are secured in accordance with Policy SP7 (SP7: The Council will require development proposals to make provision for infrastructure that is necessary in order to accommodate additional demands resulting from the development.)"
- no such consideration appears to have been applied in NHDC's allocation of sites for housing development in the Wymondley Parish area and its immediate neighbours.
Further, Main Modification 369 states: "Some minor roads leading to and from the villages within Wymondley parish may require other traffic management measures which will also need to be investigated and will be reflected in future iterations of the Infrastructure Development Plan. Mitigation could include environmental improvements to the village centre. The mitigation of these issues will be part of the wider package of measures identified through the wider consideration of network issues concerning A1(M) J8 and alternate routeings to this."

It is unacceptable to plan for these major developments now (WY1, NS1, HO3 etc.) without a robust infrastructure plan in place to accompany these and mitigate adverse impacts on air quality and climate change. It is also potentially dangerous to health, particularly to children. In SP7, MM033, it is suggested that people should "change their behaviour" and walk or cycle instead of using their cars - this is an unrealistic expectation, altruistic at best and is unreasonable, especially re: site WY1 where the resident's homes are some 4 miles from any town centre. It is certainly unreasonable to expect people to walk 4 miles to train stations to start their commutes to London (for whom the majority of these houses are seemingly being built), particularly in inclement weather.

NHDC's lack of infrastructure plan would appear out of touch with the core planning guidance on "sustainable development" as defined by the NPPF 2012 and Government Planning Guidance. Indeed, NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy SP1, paragraph 4.1 reflects the legal definitions sustainable development as "improving our lives today while not comprising our ability to do so in the future". SP1 also states that they grant planning permission for proposals that, individually or cumulatively: "provide the necessary infrastructure required to support an increasing population" and "secure any necessary mitigation measures necessary that reduce the impact of development, including on climate change".

The current Emerging Local Plan, Main Modifications and other neighbouring authorities' plans affecting the immediate locality of Wymondley Parish, are completely at odds with Policy SP1 for the reasons stated earlier. Put quite simply, humans need to breath clean air, and increasing vehicular movements, in an area where there is existing heavy traffic congestion and air pollution issues, cannot possibly be seen as "improving our lives today" or in the future. Breathing dangerously toxic air in the place that you live or work over a period of time shortens life expectancy as evidenced by Public Health England.

In the Main Modifications of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy 7 includes a requirement

"for developers to include infrastructure plans for developments to address cumulative impacts that might arise across multiple developments and to avoid placing unreasonable additional burdens on the existing community or existing infrastructure"

- however, no such infrastructure plans have accompanied any plans for site WY1, or any other plans in the locality, suggesting that no developer has a plan, and it would appear NHDC also do not have a plan.

Total additional traffic from the combined sites could total more than 5,000 additional vehicles (or 10,000+ vehicle movements on a daily basis) in an area where the A1(M) and A602 are already at a standstill during peak commuting times. More standing traffic, standing for longer, will obviously increase air pollution levels - levels which are already in excess of the WHO and EU safe legal limits.

On the Bovis Homes plan for site WY1, the pedestrian and cycle access point in the private lane alongside the listed "Croft" dwelling is an agreed vehicular access to Ashwater House and the Lane incorporates a blind bend making it totally inadequate for the purpose suggested. Consequently the new residents of the WY1 development will find great difficulty with accessing sustainable transport links in the village or their own homes on the occasion of flooding.

OBJECTION TO: Change of Categorisation of Village: (Main Modification 010 & MM012)

The main modification 010 (SP02) now lists the village of Little Wymondley as a 'Growth Village' to disassociate it from a category A village, yet no public consultation has taken place in relation to this concept and the public are generally unaware that there are now five villages within the Local Plan that are destined to lose their 'Village' status. Nor has NHDC provided any justification for stating that Little Wymondley is now a village that "can support growth". There was no explanation during the NHDC local Plan Examination in Public. The examiner remarked that the local plan seemed unfair that some Category A villages were being expected to have a high level of growth (for Little Wymondley, this growth is 88%), while others had none. Instead of NHDC reviewing this unfairness, and re-distributing house allocations fairly and evenly, they have simply attempted to resolve this issue but changing the classification of 5 villages to "Growth villages" with little regard as to whether these villages could realistically contribute towards "sustainable" growth (i.e. the harm caused by the development does not outweigh the benefits of the development).

The Examination in Public (EiP) of NHDC's Local Plan provided a Memorandum of Understanding from NHDC with Bovis Homes to develop site WY1, despite the landowner confirming that it is now unlikely that Bovis Homes would be the final developer. Therefore deliverability of a readily available site is entirely questionable.
Air Quality:

The EiP introduced a heavily modified report stating, "planning permission would be refused in areas of poor Air Quality". It is assumed that this refers to Air Quality pollutant levels close to or exceeding the EU maximum allowable. At the EiP the QC representing the NHDC stated that the presence of an Air Quality Monitoring Area was recognised "which is why developments are being considered away from these areas". Recent monitoring results of the WY1 site area abutting the A602 carried out by the Wymondley Neighbourhood Plan Committee in co-ordination with Friends of the Earth, has established consistent readings following the correct DEFRA process and independently tested. These readings exceed the EU maximum allowable levels of air pollutants.

We welcome Main Modification 153 - Air Quality:
"The following are types of developments for which the Council would expect the submission of an air quality impact assessment: ...
- Anywhere else in the District, applications that are considered to be 'major' in scale for example: significantly increase vehicle movements, particularly heavy duty vehicles; . . .
- Or that: introduce humans to an area where air pollution is an issue, but where humans were previously not present."

However, this policy seems to have been ignored in large parts throughout the plan, especially in light of Main Modification 010 to Policy SP2 whereby Little Wymondley has been re-categorised as a "Growth Village" - the consideration of Main Modification 153 has not been applied to site WY1.
It also worth noting that the Transport Strategy of October 2017, written by Markides Associates Ltd (MA) on behalf of North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) to support the emerging Local Plan recognises there are severe issues:

"These historic towns and links to/from them [sic. roads through the villages] suffer from traffic congestion and some air quality problems. Their 'environmental capacity' to accommodate further traffic growth without detrimentally affecting the high quality of the local environment is limited, and a starting point should be managing traffic growth and avoiding significant increases in traffic through the towns where possible."
In the same report, it also acknowledged that the NHDC Local Plan will indeed increase traffic volume through the Parish of Wymondley. Section 3.44 of the same report also recognises that the roads in Wymondley Parish are "unsuitable" for volumes of traffic:
"Use of unsuitable roads by through traffic
3.44 As with most urban areas, there is some evidence that motorists are using unsuitable roads to avoid delays on congested routes. There are many locations where traffic volumes are probably unsuitable for the nature of the road, but the more 'strategic' routes noted in the modelling include:
* Routes through Great Wymondley, by which traffic can bypass delays on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage;
* The B197 through Graveley between Letchworth and Stevenage;
* Willow Lane in Hitchin, which can be used by east/west traffic to bypass delays on the A505/A602 route; and
* Stevenage Road [sic. in Little Wymondley], which can be used to bypass congestion on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage."
Despite their own Transport Strategy document highlighting the unsustainability of Wymondley Parish in terms of air quality and transport, NHDC are still including site WY1 in their emerging Local Plan and stating they will address the infrastructure issues "later" - this is simply unacceptable when the adverse impacts on people's life expectancy is so severe.

MM028 (policy SP6 "Sustainable Transport") states:
"We will deliver accessibility improvements and promote the use of sustainable transport modes insofar as reasonable and practicable. We will:
1. Comply with the NHDC Transport Strategy and the provisions of the Local Transport Plan and other supporting documents as relevant and considered necessary;
2. Encourage development in locations which enable sustainable journeys to be made to key services and facilities;
And yet NHDC have decided to add MORE houses to site WY1, which contradicts their own policy above.

Flood Risk:

Little Wymondley Village has suffered regular flooding incidents for more than a century as recorded by the McCloys report on behalf of the Hertfordshire County Council in 2015 following the severe flood event of 2014. There are 82 homes that will likely be affected and many residents along Stevenage Road, Little Wymondley, pay considerably high insurance premiums as a result of these regular events. Site plans emerging for the development of WY1 show a number of "lagoons" to collect surface water and these are sited higher than Stevenage Road with the potential to flood the homes below. No method to distribute the collected water elsewhere, or to drain it away from the lagoons, is stated within the developer's proposal. As the development at WY1 is proposed to be on higher ground than the existing Village, it will clearly contribute to increase flooding events for the existing residents.

The proposed and ONLY road to and from the proposed development at WY1 emerges in the worst flood zone within the Village. This area is detailed in the McCloys report and referred to regularly by the Environment Agency in other similarly located planning applications as a major flood zone.

Further, in assessing flood risk in HOU1 (Nov 2014), NHDC state:

4.65 These three sites [site 121 - now known as WY1] have a combined estimated capacity of 439 new homes. Removing these sites from consideration would not, by itself, prejudice the Council's ability to meet its Objectively Assessed Needs and it is therefore considered highly unlikely that these sites would be required. All three sites are within the Stevenage HMA and in the Green Belt.

Which does beg the question, why are NHDC pursuing this site when there are so many serious issues with it and it is not a large site in view of the total housing level required?

Education:

Little Wymondley currently has a primary school that holds an "outstanding" Ofsted capability. The increased size of Little Wymondley will require an increased FE size provision and a new site is offered by the proposed WY1 development. The proposed site at the south side of the proposed new development will place pupils and teaching staff, close to contaminated land, the known effects of overhead electricity pylons and alongside an illegal Air Quality area. As a consequence of the need for this provision, we request that the Schooling provision and its eventual site is decided upon BEFORE any permission is provided for a development in WY1.

Due to all the reasons given above, I believe that the NHDC Emerging Local Plan and Main modifications are not sound, or justified.

Green Belt and "exceptional circumstances": Main Modification 023 (Policy SP5)

The Green Belt review update 2018 provides further confirmation that the area surrounding Little Wymondley, including the proposed development site WY1, makes a significant contribution to the Green Belt, yet the Main Modifications and Emerging Local Plan fails to explain the "exceptional circumstances" or "very special circumstances" that justify it's removal from the Green Belt. The only justification NHDC have given is that the site is available and that there is a need to build houses in their jurisdiction. The NPPF 2012 against which this NHDC Plan is being tested clearly states that housing need alone does not justify removing land from Green Belt. It is unrealistic that a Green Belt Review can in effect be in entirely re-written yet still arrive at exactly the same conclusion without modification of the Green Belt boundaries proposed for change.

Indeed in their supporting document for the Green Belt Review, HOU1 (Housing and Green Belt Background Paper, including the Housing and Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper, November 2014), NHDC state:

"The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) advises as follows:
If it is necessary to prevent development in a village primarily because of the important contribution which the open character of the village makes to the openness of the Green Belt, the village should be included in the Green Belt. "

This is partly why the village of Little Wymondley was excluded from development in the NHDC Local Plan 1996 and in the saved policies (2007) from this plan.

The modifications to the plan also extend the physical site size of WY1, as a result of a developer's request to build up to a geographical brow. This contour is not a natural physical element of the site, but manmade from the distribution of soil excavated from the bypass construction, which, I believe, may contain contaminated materials unrecorded from the early 20th century.

Additionally, the ONS household formation figures released recently indicate that NHDC have overestimated the number of houses needing to be built in their jurisdiction.

Brownfield sites in the district also seem to have not yet been exhausted, and it is my belief that these should be used in priority over Green Belt land.

Openness (Green Belt/Green Spaces): MM023

The NHDC main modifications to the plan reduces the openness of the area as a result of further extension, and does not take account of the sight-lines from the listed buildings identified in a land assessment survey conducted by NHDC, which is why the original site was considerably reduced in size initially. There has been no practical suggestion as to why the extension has now been permitted.

The NPPF 2012 states in Paragraph 97 (b) that "the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location;" - NHDC's plan and Main Modifications have no compensatory equivalent open space in the locality of Wymondley Parish, or the surrounding areas.

When looked at as a whole for this locality, NHDC's proposals for site WY1 (Little Wymondley), NS1 (1,700 dwellings near Graveley) and Stevenage Borough Council's proposals in their Local Plan for sites HO3 (abutting Graveley), EC1/4 & EC1/7 (industrial estates on the land adjacent to the A1(M) Junction 8 and on Little Wymondley village boundary at Chantry Lane), plus the additional live planning application (Application No 19/00123/FPM) for 133 dwellings on the land to west of A1(M) and south of Stevenage Road (Todds Green) (formerly part of the Wymondley Parish, until NHDC removed this when the parish applied for it's neighbourhood plan area), the rural character of the entire area around Wymondley Parish will be completely eroded, destroying the villages and creating an urbanised area - this is exactly the situation that the Green Belt protection was originally designed to prevent (urban sprawl).

Infrastructure/Traffic & Air Quality Issues:

The cumulative effects of all the above listed sites will also add unsustainable and unacceptable additional traffic movements in and around the parish of Wymondley. This added to the existing congestion issues, particularly around Junction 8 of the A1(M), and throughout the road network in the parish, will exacerbate existing air quality/pollution issues. Plus, the proposed expansion of London Luton Airport (work is proposed to start on a second terminal in mid-2020) from 18 million to 32 million passengers, will also lead to increased traffic from the A1(M) Junction 8 onto the A602 as a main route to the airport and increased air pollution.

Despite the Main Modification 119, Policy T1 of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan stating:
"planning permission will be granted provided that:
a. development would not lead to highway safety problems or cause unacceptable impacts upon the highway network and safety;
b. mechanisms to secure any necessary sustainable transport measures and / or improvements to the existing highway network are secured in accordance with Policy SP7 (SP7: The Council will require development proposals to make provision for infrastructure that is necessary in order to accommodate additional demands resulting from the development.)"
- no such consideration appears to have been applied in NHDC's allocation of sites for housing development in the Wymondley Parish area and its immediate neighbours.
Further, Main Modification 369 states: "Some minor roads leading to and from the villages within Wymondley parish may require other traffic management measures which will also need to be investigated and will be reflected in future iterations of the Infrastructure Development Plan. Mitigation could include environmental improvements to the village centre. The mitigation of these issues will be part of the wider package of measures identified through the wider consideration of network issues concerning A1(M) J8 and alternate routeings to this."

It is unacceptable to plan for these major developments now (WY1, NS1, HO3 etc.) without a robust infrastructure plan in place to accompany these and mitigate adverse impacts on air quality and climate change. It is also potentially dangerous to health, particularly to children. In SP7, MM033, it is suggested that people should "change their behaviour" and walk or cycle instead of using their cars - this is an unrealistic expectation, altruistic at best and is unreasonable, especially re: site WY1 where the resident's homes are some 4 miles from any town centre. It is certainly unreasonable to expect people to walk 4 miles to train stations to start their commutes to London (for whom the majority of these houses are seemingly being built), particularly in inclement weather.

NHDC's lack of infrastructure plan would appear out of touch with the core planning guidance on "sustainable development" as defined by the NPPF 2012 and Government Planning Guidance. Indeed, NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy SP1, paragraph 4.1 reflects the legal definitions sustainable development as "improving our lives today while not comprising our ability to do so in the future". SP1 also states that they grant planning permission for proposals that, individually or cumulatively: "provide the necessary infrastructure required to support an increasing population" and "secure any necessary mitigation measures necessary that reduce the impact of development, including on climate change".

The current Emerging Local Plan, Main Modifications and other neighbouring authorities' plans affecting the immediate locality of Wymondley Parish, are completely at odds with Policy SP1 for the reasons stated earlier. Put quite simply, humans need to breath clean air, and increasing vehicular movements, in an area where there is existing heavy traffic congestion and air pollution issues, cannot possibly be seen as "improving our lives today" or in the future. Breathing dangerously toxic air in the place that you live or work over a period of time shortens life expectancy as evidenced by Public Health England.

In the Main Modifications of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy 7 includes a requirement

"for developers to include infrastructure plans for developments to address cumulative impacts that might arise across multiple developments and to avoid placing unreasonable additional burdens on the existing community or existing infrastructure"

- however, no such infrastructure plans have accompanied any plans for site WY1, or any other plans in the locality, suggesting that no developer has a plan, and it would appear NHDC also do not have a plan.

Total additional traffic from the combined sites could total more than 5,000 additional vehicles (or 10,000+ vehicle movements on a daily basis) in an area where the A1(M) and A602 are already at a standstill during peak commuting times. More standing traffic, standing for longer, will obviously increase air pollution levels - levels which are already in excess of the WHO and EU safe legal limits.

On the Bovis Homes plan for site WY1, the pedestrian and cycle access point in the private lane alongside the listed "Croft" dwelling is an agreed vehicular access to Ashwater House and the Lane incorporates a blind bend making it totally inadequate for the purpose suggested. Consequently the new residents of the WY1 development will find great difficulty with accessing sustainable transport links in the village or their own homes on the occasion of flooding.

OBJECTION TO: Change of Categorisation of Village: (Main Modification 010 & MM012)

The main modification 010 (SP02) now lists the village of Little Wymondley as a 'Growth Village' to disassociate it from a category A village, yet no public consultation has taken place in relation to this concept and the public are generally unaware that there are now five villages within the Local Plan that are destined to lose their 'Village' status. Nor has NHDC provided any justification for stating that Little Wymondley is now a village that "can support growth". There was no explanation during the NHDC local Plan Examination in Public. The examiner remarked that the local plan seemed unfair that some Category A villages were being expected to have a high level of growth (for Little Wymondley, this growth is 88%), while others had none. Instead of NHDC reviewing this unfairness, and re-distributing house allocations fairly and evenly, they have simply attempted to resolve this issue but changing the classification of 5 villages to "Growth villages" with little regard as to whether these villages could realistically contribute towards "sustainable" growth (i.e. the harm caused by the development does not outweigh the benefits of the development).

The Examination in Public (EiP) of NHDC's Local Plan provided a Memorandum of Understanding from NHDC with Bovis Homes to develop site WY1, despite the landowner confirming that it is now unlikely that Bovis Homes would be the final developer. Therefore deliverability of a readily available site is entirely questionable.
Air Quality:

The EiP introduced a heavily modified report stating, "planning permission would be refused in areas of poor Air Quality". It is assumed that this refers to Air Quality pollutant levels close to or exceeding the EU maximum allowable. At the EiP the QC representing the NHDC stated that the presence of an Air Quality Monitoring Area was recognised "which is why developments are being considered away from these areas". Recent monitoring results of the WY1 site area abutting the A602 carried out by the Wymondley Neighbourhood Plan Committee in co-ordination with Friends of the Earth, has established consistent readings following the correct DEFRA process and independently tested. These readings exceed the EU maximum allowable levels of air pollutants.

We welcome Main Modification 153 - Air Quality:
"The following are types of developments for which the Council would expect the submission of an air quality impact assessment: ...
- Anywhere else in the District, applications that are considered to be 'major' in scale for example: significantly increase vehicle movements, particularly heavy duty vehicles; . . .
- Or that: introduce humans to an area where air pollution is an issue, but where humans were previously not present."

However, this policy seems to have been ignored in large parts throughout the plan, especially in light of Main Modification 010 to Policy SP2 whereby Little Wymondley has been re-categorised as a "Growth Village" - the consideration of Main Modification 153 has not been applied to site WY1.
It also worth noting that the Transport Strategy of October 2017, written by Markides Associates Ltd (MA) on behalf of North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) to support the emerging Local Plan recognises there are severe issues:

"These historic towns and links to/from them [sic. roads through the villages] suffer from traffic congestion and some air quality problems. Their 'environmental capacity' to accommodate further traffic growth without detrimentally affecting the high quality of the local environment is limited, and a starting point should be managing traffic growth and avoiding significant increases in traffic through the towns where possible."
In the same report, it also acknowledged that the NHDC Local Plan will indeed increase traffic volume through the Parish of Wymondley. Section 3.44 of the same report also recognises that the roads in Wymondley Parish are "unsuitable" for volumes of traffic:
"Use of unsuitable roads by through traffic
3.44 As with most urban areas, there is some evidence that motorists are using unsuitable roads to avoid delays on congested routes. There are many locations where traffic volumes are probably unsuitable for the nature of the road, but the more 'strategic' routes noted in the modelling include:
* Routes through Great Wymondley, by which traffic can bypass delays on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage;
* The B197 through Graveley between Letchworth and Stevenage;
* Willow Lane in Hitchin, which can be used by east/west traffic to bypass delays on the A505/A602 route; and
* Stevenage Road [sic. in Little Wymondley], which can be used to bypass congestion on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage."
Despite their own Transport Strategy document highlighting the unsustainability of Wymondley Parish in terms of air quality and transport, NHDC are still including site WY1 in their emerging Local Plan and stating they will address the infrastructure issues "later" - this is simply unacceptable when the adverse impacts on people's life expectancy is so severe.

MM028 (policy SP6 "Sustainable Transport") states:
"We will deliver accessibility improvements and promote the use of sustainable transport modes insofar as reasonable and practicable. We will:
1. Comply with the NHDC Transport Strategy and the provisions of the Local Transport Plan and other supporting documents as relevant and considered necessary;
2. Encourage development in locations which enable sustainable journeys to be made to key services and facilities;
And yet NHDC have decided to add MORE houses to site WY1, which contradicts their own policy above.

Flood Risk:

Little Wymondley Village has suffered regular flooding incidents for more than a century as recorded by the McCloys report on behalf of the Hertfordshire County Council in 2015 following the severe flood event of 2014. There are 82 homes that will likely be affected and many residents along Stevenage Road, Little Wymondley, pay considerably high insurance premiums as a result of these regular events. Site plans emerging for the development of WY1 show a number of "lagoons" to collect surface water and these are sited higher than Stevenage Road with the potential to flood the homes below. No method to distribute the collected water elsewhere, or to drain it away from the lagoons, is stated within the developer's proposal. As the development at WY1 is proposed to be on higher ground than the existing Village, it will clearly contribute to increase flooding events for the existing residents.

The proposed and ONLY road to and from the proposed development at WY1 emerges in the worst flood zone within the Village. This area is detailed in the McCloys report and referred to regularly by the Environment Agency in other similarly located planning applications as a major flood zone.

Further, in assessing flood risk in HOU1 (Nov 2014), NHDC state:

4.65 These three sites [site 121 - now known as WY1] have a combined estimated capacity of 439 new homes. Removing these sites from consideration would not, by itself, prejudice the Council's ability to meet its Objectively Assessed Needs and it is therefore considered highly unlikely that these sites would be required. All three sites are within the Stevenage HMA and in the Green Belt.

Which does beg the question, why are NHDC pursuing this site when there are so many serious issues with it and it is not a large site in view of the total housing level required?

Education:

Little Wymondley currently has a primary school that holds an "outstanding" Ofsted capability. The increased size of Little Wymondley will require an increased FE size provision and a new site is offered by the proposed WY1 development. The proposed site at the south side of the proposed new development will place pupils and teaching staff, close to contaminated land, the known effects of overhead electricity pylons and alongside an illegal Air Quality area. As a consequence of the need for this provision, we request that the Schooling provision and its eventual site is decided upon BEFORE any permission is provided for a development in WY1.

Due to all the reasons given above, I believe that the NHDC Emerging Local Plan and Main modifications are not sound, or justified.

Green Belt and "exceptional circumstances": Main Modification 023 (Policy SP5)

The Green Belt review update 2018 provides further confirmation that the area surrounding Little Wymondley, including the proposed development site WY1, makes a significant contribution to the Green Belt, yet the Main Modifications and Emerging Local Plan fails to explain the "exceptional circumstances" or "very special circumstances" that justify it's removal from the Green Belt. The only justification NHDC have given is that the site is available and that there is a need to build houses in their jurisdiction. The NPPF 2012 against which this NHDC Plan is being tested clearly states that housing need alone does not justify removing land from Green Belt. It is unrealistic that a Green Belt Review can in effect be in entirely re-written yet still arrive at exactly the same conclusion without modification of the Green Belt boundaries proposed for change.

Indeed in their supporting document for the Green Belt Review, HOU1 (Housing and Green Belt Background Paper, including the Housing and Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper, November 2014), NHDC state:

"The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) advises as follows:
If it is necessary to prevent development in a village primarily because of the important contribution which the open character of the village makes to the openness of the Green Belt, the village should be included in the Green Belt. "

This is partly why the village of Little Wymondley was excluded from development in the NHDC Local Plan 1996 and in the saved policies (2007) from this plan.

The modifications to the plan also extend the physical site size of WY1, as a result of a developer's request to build up to a geographical brow. This contour is not a natural physical element of the site, but manmade from the distribution of soil excavated from the bypass construction, which, I believe, may contain contaminated materials unrecorded from the early 20th century.

Additionally, the ONS household formation figures released recently indicate that NHDC have overestimated the number of houses needing to be built in their jurisdiction.

Brownfield sites in the district also seem to have not yet been exhausted, and it is my belief that these should be used in priority over Green Belt land.

Openness (Green Belt/Green Spaces): MM023

The NHDC main modifications to the plan reduces the openness of the area as a result of further extension, and does not take account of the sight-lines from the listed buildings identified in a land assessment survey conducted by NHDC, which is why the original site was considerably reduced in size initially. There has been no practical suggestion as to why the extension has now been permitted.

The NPPF 2012 states in Paragraph 97 (b) that "the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location;" - NHDC's plan and Main Modifications have no compensatory equivalent open space in the locality of Wymondley Parish, or the surrounding areas.

When looked at as a whole for this locality, NHDC's proposals for site WY1 (Little Wymondley), NS1 (1,700 dwellings near Graveley) and Stevenage Borough Council's proposals in their Local Plan for sites HO3 (abutting Graveley), EC1/4 & EC1/7 (industrial estates on the land adjacent to the A1(M) Junction 8 and on Little Wymondley village boundary at Chantry Lane), plus the additional live planning application (Application No 19/00123/FPM) for 133 dwellings on the land to west of A1(M) and south of Stevenage Road (Todds Green) (formerly part of the Wymondley Parish, until NHDC removed this when the parish applied for it's neighbourhood plan area), the rural character of the entire area around Wymondley Parish will be completely eroded, destroying the villages and creating an urbanised area - this is exactly the situation that the Green Belt protection was originally designed to prevent (urban sprawl).

Infrastructure/Traffic & Air Quality Issues:

The cumulative effects of all the above listed sites will also add unsustainable and unacceptable additional traffic movements in and around the parish of Wymondley. This added to the existing congestion issues, particularly around Junction 8 of the A1(M), and throughout the road network in the parish, will exacerbate existing air quality/pollution issues. Plus, the proposed expansion of London Luton Airport (work is proposed to start on a second terminal in mid-2020) from 18 million to 32 million passengers, will also lead to increased traffic from the A1(M) Junction 8 onto the A602 as a main route to the airport and increased air pollution.

Despite the Main Modification 119, Policy T1 of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan stating:
"planning permission will be granted provided that:
a. development would not lead to highway safety problems or cause unacceptable impacts upon the highway network and safety;
b. mechanisms to secure any necessary sustainable transport measures and / or improvements to the existing highway network are secured in accordance with Policy SP7 (SP7: The Council will require development proposals to make provision for infrastructure that is necessary in order to accommodate additional demands resulting from the development.)"
- no such consideration appears to have been applied in NHDC's allocation of sites for housing development in the Wymondley Parish area and its immediate neighbours.
Further, Main Modification 369 states: "Some minor roads leading to and from the villages within Wymondley parish may require other traffic management measures which will also need to be investigated and will be reflected in future iterations of the Infrastructure Development Plan. Mitigation could include environmental improvements to the village centre. The mitigation of these issues will be part of the wider package of measures identified through the wider consideration of network issues concerning A1(M) J8 and alternate routeings to this."

It is unacceptable to plan for these major developments now (WY1, NS1, HO3 etc.) without a robust infrastructure plan in place to accompany these and mitigate adverse impacts on air quality and climate change. It is also potentially dangerous to health, particularly to children. In SP7, MM033, it is suggested that people should "change their behaviour" and walk or cycle instead of using their cars - this is an unrealistic expectation, altruistic at best and is unreasonable, especially re: site WY1 where the resident's homes are some 4 miles from any town centre. It is certainly unreasonable to expect people to walk 4 miles to train stations to start their commutes to London (for whom the majority of these houses are seemingly being built), particularly in inclement weather.

NHDC's lack of infrastructure plan would appear out of touch with the core planning guidance on "sustainable development" as defined by the NPPF 2012 and Government Planning Guidance. Indeed, NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy SP1, paragraph 4.1 reflects the legal definitions sustainable development as "improving our lives today while not comprising our ability to do so in the future". SP1 also states that they grant planning permission for proposals that, individually or cumulatively: "provide the necessary infrastructure required to support an increasing population" and "secure any necessary mitigation measures necessary that reduce the impact of development, including on climate change".

The current Emerging Local Plan, Main Modifications and other neighbouring authorities' plans affecting the immediate locality of Wymondley Parish, are completely at odds with Policy SP1 for the reasons stated earlier. Put quite simply, humans need to breath clean air, and increasing vehicular movements, in an area where there is existing heavy traffic congestion and air pollution issues, cannot possibly be seen as "improving our lives today" or in the future. Breathing dangerously toxic air in the place that you live or work over a period of time shortens life expectancy as evidenced by Public Health England.

In the Main Modifications of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy 7 includes a requirement

"for developers to include infrastructure plans for developments to address cumulative impacts that might arise across multiple developments and to avoid placing unreasonable additional burdens on the existing community or existing infrastructure"

- however, no such infrastructure plans have accompanied any plans for site WY1, or any other plans in the locality, suggesting that no developer has a plan, and it would appear NHDC also do not have a plan.

Total additional traffic from the combined sites could total more than 5,000 additional vehicles (or 10,000+ vehicle movements on a daily basis) in an area where the A1(M) and A602 are already at a standstill during peak commuting times. More standing traffic, standing for longer, will obviously increase air pollution levels - levels which are already in excess of the WHO and EU safe legal limits.

On the Bovis Homes plan for site WY1, the pedestrian and cycle access point in the private lane alongside the listed "Croft" dwelling is an agreed vehicular access to Ashwater House and the Lane incorporates a blind bend making it totally inadequate for the purpose suggested. Consequently the new residents of the WY1 development will find great difficulty with accessing sustainable transport links in the village or their own homes on the occasion of flooding.

OBJECTION TO: Change of Categorisation of Village: (Main Modification 010 & MM012)

The main modification 010 (SP02) now lists the village of Little Wymondley as a 'Growth Village' to disassociate it from a category A village, yet no public consultation has taken place in relation to this concept and the public are generally unaware that there are now five villages within the Local Plan that are destined to lose their 'Village' status. Nor has NHDC provided any justification for stating that Little Wymondley is now a village that "can support growth". There was no explanation during the NHDC local Plan Examination in Public. The examiner remarked that the local plan seemed unfair that some Category A villages were being expected to have a high level of growth (for Little Wymondley, this growth is 88%), while others had none. Instead of NHDC reviewing this unfairness, and re-distributing house allocations fairly and evenly, they have simply attempted to resolve this issue but changing the classification of 5 villages to "Growth villages" with little regard as to whether these villages could realistically contribute towards "sustainable" growth (i.e. the harm caused by the development does not outweigh the benefits of the development).

The Examination in Public (EiP) of NHDC's Local Plan provided a Memorandum of Understanding from NHDC with Bovis Homes to develop site WY1, despite the landowner confirming that it is now unlikely that Bovis Homes would be the final developer. Therefore deliverability of a readily available site is entirely questionable.
Air Quality:

The EiP introduced a heavily modified report stating, "planning permission would be refused in areas of poor Air Quality". It is assumed that this refers to Air Quality pollutant levels close to or exceeding the EU maximum allowable. At the EiP the QC representing the NHDC stated that the presence of an Air Quality Monitoring Area was recognised "which is why developments are being considered away from these areas". Recent monitoring results of the WY1 site area abutting the A602 carried out by the Wymondley Neighbourhood Plan Committee in co-ordination with Friends of the Earth, has established consistent readings following the correct DEFRA process and independently tested. These readings exceed the EU maximum allowable levels of air pollutants.

We welcome Main Modification 153 - Air Quality:
"The following are types of developments for which the Council would expect the submission of an air quality impact assessment: ...
- Anywhere else in the District, applications that are considered to be 'major' in scale for example: significantly increase vehicle movements, particularly heavy duty vehicles; . . .
- Or that: introduce humans to an area where air pollution is an issue, but where humans were previously not present."

However, this policy seems to have been ignored in large parts throughout the plan, especially in light of Main Modification 010 to Policy SP2 whereby Little Wymondley has been re-categorised as a "Growth Village" - the consideration of Main Modification 153 has not been applied to site WY1.
It also worth noting that the Transport Strategy of October 2017, written by Markides Associates Ltd (MA) on behalf of North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) to support the emerging Local Plan recognises there are severe issues:

"These historic towns and links to/from them [sic. roads through the villages] suffer from traffic congestion and some air quality problems. Their 'environmental capacity' to accommodate further traffic growth without detrimentally affecting the high quality of the local environment is limited, and a starting point should be managing traffic growth and avoiding significant increases in traffic through the towns where possible."
In the same report, it also acknowledged that the NHDC Local Plan will indeed increase traffic volume through the Parish of Wymondley. Section 3.44 of the same report also recognises that the roads in Wymondley Parish are "unsuitable" for volumes of traffic:
"Use of unsuitable roads by through traffic
3.44 As with most urban areas, there is some evidence that motorists are using unsuitable roads to avoid delays on congested routes. There are many locations where traffic volumes are probably unsuitable for the nature of the road, but the more 'strategic' routes noted in the modelling include:
* Routes through Great Wymondley, by which traffic can bypass delays on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage;
* The B197 through Graveley between Letchworth and Stevenage;
* Willow Lane in Hitchin, which can be used by east/west traffic to bypass delays on the A505/A602 route; and
* Stevenage Road [sic. in Little Wymondley], which can be used to bypass congestion on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage."
Despite their own Transport Strategy document highlighting the unsustainability of Wymondley Parish in terms of air quality and transport, NHDC are still including site WY1 in their emerging Local Plan and stating they will address the infrastructure issues "later" - this is simply unacceptable when the adverse impacts on people's life expectancy is so severe.

MM028 (policy SP6 "Sustainable Transport") states:
"We will deliver accessibility improvements and promote the use of sustainable transport modes insofar as reasonable and practicable. We will:
1. Comply with the NHDC Transport Strategy and the provisions of the Local Transport Plan and other supporting documents as relevant and considered necessary;
2. Encourage development in locations which enable sustainable journeys to be made to key services and facilities;
And yet NHDC have decided to add MORE houses to site WY1, which contradicts their own policy above.

Flood Risk:

Little Wymondley Village has suffered regular flooding incidents for more than a century as recorded by the McCloys report on behalf of the Hertfordshire County Council in 2015 following the severe flood event of 2014. There are 82 homes that will likely be affected and many residents along Stevenage Road, Little Wymondley, pay considerably high insurance premiums as a result of these regular events. Site plans emerging for the development of WY1 show a number of "lagoons" to collect surface water and these are sited higher than Stevenage Road with the potential to flood the homes below. No method to distribute the collected water elsewhere, or to drain it away from the lagoons, is stated within the developer's proposal. As the development at WY1 is proposed to be on higher ground than the existing Village, it will clearly contribute to increase flooding events for the existing residents.

The proposed and ONLY road to and from the proposed development at WY1 emerges in the worst flood zone within the Village. This area is detailed in the McCloys report and referred to regularly by the Environment Agency in other similarly located planning applications as a major flood zone.

Further, in assessing flood risk in HOU1 (Nov 2014), NHDC state:

4.65 These three sites [site 121 - now known as WY1] have a combined estimated capacity of 439 new homes. Removing these sites from consideration would not, by itself, prejudice the Council's ability to meet its Objectively Assessed Needs and it is therefore considered highly unlikely that these sites would be required. All three sites are within the Stevenage HMA and in the Green Belt.

Which does beg the question, why are NHDC pursuing this site when there are so many serious issues with it and it is not a large site in view of the total housing level required?

Education:

Little Wymondley currently has a primary school that holds an "outstanding" Ofsted capability. The increased size of Little Wymondley will require an increased FE size provision and a new site is offered by the proposed WY1 development. The proposed site at the south side of the proposed new development will place pupils and teaching staff, close to contaminated land, the known effects of overhead electricity pylons and alongside an illegal Air Quality area. As a consequence of the need for this provision, we request that the Schooling provision and its eventual site is decided upon BEFORE any permission is provided for a development in WY1.

Due to all the reasons given above, I believe that the NHDC Emerging Local Plan and Main modifications are not sound, or justified.

Green Belt and "exceptional circumstances": Main Modification 023 (Policy SP5)

The Green Belt review update 2018 provides further confirmation that the area surrounding Little Wymondley, including the proposed development site WY1, makes a significant contribution to the Green Belt, yet the Main Modifications and Emerging Local Plan fails to explain the "exceptional circumstances" or "very special circumstances" that justify it's removal from the Green Belt. The only justification NHDC have given is that the site is available and that there is a need to build houses in their jurisdiction. The NPPF 2012 against which this NHDC Plan is being tested clearly states that housing need alone does not justify removing land from Green Belt. It is unrealistic that a Green Belt Review can in effect be in entirely re-written yet still arrive at exactly the same conclusion without modification of the Green Belt boundaries proposed for change.

Indeed in their supporting document for the Green Belt Review, HOU1 (Housing and Green Belt Background Paper, including the Housing and Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper, November 2014), NHDC state:

"The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) advises as follows:
If it is necessary to prevent development in a village primarily because of the important contribution which the open character of the village makes to the openness of the Green Belt, the village should be included in the Green Belt. "

This is partly why the village of Little Wymondley was excluded from development in the NHDC Local Plan 1996 and in the saved policies (2007) from this plan.

The modifications to the plan also extend the physical site size of WY1, as a result of a developer's request to build up to a geographical brow. This contour is not a natural physical element of the site, but manmade from the distribution of soil excavated from the bypass construction, which, I believe, may contain contaminated materials unrecorded from the early 20th century.

Additionally, the ONS household formation figures released recently indicate that NHDC have overestimated the number of houses needing to be built in their jurisdiction.

Brownfield sites in the district also seem to have not yet been exhausted, and it is my belief that these should be used in priority over Green Belt land.

Openness (Green Belt/Green Spaces): MM023

The NHDC main modifications to the plan reduces the openness of the area as a result of further extension, and does not take account of the sight-lines from the listed buildings identified in a land assessment survey conducted by NHDC, which is why the original site was considerably reduced in size initially. There has been no practical suggestion as to why the extension has now been permitted.

The NPPF 2012 states in Paragraph 97 (b) that "the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location;" - NHDC's plan and Main Modifications have no compensatory equivalent open space in the locality of Wymondley Parish, or the surrounding areas.

When looked at as a whole for this locality, NHDC's proposals for site WY1 (Little Wymondley), NS1 (1,700 dwellings near Graveley) and Stevenage Borough Council's proposals in their Local Plan for sites HO3 (abutting Graveley), EC1/4 & EC1/7 (industrial estates on the land adjacent to the A1(M) Junction 8 and on Little Wymondley village boundary at Chantry Lane), plus the additional live planning application (Application No 19/00123/FPM) for 133 dwellings on the land to west of A1(M) and south of Stevenage Road (Todds Green) (formerly part of the Wymondley Parish, until NHDC removed this when the parish applied for it's neighbourhood plan area), the rural character of the entire area around Wymondley Parish will be completely eroded, destroying the villages and creating an urbanised area - this is exactly the situation that the Green Belt protection was originally designed to prevent (urban sprawl).

Infrastructure/Traffic & Air Quality Issues:

The cumulative effects of all the above listed sites will also add unsustainable and unacceptable additional traffic movements in and around the parish of Wymondley. This added to the existing congestion issues, particularly around Junction 8 of the A1(M), and throughout the road network in the parish, will exacerbate existing air quality/pollution issues. Plus, the proposed expansion of London Luton Airport (work is proposed to start on a second terminal in mid-2020) from 18 million to 32 million passengers, will also lead to increased traffic from the A1(M) Junction 8 onto the A602 as a main route to the airport and increased air pollution.

Despite the Main Modification 119, Policy T1 of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan stating:
"planning permission will be granted provided that:
a. development would not lead to highway safety problems or cause unacceptable impacts upon the highway network and safety;
b. mechanisms to secure any necessary sustainable transport measures and / or improvements to the existing highway network are secured in accordance with Policy SP7 (SP7: The Council will require development proposals to make provision for infrastructure that is necessary in order to accommodate additional demands resulting from the development.)"
- no such consideration appears to have been applied in NHDC's allocation of sites for housing development in the Wymondley Parish area and its immediate neighbours.
Further, Main Modification 369 states: "Some minor roads leading to and from the villages within Wymondley parish may require other traffic management measures which will also need to be investigated and will be reflected in future iterations of the Infrastructure Development Plan. Mitigation could include environmental improvements to the village centre. The mitigation of these issues will be part of the wider package of measures identified through the wider consideration of network issues concerning A1(M) J8 and alternate routeings to this."

It is unacceptable to plan for these major developments now (WY1, NS1, HO3 etc.) without a robust infrastructure plan in place to accompany these and mitigate adverse impacts on air quality and climate change. It is also potentially dangerous to health, particularly to children. In SP7, MM033, it is suggested that people should "change their behaviour" and walk or cycle instead of using their cars - this is an unrealistic expectation, altruistic at best and is unreasonable, especially re: site WY1 where the resident's homes are some 4 miles from any town centre. It is certainly unreasonable to expect people to walk 4 miles to train stations to start their commutes to London (for whom the majority of these houses are seemingly being built), particularly in inclement weather.

NHDC's lack of infrastructure plan would appear out of touch with the core planning guidance on "sustainable development" as defined by the NPPF 2012 and Government Planning Guidance. Indeed, NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy SP1, paragraph 4.1 reflects the legal definitions sustainable development as "improving our lives today while not comprising our ability to do so in the future". SP1 also states that they grant planning permission for proposals that, individually or cumulatively: "provide the necessary infrastructure required to support an increasing population" and "secure any necessary mitigation measures necessary that reduce the impact of development, including on climate change".

The current Emerging Local Plan, Main Modifications and other neighbouring authorities' plans affecting the immediate locality of Wymondley Parish, are completely at odds with Policy SP1 for the reasons stated earlier. Put quite simply, humans need to breath clean air, and increasing vehicular movements, in an area where there is existing heavy traffic congestion and air pollution issues, cannot possibly be seen as "improving our lives today" or in the future. Breathing dangerously toxic air in the place that you live or work over a period of time shortens life expectancy as evidenced by Public Health England.

In the Main Modifications of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy 7 includes a requirement

"for developers to include infrastructure plans for developments to address cumulative impacts that might arise across multiple developments and to avoid placing unreasonable additional burdens on the existing community or existing infrastructure"

- however, no such infrastructure plans have accompanied any plans for site WY1, or any other plans in the locality, suggesting that no developer has a plan, and it would appear NHDC also do not have a plan.

Total additional traffic from the combined sites could total more than 5,000 additional vehicles (or 10,000+ vehicle movements on a daily basis) in an area where the A1(M) and A602 are already at a standstill during peak commuting times. More standing traffic, standing for longer, will obviously increase air pollution levels - levels which are already in excess of the WHO and EU safe legal limits.

On the Bovis Homes plan for site WY1, the pedestrian and cycle access point in the private lane alongside the listed "Croft" dwelling is an agreed vehicular access to Ashwater House and the Lane incorporates a blind bend making it totally inadequate for the purpose suggested. Consequently the new residents of the WY1 development will find great difficulty with accessing sustainable transport links in the village or their own homes on the occasion of flooding.

OBJECTION TO: Change of Categorisation of Village: (Main Modification 010 & MM012)

The main modification 010 (SP02) now lists the village of Little Wymondley as a 'Growth Village' to disassociate it from a category A village, yet no public consultation has taken place in relation to this concept and the public are generally unaware that there are now five villages within the Local Plan that are destined to lose their 'Village' status. Nor has NHDC provided any justification for stating that Little Wymondley is now a village that "can support growth". There was no explanation during the NHDC local Plan Examination in Public. The examiner remarked that the local plan seemed unfair that some Category A villages were being expected to have a high level of growth (for Little Wymondley, this growth is 88%), while others had none. Instead of NHDC reviewing this unfairness, and re-distributing house allocations fairly and evenly, they have simply attempted to resolve this issue but changing the classification of 5 villages to "Growth villages" with little regard as to whether these villages could realistically contribute towards "sustainable" growth (i.e. the harm caused by the development does not outweigh the benefits of the development).

The Examination in Public (EiP) of NHDC's Local Plan provided a Memorandum of Understanding from NHDC with Bovis Homes to develop site WY1, despite the landowner confirming that it is now unlikely that Bovis Homes would be the final developer. Therefore deliverability of a readily available site is entirely questionable.
Air Quality:

The EiP introduced a heavily modified report stating, "planning permission would be refused in areas of poor Air Quality". It is assumed that this refers to Air Quality pollutant levels close to or exceeding the EU maximum allowable. At the EiP the QC representing the NHDC stated that the presence of an Air Quality Monitoring Area was recognised "which is why developments are being considered away from these areas". Recent monitoring results of the WY1 site area abutting the A602 carried out by the Wymondley Neighbourhood Plan Committee in co-ordination with Friends of the Earth, has established consistent readings following the correct DEFRA process and independently tested. These readings exceed the EU maximum allowable levels of air pollutants.

We welcome Main Modification 153 - Air Quality:
"The following are types of developments for which the Council would expect the submission of an air quality impact assessment: ...
- Anywhere else in the District, applications that are considered to be 'major' in scale for example: significantly increase vehicle movements, particularly heavy duty vehicles; . . .
- Or that: introduce humans to an area where air pollution is an issue, but where humans were previously not present."

However, this policy seems to have been ignored in large parts throughout the plan, especially in light of Main Modification 010 to Policy SP2 whereby Little Wymondley has been re-categorised as a "Growth Village" - the consideration of Main Modification 153 has not been applied to site WY1.
It also worth noting that the Transport Strategy of October 2017, written by Markides Associates Ltd (MA) on behalf of North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) to support the emerging Local Plan recognises there are severe issues:

"These historic towns and links to/from them [sic. roads through the villages] suffer from traffic congestion and some air quality problems. Their 'environmental capacity' to accommodate further traffic growth without detrimentally affecting the high quality of the local environment is limited, and a starting point should be managing traffic growth and avoiding significant increases in traffic through the towns where possible."
In the same report, it also acknowledged that the NHDC Local Plan will indeed increase traffic volume through the Parish of Wymondley. Section 3.44 of the same report also recognises that the roads in Wymondley Parish are "unsuitable" for volumes of traffic:
"Use of unsuitable roads by through traffic
3.44 As with most urban areas, there is some evidence that motorists are using unsuitable roads to avoid delays on congested routes. There are many locations where traffic volumes are probably unsuitable for the nature of the road, but the more 'strategic' routes noted in the modelling include:
* Routes through Great Wymondley, by which traffic can bypass delays on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage;
* The B197 through Graveley between Letchworth and Stevenage;
* Willow Lane in Hitchin, which can be used by east/west traffic to bypass delays on the A505/A602 route; and
* Stevenage Road [sic. in Little Wymondley], which can be used to bypass congestion on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage."
Despite their own Transport Strategy document highlighting the unsustainability of Wymondley Parish in terms of air quality and transport, NHDC are still including site WY1 in their emerging Local Plan and stating they will address the infrastructure issues "later" - this is simply unacceptable when the adverse impacts on people's life expectancy is so severe.

MM028 (policy SP6 "Sustainable Transport") states:
"We will deliver accessibility improvements and promote the use of sustainable transport modes insofar as reasonable and practicable. We will:
1. Comply with the NHDC Transport Strategy and the provisions of the Local Transport Plan and other supporting documents as relevant and considered necessary;
2. Encourage development in locations which enable sustainable journeys to be made to key services and facilities;
And yet NHDC have decided to add MORE houses to site WY1, which contradicts their own policy above.

Flood Risk:

Little Wymondley Village has suffered regular flooding incidents for more than a century as recorded by the McCloys report on behalf of the Hertfordshire County Council in 2015 following the severe flood event of 2014. There are 82 homes that will likely be affected and many residents along Stevenage Road, Little Wymondley, pay considerably high insurance premiums as a result of these regular events. Site plans emerging for the development of WY1 show a number of "lagoons" to collect surface water and these are sited higher than Stevenage Road with the potential to flood the homes below. No method to distribute the collected water elsewhere, or to drain it away from the lagoons, is stated within the developer's proposal. As the development at WY1 is proposed to be on higher ground than the existing Village, it will clearly contribute to increase flooding events for the existing residents.

The proposed and ONLY road to and from the proposed development at WY1 emerges in the worst flood zone within the Village. This area is detailed in the McCloys report and referred to regularly by the Environment Agency in other similarly located planning applications as a major flood zone.

Further, in assessing flood risk in HOU1 (Nov 2014), NHDC state:

4.65 These three sites [site 121 - now known as WY1] have a combined estimated capacity of 439 new homes. Removing these sites from consideration would not, by itself, prejudice the Council's ability to meet its Objectively Assessed Needs and it is therefore considered highly unlikely that these sites would be required. All three sites are within the Stevenage HMA and in the Green Belt.

Which does beg the question, why are NHDC pursuing this site when there are so many serious issues with it and it is not a large site in view of the total housing level required?

Education:

Little Wymondley currently has a primary school that holds an "outstanding" Ofsted capability. The increased size of Little Wymondley will require an increased FE size provision and a new site is offered by the proposed WY1 development. The proposed site at the south side of the proposed new development will place pupils and teaching staff, close to contaminated land, the known effects of overhead electricity pylons and alongside an illegal Air Quality area. As a consequence of the need for this provision, we request that the Schooling provision and its eventual site is decided upon BEFORE any permission is provided for a development in WY1.

Due to all the reasons given above, I believe that the NHDC Emerging Local Plan and Main modifications are not sound, or justified.

Green Belt and "exceptional circumstances": Main Modification 023 (Policy SP5)

The Green Belt review update 2018 provides further confirmation that the area surrounding Little Wymondley, including the proposed development site WY1, makes a significant contribution to the Green Belt, yet the Main Modifications and Emerging Local Plan fails to explain the "exceptional circumstances" or "very special circumstances" that justify it's removal from the Green Belt. The only justification NHDC have given is that the site is available and that there is a need to build houses in their jurisdiction. The NPPF 2012 against which this NHDC Plan is being tested clearly states that housing need alone does not justify removing land from Green Belt. It is unrealistic that a Green Belt Review can in effect be in entirely re-written yet still arrive at exactly the same conclusion without modification of the Green Belt boundaries proposed for change.

Indeed in their supporting document for the Green Belt Review, HOU1 (Housing and Green Belt Background Paper, including the Housing and Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper, November 2014), NHDC state:

"The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) advises as follows:
If it is necessary to prevent development in a village primarily because of the important contribution which the open character of the village makes to the openness of the Green Belt, the village should be included in the Green Belt. "

This is partly why the village of Little Wymondley was excluded from development in the NHDC Local Plan 1996 and in the saved policies (2007) from this plan.

The modifications to the plan also extend the physical site size of WY1, as a result of a developer's request to build up to a geographical brow. This contour is not a natural physical element of the site, but manmade from the distribution of soil excavated from the bypass construction, which, I believe, may contain contaminated materials unrecorded from the early 20th century.

Additionally, the ONS household formation figures released recently indicate that NHDC have overestimated the number of houses needing to be built in their jurisdiction.

Brownfield sites in the district also seem to have not yet been exhausted, and it is my belief that these should be used in priority over Green Belt land.

Openness (Green Belt/Green Spaces): MM023

The NHDC main modifications to the plan reduces the openness of the area as a result of further extension, and does not take account of the sight-lines from the listed buildings identified in a land assessment survey conducted by NHDC, which is why the original site was considerably reduced in size initially. There has been no practical suggestion as to why the extension has now been permitted.

The NPPF 2012 states in Paragraph 97 (b) that "the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location;" - NHDC's plan and Main Modifications have no compensatory equivalent open space in the locality of Wymondley Parish, or the surrounding areas.

When looked at as a whole for this locality, NHDC's proposals for site WY1 (Little Wymondley), NS1 (1,700 dwellings near Graveley) and Stevenage Borough Council's proposals in their Local Plan for sites HO3 (abutting Graveley), EC1/4 & EC1/7 (industrial estates on the land adjacent to the A1(M) Junction 8 and on Little Wymondley village boundary at Chantry Lane), plus the additional live planning application (Application No 19/00123/FPM) for 133 dwellings on the land to west of A1(M) and south of Stevenage Road (Todds Green) (formerly part of the Wymondley Parish, until NHDC removed this when the parish applied for it's neighbourhood plan area), the rural character of the entire area around Wymondley Parish will be completely eroded, destroying the villages and creating an urbanised area - this is exactly the situation that the Green Belt protection was originally designed to prevent (urban sprawl).

Infrastructure/Traffic & Air Quality Issues:

The cumulative effects of all the above listed sites will also add unsustainable and unacceptable additional traffic movements in and around the parish of Wymondley. This added to the existing congestion issues, particularly around Junction 8 of the A1(M), and throughout the road network in the parish, will exacerbate existing air quality/pollution issues. Plus, the proposed expansion of London Luton Airport (work is proposed to start on a second terminal in mid-2020) from 18 million to 32 million passengers, will also lead to increased traffic from the A1(M) Junction 8 onto the A602 as a main route to the airport and increased air pollution.

Despite the Main Modification 119, Policy T1 of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan stating:
"planning permission will be granted provided that:
a. development would not lead to highway safety problems or cause unacceptable impacts upon the highway network and safety;
b. mechanisms to secure any necessary sustainable transport measures and / or improvements to the existing highway network are secured in accordance with Policy SP7 (SP7: The Council will require development proposals to make provision for infrastructure that is necessary in order to accommodate additional demands resulting from the development.)"
- no such consideration appears to have been applied in NHDC's allocation of sites for housing development in the Wymondley Parish area and its immediate neighbours.
Further, Main Modification 369 states: "Some minor roads leading to and from the villages within Wymondley parish may require other traffic management measures which will also need to be investigated and will be reflected in future iterations of the Infrastructure Development Plan. Mitigation could include environmental improvements to the village centre. The mitigation of these issues will be part of the wider package of measures identified through the wider consideration of network issues concerning A1(M) J8 and alternate routeings to this."

It is unacceptable to plan for these major developments now (WY1, NS1, HO3 etc.) without a robust infrastructure plan in place to accompany these and mitigate adverse impacts on air quality and climate change. It is also potentially dangerous to health, particularly to children. In SP7, MM033, it is suggested that people should "change their behaviour" and walk or cycle instead of using their cars - this is an unrealistic expectation, altruistic at best and is unreasonable, especially re: site WY1 where the resident's homes are some 4 miles from any town centre. It is certainly unreasonable to expect people to walk 4 miles to train stations to start their commutes to London (for whom the majority of these houses are seemingly being built), particularly in inclement weather.

NHDC's lack of infrastructure plan would appear out of touch with the core planning guidance on "sustainable development" as defined by the NPPF 2012 and Government Planning Guidance. Indeed, NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy SP1, paragraph 4.1 reflects the legal definitions sustainable development as "improving our lives today while not comprising our ability to do so in the future". SP1 also states that they grant planning permission for proposals that, individually or cumulatively: "provide the necessary infrastructure required to support an increasing population" and "secure any necessary mitigation measures necessary that reduce the impact of development, including on climate change".

The current Emerging Local Plan, Main Modifications and other neighbouring authorities' plans affecting the immediate locality of Wymondley Parish, are completely at odds with Policy SP1 for the reasons stated earlier. Put quite simply, humans need to breath clean air, and increasing vehicular movements, in an area where there is existing heavy traffic congestion and air pollution issues, cannot possibly be seen as "improving our lives today" or in the future. Breathing dangerously toxic air in the place that you live or work over a period of time shortens life expectancy as evidenced by Public Health England.

In the Main Modifications of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy 7 includes a requirement

"for developers to include infrastructure plans for developments to address cumulative impacts that might arise across multiple developments and to avoid placing unreasonable additional burdens on the existing community or existing infrastructure"

- however, no such infrastructure plans have accompanied any plans for site WY1, or any other plans in the locality, suggesting that no developer has a plan, and it would appear NHDC also do not have a plan.

Total additional traffic from the combined sites could total more than 5,000 additional vehicles (or 10,000+ vehicle movements on a daily basis) in an area where the A1(M) and A602 are already at a standstill during peak commuting times. More standing traffic, standing for longer, will obviously increase air pollution levels - levels which are already in excess of the WHO and EU safe legal limits.

On the Bovis Homes plan for site WY1, the pedestrian and cycle access point in the private lane alongside the listed "Croft" dwelling is an agreed vehicular access to Ashwater House and the Lane incorporates a blind bend making it totally inadequate for the purpose suggested. Consequently the new residents of the WY1 development will find great difficulty with accessing sustainable transport links in the village or their own homes on the occasion of flooding.

OBJECTION TO: Change of Categorisation of Village: (Main Modification 010 & MM012)

The main modification 010 (SP02) now lists the village of Little Wymondley as a 'Growth Village' to disassociate it from a category A village, yet no public consultation has taken place in relation to this concept and the public are generally unaware that there are now five villages within the Local Plan that are destined to lose their 'Village' status. Nor has NHDC provided any justification for stating that Little Wymondley is now a village that "can support growth". There was no explanation during the NHDC local Plan Examination in Public. The examiner remarked that the local plan seemed unfair that some Category A villages were being expected to have a high level of growth (for Little Wymondley, this growth is 88%), while others had none. Instead of NHDC reviewing this unfairness, and re-distributing house allocations fairly and evenly, they have simply attempted to resolve this issue but changing the classification of 5 villages to "Growth villages" with little regard as to whether these villages could realistically contribute towards "sustainable" growth (i.e. the harm caused by the development does not outweigh the benefits of the development).

The Examination in Public (EiP) of NHDC's Local Plan provided a Memorandum of Understanding from NHDC with Bovis Homes to develop site WY1, despite the landowner confirming that it is now unlikely that Bovis Homes would be the final developer. Therefore deliverability of a readily available site is entirely questionable.
Air Quality:

The EiP introduced a heavily modified report stating, "planning permission would be refused in areas of poor Air Quality". It is assumed that this refers to Air Quality pollutant levels close to or exceeding the EU maximum allowable. At the EiP the QC representing the NHDC stated that the presence of an Air Quality Monitoring Area was recognised "which is why developments are being considered away from these areas". Recent monitoring results of the WY1 site area abutting the A602 carried out by the Wymondley Neighbourhood Plan Committee in co-ordination with Friends of the Earth, has established consistent readings following the correct DEFRA process and independently tested. These readings exceed the EU maximum allowable levels of air pollutants.

We welcome Main Modification 153 - Air Quality:
"The following are types of developments for which the Council would expect the submission of an air quality impact assessment: ...
- Anywhere else in the District, applications that are considered to be 'major' in scale for example: significantly increase vehicle movements, particularly heavy duty vehicles; . . .
- Or that: introduce humans to an area where air pollution is an issue, but where humans were previously not present."

However, this policy seems to have been ignored in large parts throughout the plan, especially in light of Main Modification 010 to Policy SP2 whereby Little Wymondley has been re-categorised as a "Growth Village" - the consideration of Main Modification 153 has not been applied to site WY1.
It also worth noting that the Transport Strategy of October 2017, written by Markides Associates Ltd (MA) on behalf of North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) to support the emerging Local Plan recognises there are severe issues:

"These historic towns and links to/from them [sic. roads through the villages] suffer from traffic congestion and some air quality problems. Their 'environmental capacity' to accommodate further traffic growth without detrimentally affecting the high quality of the local environment is limited, and a starting point should be managing traffic growth and avoiding significant increases in traffic through the towns where possible."
In the same report, it also acknowledged that the NHDC Local Plan will indeed increase traffic volume through the Parish of Wymondley. Section 3.44 of the same report also recognises that the roads in Wymondley Parish are "unsuitable" for volumes of traffic:
"Use of unsuitable roads by through traffic
3.44 As with most urban areas, there is some evidence that motorists are using unsuitable roads to avoid delays on congested routes. There are many locations where traffic volumes are probably unsuitable for the nature of the road, but the more 'strategic' routes noted in the modelling include:
* Routes through Great Wymondley, by which traffic can bypass delays on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage;
* The B197 through Graveley between Letchworth and Stevenage;
* Willow Lane in Hitchin, which can be used by east/west traffic to bypass delays on the A505/A602 route; and
* Stevenage Road [sic. in Little Wymondley], which can be used to bypass congestion on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage."
Despite their own Transport Strategy document highlighting the unsustainability of Wymondley Parish in terms of air quality and transport, NHDC are still including site WY1 in their emerging Local Plan and stating they will address the infrastructure issues "later" - this is simply unacceptable when the adverse impacts on people's life expectancy is so severe.

MM028 (policy SP6 "Sustainable Transport") states:
"We will deliver accessibility improvements and promote the use of sustainable transport modes insofar as reasonable and practicable. We will:
1. Comply with the NHDC Transport Strategy and the provisions of the Local Transport Plan and other supporting documents as relevant and considered necessary;
2. Encourage development in locations which enable sustainable journeys to be made to key services and facilities;
And yet NHDC have decided to add MORE houses to site WY1, which contradicts their own policy above.

Flood Risk:

Little Wymondley Village has suffered regular flooding incidents for more than a century as recorded by the McCloys report on behalf of the Hertfordshire County Council in 2015 following the severe flood event of 2014. There are 82 homes that will likely be affected and many residents along Stevenage Road, Little Wymondley, pay considerably high insurance premiums as a result of these regular events. Site plans emerging for the development of WY1 show a number of "lagoons" to collect surface water and these are sited higher than Stevenage Road with the potential to flood the homes below. No method to distribute the collected water elsewhere, or to drain it away from the lagoons, is stated within the developer's proposal. As the development at WY1 is proposed to be on higher ground than the existing Village, it will clearly contribute to increase flooding events for the existing residents.

The proposed and ONLY road to and from the proposed development at WY1 emerges in the worst flood zone within the Village. This area is detailed in the McCloys report and referred to regularly by the Environment Agency in other similarly located planning applications as a major flood zone.

Further, in assessing flood risk in HOU1 (Nov 2014), NHDC state:

4.65 These three sites [site 121 - now known as WY1] have a combined estimated capacity of 439 new homes. Removing these sites from consideration would not, by itself, prejudice the Council's ability to meet its Objectively Assessed Needs and it is therefore considered highly unlikely that these sites would be required. All three sites are within the Stevenage HMA and in the Green Belt.

Which does beg the question, why are NHDC pursuing this site when there are so many serious issues with it and it is not a large site in view of the total housing level required?

Education:

Little Wymondley currently has a primary school that holds an "outstanding" Ofsted capability. The increased size of Little Wymondley will require an increased FE size provision and a new site is offered by the proposed WY1 development. The proposed site at the south side of the proposed new development will place pupils and teaching staff, close to contaminated land, the known effects of overhead electricity pylons and alongside an illegal Air Quality area. As a consequence of the need for this provision, we request that the Schooling provision and its eventual site is decided upon BEFORE any permission is provided for a development in WY1.

Due to all the reasons given above, I believe that the NHDC Emerging Local Plan and Main modifications are not sound, or justified.

Green Belt and "exceptional circumstances": Main Modification 023 (Policy SP5)

The Green Belt review update 2018 provides further confirmation that the area surrounding Little Wymondley, including the proposed development site WY1, makes a significant contribution to the Green Belt, yet the Main Modifications and Emerging Local Plan fails to explain the "exceptional circumstances" or "very special circumstances" that justify it's removal from the Green Belt. The only justification NHDC have given is that the site is available and that there is a need to build houses in their jurisdiction. The NPPF 2012 against which this NHDC Plan is being tested clearly states that housing need alone does not justify removing land from Green Belt. It is unrealistic that a Green Belt Review can in effect be in entirely re-written yet still arrive at exactly the same conclusion without modification of the Green Belt boundaries proposed for change.

Indeed in their supporting document for the Green Belt Review, HOU1 (Housing and Green Belt Background Paper, including the Housing and Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper, November 2014), NHDC state:

"The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) advises as follows:
If it is necessary to prevent development in a village primarily because of the important contribution which the open character of the village makes to the openness of the Green Belt, the village should be included in the Green Belt. "

This is partly why the village of Little Wymondley was excluded from development in the NHDC Local Plan 1996 and in the saved policies (2007) from this plan.

The modifications to the plan also extend the physical site size of WY1, as a result of a developer's request to build up to a geographical brow. This contour is not a natural physical element of the site, but manmade from the distribution of soil excavated from the bypass construction, which, I believe, may contain contaminated materials unrecorded from the early 20th century.

Additionally, the ONS household formation figures released recently indicate that NHDC have overestimated the number of houses needing to be built in their jurisdiction.

Brownfield sites in the district also seem to have not yet been exhausted, and it is my belief that these should be used in priority over Green Belt land.

Openness (Green Belt/Green Spaces): MM023

The NHDC main modifications to the plan reduces the openness of the area as a result of further extension, and does not take account of the sight-lines from the listed buildings identified in a land assessment survey conducted by NHDC, which is why the original site was considerably reduced in size initially. There has been no practical suggestion as to why the extension has now been permitted.

The NPPF 2012 states in Paragraph 97 (b) that "the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location;" - NHDC's plan and Main Modifications have no compensatory equivalent open space in the locality of Wymondley Parish, or the surrounding areas.

When looked at as a whole for this locality, NHDC's proposals for site WY1 (Little Wymondley), NS1 (1,700 dwellings near Graveley) and Stevenage Borough Council's proposals in their Local Plan for sites HO3 (abutting Graveley), EC1/4 & EC1/7 (industrial estates on the land adjacent to the A1(M) Junction 8 and on Little Wymondley village boundary at Chantry Lane), plus the additional live planning application (Application No 19/00123/FPM) for 133 dwellings on the land to west of A1(M) and south of Stevenage Road (Todds Green) (formerly part of the Wymondley Parish, until NHDC removed this when the parish applied for it's neighbourhood plan area), the rural character of the entire area around Wymondley Parish will be completely eroded, destroying the villages and creating an urbanised area - this is exactly the situation that the Green Belt protection was originally designed to prevent (urban sprawl).

Infrastructure/Traffic & Air Quality Issues:

The cumulative effects of all the above listed sites will also add unsustainable and unacceptable additional traffic movements in and around the parish of Wymondley. This added to the existing congestion issues, particularly around Junction 8 of the A1(M), and throughout the road network in the parish, will exacerbate existing air quality/pollution issues. Plus, the proposed expansion of London Luton Airport (work is proposed to start on a second terminal in mid-2020) from 18 million to 32 million passengers, will also lead to increased traffic from the A1(M) Junction 8 onto the A602 as a main route to the airport and increased air pollution.

Despite the Main Modification 119, Policy T1 of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan stating:
"planning permission will be granted provided that:
a. development would not lead to highway safety problems or cause unacceptable impacts upon the highway network and safety;
b. mechanisms to secure any necessary sustainable transport measures and / or improvements to the existing highway network are secured in accordance with Policy SP7 (SP7: The Council will require development proposals to make provision for infrastructure that is necessary in order to accommodate additional demands resulting from the development.)"
- no such consideration appears to have been applied in NHDC's allocation of sites for housing development in the Wymondley Parish area and its immediate neighbours.
Further, Main Modification 369 states: "Some minor roads leading to and from the villages within Wymondley parish may require other traffic management measures which will also need to be investigated and will be reflected in future iterations of the Infrastructure Development Plan. Mitigation could include environmental improvements to the village centre. The mitigation of these issues will be part of the wider package of measures identified through the wider consideration of network issues concerning A1(M) J8 and alternate routeings to this."

It is unacceptable to plan for these major developments now (WY1, NS1, HO3 etc.) without a robust infrastructure plan in place to accompany these and mitigate adverse impacts on air quality and climate change. It is also potentially dangerous to health, particularly to children. In SP7, MM033, it is suggested that people should "change their behaviour" and walk or cycle instead of using their cars - this is an unrealistic expectation, altruistic at best and is unreasonable, especially re: site WY1 where the resident's homes are some 4 miles from any town centre. It is certainly unreasonable to expect people to walk 4 miles to train stations to start their commutes to London (for whom the majority of these houses are seemingly being built), particularly in inclement weather.

NHDC's lack of infrastructure plan would appear out of touch with the core planning guidance on "sustainable development" as defined by the NPPF 2012 and Government Planning Guidance. Indeed, NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy SP1, paragraph 4.1 reflects the legal definitions sustainable development as "improving our lives today while not comprising our ability to do so in the future". SP1 also states that they grant planning permission for proposals that, individually or cumulatively: "provide the necessary infrastructure required to support an increasing population" and "secure any necessary mitigation measures necessary that reduce the impact of development, including on climate change".

The current Emerging Local Plan, Main Modifications and other neighbouring authorities' plans affecting the immediate locality of Wymondley Parish, are completely at odds with Policy SP1 for the reasons stated earlier. Put quite simply, humans need to breath clean air, and increasing vehicular movements, in an area where there is existing heavy traffic congestion and air pollution issues, cannot possibly be seen as "improving our lives today" or in the future. Breathing dangerously toxic air in the place that you live or work over a period of time shortens life expectancy as evidenced by Public Health England.

In the Main Modifications of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy 7 includes a requirement

"for developers to include infrastructure plans for developments to address cumulative impacts that might arise across multiple developments and to avoid placing unreasonable additional burdens on the existing community or existing infrastructure"

- however, no such infrastructure plans have accompanied any plans for site WY1, or any other plans in the locality, suggesting that no developer has a plan, and it would appear NHDC also do not have a plan.

Total additional traffic from the combined sites could total more than 5,000 additional vehicles (or 10,000+ vehicle movements on a daily basis) in an area where the A1(M) and A602 are already at a standstill during peak commuting times. More standing traffic, standing for longer, will obviously increase air pollution levels - levels which are already in excess of the WHO and EU safe legal limits.

On the Bovis Homes plan for site WY1, the pedestrian and cycle access point in the private lane alongside the listed "Croft" dwelling is an agreed vehicular access to Ashwater House and the Lane incorporates a blind bend making it totally inadequate for the purpose suggested. Consequently the new residents of the WY1 development will find great difficulty with accessing sustainable transport links in the village or their own homes on the occasion of flooding.

OBJECTION TO: Change of Categorisation of Village: (Main Modification 010 & MM012)

The main modification 010 (SP02) now lists the village of Little Wymondley as a 'Growth Village' to disassociate it from a category A village, yet no public consultation has taken place in relation to this concept and the public are generally unaware that there are now five villages within the Local Plan that are destined to lose their 'Village' status. Nor has NHDC provided any justification for stating that Little Wymondley is now a village that "can support growth". There was no explanation during the NHDC local Plan Examination in Public. The examiner remarked that the local plan seemed unfair that some Category A villages were being expected to have a high level of growth (for Little Wymondley, this growth is 88%), while others had none. Instead of NHDC reviewing this unfairness, and re-distributing house allocations fairly and evenly, they have simply attempted to resolve this issue but changing the classification of 5 villages to "Growth villages" with little regard as to whether these villages could realistically contribute towards "sustainable" growth (i.e. the harm caused by the development does not outweigh the benefits of the development).

The Examination in Public (EiP) of NHDC's Local Plan provided a Memorandum of Understanding from NHDC with Bovis Homes to develop site WY1, despite the landowner confirming that it is now unlikely that Bovis Homes would be the final developer. Therefore deliverability of a readily available site is entirely questionable.
Air Quality:

The EiP introduced a heavily modified report stating, "planning permission would be refused in areas of poor Air Quality". It is assumed that this refers to Air Quality pollutant levels close to or exceeding the EU maximum allowable. At the EiP the QC representing the NHDC stated that the presence of an Air Quality Monitoring Area was recognised "which is why developments are being considered away from these areas". Recent monitoring results of the WY1 site area abutting the A602 carried out by the Wymondley Neighbourhood Plan Committee in co-ordination with Friends of the Earth, has established consistent readings following the correct DEFRA process and independently tested. These readings exceed the EU maximum allowable levels of air pollutants.

We welcome Main Modification 153 - Air Quality:
"The following are types of developments for which the Council would expect the submission of an air quality impact assessment: ...
- Anywhere else in the District, applications that are considered to be 'major' in scale for example: significantly increase vehicle movements, particularly heavy duty vehicles; . . .
- Or that: introduce humans to an area where air pollution is an issue, but where humans were previously not present."

However, this policy seems to have been ignored in large parts throughout the plan, especially in light of Main Modification 010 to Policy SP2 whereby Little Wymondley has been re-categorised as a "Growth Village" - the consideration of Main Modification 153 has not been applied to site WY1.
It also worth noting that the Transport Strategy of October 2017, written by Markides Associates Ltd (MA) on behalf of North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) to support the emerging Local Plan recognises there are severe issues:

"These historic towns and links to/from them [sic. roads through the villages] suffer from traffic congestion and some air quality problems. Their 'environmental capacity' to accommodate further traffic growth without detrimentally affecting the high quality of the local environment is limited, and a starting point should be managing traffic growth and avoiding significant increases in traffic through the towns where possible."
In the same report, it also acknowledged that the NHDC Local Plan will indeed increase traffic volume through the Parish of Wymondley. Section 3.44 of the same report also recognises that the roads in Wymondley Parish are "unsuitable" for volumes of traffic:
"Use of unsuitable roads by through traffic
3.44 As with most urban areas, there is some evidence that motorists are using unsuitable roads to avoid delays on congested routes. There are many locations where traffic volumes are probably unsuitable for the nature of the road, but the more 'strategic' routes noted in the modelling include:
* Routes through Great Wymondley, by which traffic can bypass delays on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage;
* The B197 through Graveley between Letchworth and Stevenage;
* Willow Lane in Hitchin, which can be used by east/west traffic to bypass delays on the A505/A602 route; and
* Stevenage Road [sic. in Little Wymondley], which can be used to bypass congestion on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage."
Despite their own Transport Strategy document highlighting the unsustainability of Wymondley Parish in terms of air quality and transport, NHDC are still including site WY1 in their emerging Local Plan and stating they will address the infrastructure issues "later" - this is simply unacceptable when the adverse impacts on people's life expectancy is so severe.

MM028 (policy SP6 "Sustainable Transport") states:
"We will deliver accessibility improvements and promote the use of sustainable transport modes insofar as reasonable and practicable. We will:
1. Comply with the NHDC Transport Strategy and the provisions of the Local Transport Plan and other supporting documents as relevant and considered necessary;
2. Encourage development in locations which enable sustainable journeys to be made to key services and facilities;
And yet NHDC have decided to add MORE houses to site WY1, which contradicts their own policy above.

Flood Risk:

Little Wymondley Village has suffered regular flooding incidents for more than a century as recorded by the McCloys report on behalf of the Hertfordshire County Council in 2015 following the severe flood event of 2014. There are 82 homes that will likely be affected and many residents along Stevenage Road, Little Wymondley, pay considerably high insurance premiums as a result of these regular events. Site plans emerging for the development of WY1 show a number of "lagoons" to collect surface water and these are sited higher than Stevenage Road with the potential to flood the homes below. No method to distribute the collected water elsewhere, or to drain it away from the lagoons, is stated within the developer's proposal. As the development at WY1 is proposed to be on higher ground than the existing Village, it will clearly contribute to increase flooding events for the existing residents.

The proposed and ONLY road to and from the proposed development at WY1 emerges in the worst flood zone within the Village. This area is detailed in the McCloys report and referred to regularly by the Environment Agency in other similarly located planning applications as a major flood zone.

Further, in assessing flood risk in HOU1 (Nov 2014), NHDC state:

4.65 These three sites [site 121 - now known as WY1] have a combined estimated capacity of 439 new homes. Removing these sites from consideration would not, by itself, prejudice the Council's ability to meet its Objectively Assessed Needs and it is therefore considered highly unlikely that these sites would be required. All three sites are within the Stevenage HMA and in the Green Belt.

Which does beg the question, why are NHDC pursuing this site when there are so many serious issues with it and it is not a large site in view of the total housing level required?

Education:

Little Wymondley currently has a primary school that holds an "outstanding" Ofsted capability. The increased size of Little Wymondley will require an increased FE size provision and a new site is offered by the proposed WY1 development. The proposed site at the south side of the proposed new development will place pupils and teaching staff, close to contaminated land, the known effects of overhead electricity pylons and alongside an illegal Air Quality area. As a consequence of the need for this provision, we request that the Schooling provision and its eventual site is decided upon BEFORE any permission is provided for a development in WY1.

Due to all the reasons given above, I believe that the NHDC Emerging Local Plan and Main modifications are not sound, or justified.

Green Belt and "exceptional circumstances": Main Modification 023 (Policy SP5)

The Green Belt review update 2018 provides further confirmation that the area surrounding Little Wymondley, including the proposed development site WY1, makes a significant contribution to the Green Belt, yet the Main Modifications and Emerging Local Plan fails to explain the "exceptional circumstances" or "very special circumstances" that justify it's removal from the Green Belt. The only justification NHDC have given is that the site is available and that there is a need to build houses in their jurisdiction. The NPPF 2012 against which this NHDC Plan is being tested clearly states that housing need alone does not justify removing land from Green Belt. It is unrealistic that a Green Belt Review can in effect be in entirely re-written yet still arrive at exactly the same conclusion without modification of the Green Belt boundaries proposed for change.

Indeed in their supporting document for the Green Belt Review, HOU1 (Housing and Green Belt Background Paper, including the Housing and Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper, November 2014), NHDC state:

"The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) advises as follows:
If it is necessary to prevent development in a village primarily because of the important contribution which the open character of the village makes to the openness of the Green Belt, the village should be included in the Green Belt. "

This is partly why the village of Little Wymondley was excluded from development in the NHDC Local Plan 1996 and in the saved policies (2007) from this plan.

The modifications to the plan also extend the physical site size of WY1, as a result of a developer's request to build up to a geographical brow. This contour is not a natural physical element of the site, but manmade from the distribution of soil excavated from the bypass construction, which, I believe, may contain contaminated materials unrecorded from the early 20th century.

Additionally, the ONS household formation figures released recently indicate that NHDC have overestimated the number of houses needing to be built in their jurisdiction.

Brownfield sites in the district also seem to have not yet been exhausted, and it is my belief that these should be used in priority over Green Belt land.

Openness (Green Belt/Green Spaces): MM023

The NHDC main modifications to the plan reduces the openness of the area as a result of further extension, and does not take account of the sight-lines from the listed buildings identified in a land assessment survey conducted by NHDC, which is why the original site was considerably reduced in size initially. There has been no practical suggestion as to why the extension has now been permitted.

The NPPF 2012 states in Paragraph 97 (b) that "the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location;" - NHDC's plan and Main Modifications have no compensatory equivalent open space in the locality of Wymondley Parish, or the surrounding areas.

When looked at as a whole for this locality, NHDC's proposals for site WY1 (Little Wymondley), NS1 (1,700 dwellings near Graveley) and Stevenage Borough Council's proposals in their Local Plan for sites HO3 (abutting Graveley), EC1/4 & EC1/7 (industrial estates on the land adjacent to the A1(M) Junction 8 and on Little Wymondley village boundary at Chantry Lane), plus the additional live planning application (Application No 19/00123/FPM) for 133 dwellings on the land to west of A1(M) and south of Stevenage Road (Todds Green) (formerly part of the Wymondley Parish, until NHDC removed this when the parish applied for it's neighbourhood plan area), the rural character of the entire area around Wymondley Parish will be completely eroded, destroying the villages and creating an urbanised area - this is exactly the situation that the Green Belt protection was originally designed to prevent (urban sprawl).

Infrastructure/Traffic & Air Quality Issues:

The cumulative effects of all the above listed sites will also add unsustainable and unacceptable additional traffic movements in and around the parish of Wymondley. This added to the existing congestion issues, particularly around Junction 8 of the A1(M), and throughout the road network in the parish, will exacerbate existing air quality/pollution issues. Plus, the proposed expansion of London Luton Airport (work is proposed to start on a second terminal in mid-2020) from 18 million to 32 million passengers, will also lead to increased traffic from the A1(M) Junction 8 onto the A602 as a main route to the airport and increased air pollution.

Despite the Main Modification 119, Policy T1 of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan stating:
"planning permission will be granted provided that:
a. development would not lead to highway safety problems or cause unacceptable impacts upon the highway network and safety;
b. mechanisms to secure any necessary sustainable transport measures and / or improvements to the existing highway network are secured in accordance with Policy SP7 (SP7: The Council will require development proposals to make provision for infrastructure that is necessary in order to accommodate additional demands resulting from the development.)"
- no such consideration appears to have been applied in NHDC's allocation of sites for housing development in the Wymondley Parish area and its immediate neighbours.
Further, Main Modification 369 states: "Some minor roads leading to and from the villages within Wymondley parish may require other traffic management measures which will also need to be investigated and will be reflected in future iterations of the Infrastructure Development Plan. Mitigation could include environmental improvements to the village centre. The mitigation of these issues will be part of the wider package of measures identified through the wider consideration of network issues concerning A1(M) J8 and alternate routeings to this."

It is unacceptable to plan for these major developments now (WY1, NS1, HO3 etc.) without a robust infrastructure plan in place to accompany these and mitigate adverse impacts on air quality and climate change. It is also potentially dangerous to health, particularly to children. In SP7, MM033, it is suggested that people should "change their behaviour" and walk or cycle instead of using their cars - this is an unrealistic expectation, altruistic at best and is unreasonable, especially re: site WY1 where the resident's homes are some 4 miles from any town centre. It is certainly unreasonable to expect people to walk 4 miles to train stations to start their commutes to London (for whom the majority of these houses are seemingly being built), particularly in inclement weather.

NHDC's lack of infrastructure plan would appear out of touch with the core planning guidance on "sustainable development" as defined by the NPPF 2012 and Government Planning Guidance. Indeed, NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy SP1, paragraph 4.1 reflects the legal definitions sustainable development as "improving our lives today while not comprising our ability to do so in the future". SP1 also states that they grant planning permission for proposals that, individually or cumulatively: "provide the necessary infrastructure required to support an increasing population" and "secure any necessary mitigation measures necessary that reduce the impact of development, including on climate change".

The current Emerging Local Plan, Main Modifications and other neighbouring authorities' plans affecting the immediate locality of Wymondley Parish, are completely at odds with Policy SP1 for the reasons stated earlier. Put quite simply, humans need to breath clean air, and increasing vehicular movements, in an area where there is existing heavy traffic congestion and air pollution issues, cannot possibly be seen as "improving our lives today" or in the future. Breathing dangerously toxic air in the place that you live or work over a period of time shortens life expectancy as evidenced by Public Health England.

In the Main Modifications of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy 7 includes a requirement

"for developers to include infrastructure plans for developments to address cumulative impacts that might arise across multiple developments and to avoid placing unreasonable additional burdens on the existing community or existing infrastructure"

- however, no such infrastructure plans have accompanied any plans for site WY1, or any other plans in the locality, suggesting that no developer has a plan, and it would appear NHDC also do not have a plan.

Total additional traffic from the combined sites could total more than 5,000 additional vehicles (or 10,000+ vehicle movements on a daily basis) in an area where the A1(M) and A602 are already at a standstill during peak commuting times. More standing traffic, standing for longer, will obviously increase air pollution levels - levels which are already in excess of the WHO and EU safe legal limits.

On the Bovis Homes plan for site WY1, the pedestrian and cycle access point in the private lane alongside the listed "Croft" dwelling is an agreed vehicular access to Ashwater House and the Lane incorporates a blind bend making it totally inadequate for the purpose suggested. Consequently the new residents of the WY1 development will find great difficulty with accessing sustainable transport links in the village or their own homes on the occasion of flooding.

OBJECTION TO: Change of Categorisation of Village: (Main Modification 010 & MM012)

The main modification 010 (SP02) now lists the village of Little Wymondley as a 'Growth Village' to disassociate it from a category A village, yet no public consultation has taken place in relation to this concept and the public are generally unaware that there are now five villages within the Local Plan that are destined to lose their 'Village' status. Nor has NHDC provided any justification for stating that Little Wymondley is now a village that "can support growth". There was no explanation during the NHDC local Plan Examination in Public. The examiner remarked that the local plan seemed unfair that some Category A villages were being expected to have a high level of growth (for Little Wymondley, this growth is 88%), while others had none. Instead of NHDC reviewing this unfairness, and re-distributing house allocations fairly and evenly, they have simply attempted to resolve this issue but changing the classification of 5 villages to "Growth villages" with little regard as to whether these villages could realistically contribute towards "sustainable" growth (i.e. the harm caused by the development does not outweigh the benefits of the development).

The Examination in Public (EiP) of NHDC's Local Plan provided a Memorandum of Understanding from NHDC with Bovis Homes to develop site WY1, despite the landowner confirming that it is now unlikely that Bovis Homes would be the final developer. Therefore deliverability of a readily available site is entirely questionable.
Air Quality:

The EiP introduced a heavily modified report stating, "planning permission would be refused in areas of poor Air Quality". It is assumed that this refers to Air Quality pollutant levels close to or exceeding the EU maximum allowable. At the EiP the QC representing the NHDC stated that the presence of an Air Quality Monitoring Area was recognised "which is why developments are being considered away from these areas". Recent monitoring results of the WY1 site area abutting the A602 carried out by the Wymondley Neighbourhood Plan Committee in co-ordination with Friends of the Earth, has established consistent readings following the correct DEFRA process and independently tested. These readings exceed the EU maximum allowable levels of air pollutants.

We welcome Main Modification 153 - Air Quality:
"The following are types of developments for which the Council would expect the submission of an air quality impact assessment: ...
- Anywhere else in the District, applications that are considered to be 'major' in scale for example: significantly increase vehicle movements, particularly heavy duty vehicles; . . .
- Or that: introduce humans to an area where air pollution is an issue, but where humans were previously not present."

However, this policy seems to have been ignored in large parts throughout the plan, especially in light of Main Modification 010 to Policy SP2 whereby Little Wymondley has been re-categorised as a "Growth Village" - the consideration of Main Modification 153 has not been applied to site WY1.
It also worth noting that the Transport Strategy of October 2017, written by Markides Associates Ltd (MA) on behalf of North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) to support the emerging Local Plan recognises there are severe issues:

"These historic towns and links to/from them [sic. roads through the villages] suffer from traffic congestion and some air quality problems. Their 'environmental capacity' to accommodate further traffic growth without detrimentally affecting the high quality of the local environment is limited, and a starting point should be managing traffic growth and avoiding significant increases in traffic through the towns where possible."
In the same report, it also acknowledged that the NHDC Local Plan will indeed increase traffic volume through the Parish of Wymondley. Section 3.44 of the same report also recognises that the roads in Wymondley Parish are "unsuitable" for volumes of traffic:
"Use of unsuitable roads by through traffic
3.44 As with most urban areas, there is some evidence that motorists are using unsuitable roads to avoid delays on congested routes. There are many locations where traffic volumes are probably unsuitable for the nature of the road, but the more 'strategic' routes noted in the modelling include:
* Routes through Great Wymondley, by which traffic can bypass delays on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage;
* The B197 through Graveley between Letchworth and Stevenage;
* Willow Lane in Hitchin, which can be used by east/west traffic to bypass delays on the A505/A602 route; and
* Stevenage Road [sic. in Little Wymondley], which can be used to bypass congestion on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage."
Despite their own Transport Strategy document highlighting the unsustainability of Wymondley Parish in terms of air quality and transport, NHDC are still including site WY1 in their emerging Local Plan and stating they will address the infrastructure issues "later" - this is simply unacceptable when the adverse impacts on people's life expectancy is so severe.

MM028 (policy SP6 "Sustainable Transport") states:
"We will deliver accessibility improvements and promote the use of sustainable transport modes insofar as reasonable and practicable. We will:
1. Comply with the NHDC Transport Strategy and the provisions of the Local Transport Plan and other supporting documents as relevant and considered necessary;
2. Encourage development in locations which enable sustainable journeys to be made to key services and facilities;
And yet NHDC have decided to add MORE houses to site WY1, which contradicts their own policy above.

Flood Risk:

Little Wymondley Village has suffered regular flooding incidents for more than a century as recorded by the McCloys report on behalf of the Hertfordshire County Council in 2015 following the severe flood event of 2014. There are 82 homes that will likely be affected and many residents along Stevenage Road, Little Wymondley, pay considerably high insurance premiums as a result of these regular events. Site plans emerging for the development of WY1 show a number of "lagoons" to collect surface water and these are sited higher than Stevenage Road with the potential to flood the homes below. No method to distribute the collected water elsewhere, or to drain it away from the lagoons, is stated within the developer's proposal. As the development at WY1 is proposed to be on higher ground than the existing Village, it will clearly contribute to increase flooding events for the existing residents.

The proposed and ONLY road to and from the proposed development at WY1 emerges in the worst flood zone within the Village. This area is detailed in the McCloys report and referred to regularly by the Environment Agency in other similarly located planning applications as a major flood zone.

Further, in assessing flood risk in HOU1 (Nov 2014), NHDC state:

4.65 These three sites [site 121 - now known as WY1] have a combined estimated capacity of 439 new homes. Removing these sites from consideration would not, by itself, prejudice the Council's ability to meet its Objectively Assessed Needs and it is therefore considered highly unlikely that these sites would be required. All three sites are within the Stevenage HMA and in the Green Belt.

Which does beg the question, why are NHDC pursuing this site when there are so many serious issues with it and it is not a large site in view of the total housing level required?

Education:

Little Wymondley currently has a primary school that holds an "outstanding" Ofsted capability. The increased size of Little Wymondley will require an increased FE size provision and a new site is offered by the proposed WY1 development. The proposed site at the south side of the proposed new development will place pupils and teaching staff, close to contaminated land, the known effects of overhead electricity pylons and alongside an illegal Air Quality area. As a consequence of the need for this provision, we request that the Schooling provision and its eventual site is decided upon BEFORE any permission is provided for a development in WY1.

Due to all the reasons given above, I believe that the NHDC Emerging Local Plan and Main modifications are not sound, or justified.

Green Belt and "exceptional circumstances": Main Modification 023 (Policy SP5)

The Green Belt review update 2018 provides further confirmation that the area surrounding Little Wymondley, including the proposed development site WY1, makes a significant contribution to the Green Belt, yet the Main Modifications and Emerging Local Plan fails to explain the "exceptional circumstances" or "very special circumstances" that justify it's removal from the Green Belt. The only justification NHDC have given is that the site is available and that there is a need to build houses in their jurisdiction. The NPPF 2012 against which this NHDC Plan is being tested clearly states that housing need alone does not justify removing land from Green Belt. It is unrealistic that a Green Belt Review can in effect be in entirely re-written yet still arrive at exactly the same conclusion without modification of the Green Belt boundaries proposed for change.

Indeed in their supporting document for the Green Belt Review, HOU1 (Housing and Green Belt Background Paper, including the Housing and Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper, November 2014), NHDC state:

"The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) advises as follows:
If it is necessary to prevent development in a village primarily because of the important contribution which the open character of the village makes to the openness of the Green Belt, the village should be included in the Green Belt. "

This is partly why the village of Little Wymondley was excluded from development in the NHDC Local Plan 1996 and in the saved policies (2007) from this plan.

The modifications to the plan also extend the physical site size of WY1, as a result of a developer's request to build up to a geographical brow. This contour is not a natural physical element of the site, but manmade from the distribution of soil excavated from the bypass construction, which, I believe, may contain contaminated materials unrecorded from the early 20th century.

Additionally, the ONS household formation figures released recently indicate that NHDC have overestimated the number of houses needing to be built in their jurisdiction.

Brownfield sites in the district also seem to have not yet been exhausted, and it is my belief that these should be used in priority over Green Belt land.

Openness (Green Belt/Green Spaces): MM023

The NHDC main modifications to the plan reduces the openness of the area as a result of further extension, and does not take account of the sight-lines from the listed buildings identified in a land assessment survey conducted by NHDC, which is why the original site was considerably reduced in size initially. There has been no practical suggestion as to why the extension has now been permitted.

The NPPF 2012 states in Paragraph 97 (b) that "the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location;" - NHDC's plan and Main Modifications have no compensatory equivalent open space in the locality of Wymondley Parish, or the surrounding areas.

When looked at as a whole for this locality, NHDC's proposals for site WY1 (Little Wymondley), NS1 (1,700 dwellings near Graveley) and Stevenage Borough Council's proposals in their Local Plan for sites HO3 (abutting Graveley), EC1/4 & EC1/7 (industrial estates on the land adjacent to the A1(M) Junction 8 and on Little Wymondley village boundary at Chantry Lane), plus the additional live planning application (Application No 19/00123/FPM) for 133 dwellings on the land to west of A1(M) and south of Stevenage Road (Todds Green) (formerly part of the Wymondley Parish, until NHDC removed this when the parish applied for it's neighbourhood plan area), the rural character of the entire area around Wymondley Parish will be completely eroded, destroying the villages and creating an urbanised area - this is exactly the situation that the Green Belt protection was originally designed to prevent (urban sprawl).

Infrastructure/Traffic & Air Quality Issues:

The cumulative effects of all the above listed sites will also add unsustainable and unacceptable additional traffic movements in and around the parish of Wymondley. This added to the existing congestion issues, particularly around Junction 8 of the A1(M), and throughout the road network in the parish, will exacerbate existing air quality/pollution issues. Plus, the proposed expansion of London Luton Airport (work is proposed to start on a second terminal in mid-2020) from 18 million to 32 million passengers, will also lead to increased traffic from the A1(M) Junction 8 onto the A602 as a main route to the airport and increased air pollution.

Despite the Main Modification 119, Policy T1 of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan stating:
"planning permission will be granted provided that:
a. development would not lead to highway safety problems or cause unacceptable impacts upon the highway network and safety;
b. mechanisms to secure any necessary sustainable transport measures and / or improvements to the existing highway network are secured in accordance with Policy SP7 (SP7: The Council will require development proposals to make provision for infrastructure that is necessary in order to accommodate additional demands resulting from the development.)"
- no such consideration appears to have been applied in NHDC's allocation of sites for housing development in the Wymondley Parish area and its immediate neighbours.
Further, Main Modification 369 states: "Some minor roads leading to and from the villages within Wymondley parish may require other traffic management measures which will also need to be investigated and will be reflected in future iterations of the Infrastructure Development Plan. Mitigation could include environmental improvements to the village centre. The mitigation of these issues will be part of the wider package of measures identified through the wider consideration of network issues concerning A1(M) J8 and alternate routeings to this."

It is unacceptable to plan for these major developments now (WY1, NS1, HO3 etc.) without a robust infrastructure plan in place to accompany these and mitigate adverse impacts on air quality and climate change. It is also potentially dangerous to health, particularly to children. In SP7, MM033, it is suggested that people should "change their behaviour" and walk or cycle instead of using their cars - this is an unrealistic expectation, altruistic at best and is unreasonable, especially re: site WY1 where the resident's homes are some 4 miles from any town centre. It is certainly unreasonable to expect people to walk 4 miles to train stations to start their commutes to London (for whom the majority of these houses are seemingly being built), particularly in inclement weather.

NHDC's lack of infrastructure plan would appear out of touch with the core planning guidance on "sustainable development" as defined by the NPPF 2012 and Government Planning Guidance. Indeed, NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy SP1, paragraph 4.1 reflects the legal definitions sustainable development as "improving our lives today while not comprising our ability to do so in the future". SP1 also states that they grant planning permission for proposals that, individually or cumulatively: "provide the necessary infrastructure required to support an increasing population" and "secure any necessary mitigation measures necessary that reduce the impact of development, including on climate change".

The current Emerging Local Plan, Main Modifications and other neighbouring authorities' plans affecting the immediate locality of Wymondley Parish, are completely at odds with Policy SP1 for the reasons stated earlier. Put quite simply, humans need to breath clean air, and increasing vehicular movements, in an area where there is existing heavy traffic congestion and air pollution issues, cannot possibly be seen as "improving our lives today" or in the future. Breathing dangerously toxic air in the place that you live or work over a period of time shortens life expectancy as evidenced by Public Health England.

In the Main Modifications of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy 7 includes a requirement

"for developers to include infrastructure plans for developments to address cumulative impacts that might arise across multiple developments and to avoid placing unreasonable additional burdens on the existing community or existing infrastructure"

- however, no such infrastructure plans have accompanied any plans for site WY1, or any other plans in the locality, suggesting that no developer has a plan, and it would appear NHDC also do not have a plan.

Total additional traffic from the combined sites could total more than 5,000 additional vehicles (or 10,000+ vehicle movements on a daily basis) in an area where the A1(M) and A602 are already at a standstill during peak commuting times. More standing traffic, standing for longer, will obviously increase air pollution levels - levels which are already in excess of the WHO and EU safe legal limits.

On the Bovis Homes plan for site WY1, the pedestrian and cycle access point in the private lane alongside the listed "Croft" dwelling is an agreed vehicular access to Ashwater House and the Lane incorporates a blind bend making it totally inadequate for the purpose suggested. Consequently the new residents of the WY1 development will find great difficulty with accessing sustainable transport links in the village or their own homes on the occasion of flooding.

OBJECTION TO: Change of Categorisation of Village: (Main Modification 010 & MM012)

The main modification 010 (SP02) now lists the village of Little Wymondley as a 'Growth Village' to disassociate it from a category A village, yet no public consultation has taken place in relation to this concept and the public are generally unaware that there are now five villages within the Local Plan that are destined to lose their 'Village' status. Nor has NHDC provided any justification for stating that Little Wymondley is now a village that "can support growth". There was no explanation during the NHDC local Plan Examination in Public. The examiner remarked that the local plan seemed unfair that some Category A villages were being expected to have a high level of growth (for Little Wymondley, this growth is 88%), while others had none. Instead of NHDC reviewing this unfairness, and re-distributing house allocations fairly and evenly, they have simply attempted to resolve this issue but changing the classification of 5 villages to "Growth villages" with little regard as to whether these villages could realistically contribute towards "sustainable" growth (i.e. the harm caused by the development does not outweigh the benefits of the development).

The Examination in Public (EiP) of NHDC's Local Plan provided a Memorandum of Understanding from NHDC with Bovis Homes to develop site WY1, despite the landowner confirming that it is now unlikely that Bovis Homes would be the final developer. Therefore deliverability of a readily available site is entirely questionable.
Air Quality:

The EiP introduced a heavily modified report stating, "planning permission would be refused in areas of poor Air Quality". It is assumed that this refers to Air Quality pollutant levels close to or exceeding the EU maximum allowable. At the EiP the QC representing the NHDC stated that the presence of an Air Quality Monitoring Area was recognised "which is why developments are being considered away from these areas". Recent monitoring results of the WY1 site area abutting the A602 carried out by the Wymondley Neighbourhood Plan Committee in co-ordination with Friends of the Earth, has established consistent readings following the correct DEFRA process and independently tested. These readings exceed the EU maximum allowable levels of air pollutants.

We welcome Main Modification 153 - Air Quality:
"The following are types of developments for which the Council would expect the submission of an air quality impact assessment: ...
- Anywhere else in the District, applications that are considered to be 'major' in scale for example: significantly increase vehicle movements, particularly heavy duty vehicles; . . .
- Or that: introduce humans to an area where air pollution is an issue, but where humans were previously not present."

However, this policy seems to have been ignored in large parts throughout the plan, especially in light of Main Modification 010 to Policy SP2 whereby Little Wymondley has been re-categorised as a "Growth Village" - the consideration of Main Modification 153 has not been applied to site WY1.
It also worth noting that the Transport Strategy of October 2017, written by Markides Associates Ltd (MA) on behalf of North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) to support the emerging Local Plan recognises there are severe issues:

"These historic towns and links to/from them [sic. roads through the villages] suffer from traffic congestion and some air quality problems. Their 'environmental capacity' to accommodate further traffic growth without detrimentally affecting the high quality of the local environment is limited, and a starting point should be managing traffic growth and avoiding significant increases in traffic through the towns where possible."
In the same report, it also acknowledged that the NHDC Local Plan will indeed increase traffic volume through the Parish of Wymondley. Section 3.44 of the same report also recognises that the roads in Wymondley Parish are "unsuitable" for volumes of traffic:
"Use of unsuitable roads by through traffic
3.44 As with most urban areas, there is some evidence that motorists are using unsuitable roads to avoid delays on congested routes. There are many locations where traffic volumes are probably unsuitable for the nature of the road, but the more 'strategic' routes noted in the modelling include:
* Routes through Great Wymondley, by which traffic can bypass delays on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage;
* The B197 through Graveley between Letchworth and Stevenage;
* Willow Lane in Hitchin, which can be used by east/west traffic to bypass delays on the A505/A602 route; and
* Stevenage Road [sic. in Little Wymondley], which can be used to bypass congestion on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage."
Despite their own Transport Strategy document highlighting the unsustainability of Wymondley Parish in terms of air quality and transport, NHDC are still including site WY1 in their emerging Local Plan and stating they will address the infrastructure issues "later" - this is simply unacceptable when the adverse impacts on people's life expectancy is so severe.

MM028 (policy SP6 "Sustainable Transport") states:
"We will deliver accessibility improvements and promote the use of sustainable transport modes insofar as reasonable and practicable. We will:
1. Comply with the NHDC Transport Strategy and the provisions of the Local Transport Plan and other supporting documents as relevant and considered necessary;
2. Encourage development in locations which enable sustainable journeys to be made to key services and facilities;
And yet NHDC have decided to add MORE houses to site WY1, which contradicts their own policy above.

Flood Risk:

Little Wymondley Village has suffered regular flooding incidents for more than a century as recorded by the McCloys report on behalf of the Hertfordshire County Council in 2015 following the severe flood event of 2014. There are 82 homes that will likely be affected and many residents along Stevenage Road, Little Wymondley, pay considerably high insurance premiums as a result of these regular events. Site plans emerging for the development of WY1 show a number of "lagoons" to collect surface water and these are sited higher than Stevenage Road with the potential to flood the homes below. No method to distribute the collected water elsewhere, or to drain it away from the lagoons, is stated within the developer's proposal. As the development at WY1 is proposed to be on higher ground than the existing Village, it will clearly contribute to increase flooding events for the existing residents.

The proposed and ONLY road to and from the proposed development at WY1 emerges in the worst flood zone within the Village. This area is detailed in the McCloys report and referred to regularly by the Environment Agency in other similarly located planning applications as a major flood zone.

Further, in assessing flood risk in HOU1 (Nov 2014), NHDC state:

4.65 These three sites [site 121 - now known as WY1] have a combined estimated capacity of 439 new homes. Removing these sites from consideration would not, by itself, prejudice the Council's ability to meet its Objectively Assessed Needs and it is therefore considered highly unlikely that these sites would be required. All three sites are within the Stevenage HMA and in the Green Belt.

Which does beg the question, why are NHDC pursuing this site when there are so many serious issues with it and it is not a large site in view of the total housing level required?

Education:

Little Wymondley currently has a primary school that holds an "outstanding" Ofsted capability. The increased size of Little Wymondley will require an increased FE size provision and a new site is offered by the proposed WY1 development. The proposed site at the south side of the proposed new development will place pupils and teaching staff, close to contaminated land, the known effects of overhead electricity pylons and alongside an illegal Air Quality area. As a consequence of the need for this provision, we request that the Schooling provision and its eventual site is decided upon BEFORE any permission is provided for a development in WY1.

Due to all the reasons given above, I believe that the NHDC Emerging Local Plan and Main modifications are not sound, or justified.

Green Belt and "exceptional circumstances": Main Modification 023 (Policy SP5)

The Green Belt review update 2018 provides further confirmation that the area surrounding Little Wymondley, including the proposed development site WY1, makes a significant contribution to the Green Belt, yet the Main Modifications and Emerging Local Plan fails to explain the "exceptional circumstances" or "very special circumstances" that justify it's removal from the Green Belt. The only justification NHDC have given is that the site is available and that there is a need to build houses in their jurisdiction. The NPPF 2012 against which this NHDC Plan is being tested clearly states that housing need alone does not justify removing land from Green Belt. It is unrealistic that a Green Belt Review can in effect be in entirely re-written yet still arrive at exactly the same conclusion without modification of the Green Belt boundaries proposed for change.

Indeed in their supporting document for the Green Belt Review, HOU1 (Housing and Green Belt Background Paper, including the Housing and Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper, November 2014), NHDC state:

"The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) advises as follows:
If it is necessary to prevent development in a village primarily because of the important contribution which the open character of the village makes to the openness of the Green Belt, the village should be included in the Green Belt. "

This is partly why the village of Little Wymondley was excluded from development in the NHDC Local Plan 1996 and in the saved policies (2007) from this plan.

The modifications to the plan also extend the physical site size of WY1, as a result of a developer's request to build up to a geographical brow. This contour is not a natural physical element of the site, but manmade from the distribution of soil excavated from the bypass construction, which, I believe, may contain contaminated materials unrecorded from the early 20th century.

Additionally, the ONS household formation figures released recently indicate that NHDC have overestimated the number of houses needing to be built in their jurisdiction.

Brownfield sites in the district also seem to have not yet been exhausted, and it is my belief that these should be used in priority over Green Belt land.

Openness (Green Belt/Green Spaces): MM023

The NHDC main modifications to the plan reduces the openness of the area as a result of further extension, and does not take account of the sight-lines from the listed buildings identified in a land assessment survey conducted by NHDC, which is why the original site was considerably reduced in size initially. There has been no practical suggestion as to why the extension has now been permitted.

The NPPF 2012 states in Paragraph 97 (b) that "the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location;" - NHDC's plan and Main Modifications have no compensatory equivalent open space in the locality of Wymondley Parish, or the surrounding areas.

When looked at as a whole for this locality, NHDC's proposals for site WY1 (Little Wymondley), NS1 (1,700 dwellings near Graveley) and Stevenage Borough Council's proposals in their Local Plan for sites HO3 (abutting Graveley), EC1/4 & EC1/7 (industrial estates on the land adjacent to the A1(M) Junction 8 and on Little Wymondley village boundary at Chantry Lane), plus the additional live planning application (Application No 19/00123/FPM) for 133 dwellings on the land to west of A1(M) and south of Stevenage Road (Todds Green) (formerly part of the Wymondley Parish, until NHDC removed this when the parish applied for it's neighbourhood plan area), the rural character of the entire area around Wymondley Parish will be completely eroded, destroying the villages and creating an urbanised area - this is exactly the situation that the Green Belt protection was originally designed to prevent (urban sprawl).

Infrastructure/Traffic & Air Quality Issues:

The cumulative effects of all the above listed sites will also add unsustainable and unacceptable additional traffic movements in and around the parish of Wymondley. This added to the existing congestion issues, particularly around Junction 8 of the A1(M), and throughout the road network in the parish, will exacerbate existing air quality/pollution issues. Plus, the proposed expansion of London Luton Airport (work is proposed to start on a second terminal in mid-2020) from 18 million to 32 million passengers, will also lead to increased traffic from the A1(M) Junction 8 onto the A602 as a main route to the airport and increased air pollution.

Despite the Main Modification 119, Policy T1 of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan stating:
"planning permission will be granted provided that:
a. development would not lead to highway safety problems or cause unacceptable impacts upon the highway network and safety;
b. mechanisms to secure any necessary sustainable transport measures and / or improvements to the existing highway network are secured in accordance with Policy SP7 (SP7: The Council will require development proposals to make provision for infrastructure that is necessary in order to accommodate additional demands resulting from the development.)"
- no such consideration appears to have been applied in NHDC's allocation of sites for housing development in the Wymondley Parish area and its immediate neighbours.
Further, Main Modification 369 states: "Some minor roads leading to and from the villages within Wymondley parish may require other traffic management measures which will also need to be investigated and will be reflected in future iterations of the Infrastructure Development Plan. Mitigation could include environmental improvements to the village centre. The mitigation of these issues will be part of the wider package of measures identified through the wider consideration of network issues concerning A1(M) J8 and alternate routeings to this."

It is unacceptable to plan for these major developments now (WY1, NS1, HO3 etc.) without a robust infrastructure plan in place to accompany these and mitigate adverse impacts on air quality and climate change. It is also potentially dangerous to health, particularly to children. In SP7, MM033, it is suggested that people should "change their behaviour" and walk or cycle instead of using their cars - this is an unrealistic expectation, altruistic at best and is unreasonable, especially re: site WY1 where the resident's homes are some 4 miles from any town centre. It is certainly unreasonable to expect people to walk 4 miles to train stations to start their commutes to London (for whom the majority of these houses are seemingly being built), particularly in inclement weather.

NHDC's lack of infrastructure plan would appear out of touch with the core planning guidance on "sustainable development" as defined by the NPPF 2012 and Government Planning Guidance. Indeed, NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy SP1, paragraph 4.1 reflects the legal definitions sustainable development as "improving our lives today while not comprising our ability to do so in the future". SP1 also states that they grant planning permission for proposals that, individually or cumulatively: "provide the necessary infrastructure required to support an increasing population" and "secure any necessary mitigation measures necessary that reduce the impact of development, including on climate change".

The current Emerging Local Plan, Main Modifications and other neighbouring authorities' plans affecting the immediate locality of Wymondley Parish, are completely at odds with Policy SP1 for the reasons stated earlier. Put quite simply, humans need to breath clean air, and increasing vehicular movements, in an area where there is existing heavy traffic congestion and air pollution issues, cannot possibly be seen as "improving our lives today" or in the future. Breathing dangerously toxic air in the place that you live or work over a period of time shortens life expectancy as evidenced by Public Health England.

In the Main Modifications of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy 7 includes a requirement

"for developers to include infrastructure plans for developments to address cumulative impacts that might arise across multiple developments and to avoid placing unreasonable additional burdens on the existing community or existing infrastructure"

- however, no such infrastructure plans have accompanied any plans for site WY1, or any other plans in the locality, suggesting that no developer has a plan, and it would appear NHDC also do not have a plan.

Total additional traffic from the combined sites could total more than 5,000 additional vehicles (or 10,000+ vehicle movements on a daily basis) in an area where the A1(M) and A602 are already at a standstill during peak commuting times. More standing traffic, standing for longer, will obviously increase air pollution levels - levels which are already in excess of the WHO and EU safe legal limits.

On the Bovis Homes plan for site WY1, the pedestrian and cycle access point in the private lane alongside the listed "Croft" dwelling is an agreed vehicular access to Ashwater House and the Lane incorporates a blind bend making it totally inadequate for the purpose suggested. Consequently the new residents of the WY1 development will find great difficulty with accessing sustainable transport links in the village or their own homes on the occasion of flooding.

OBJECTION TO: Change of Categorisation of Village: (Main Modification 010 & MM012)

The main modification 010 (SP02) now lists the village of Little Wymondley as a 'Growth Village' to disassociate it from a category A village, yet no public consultation has taken place in relation to this concept and the public are generally unaware that there are now five villages within the Local Plan that are destined to lose their 'Village' status. Nor has NHDC provided any justification for stating that Little Wymondley is now a village that "can support growth". There was no explanation during the NHDC local Plan Examination in Public. The examiner remarked that the local plan seemed unfair that some Category A villages were being expected to have a high level of growth (for Little Wymondley, this growth is 88%), while others had none. Instead of NHDC reviewing this unfairness, and re-distributing house allocations fairly and evenly, they have simply attempted to resolve this issue but changing the classification of 5 villages to "Growth villages" with little regard as to whether these villages could realistically contribute towards "sustainable" growth (i.e. the harm caused by the development does not outweigh the benefits of the development).

The Examination in Public (EiP) of NHDC's Local Plan provided a Memorandum of Understanding from NHDC with Bovis Homes to develop site WY1, despite the landowner confirming that it is now unlikely that Bovis Homes would be the final developer. Therefore deliverability of a readily available site is entirely questionable.
Air Quality:

The EiP introduced a heavily modified report stating, "planning permission would be refused in areas of poor Air Quality". It is assumed that this refers to Air Quality pollutant levels close to or exceeding the EU maximum allowable. At the EiP the QC representing the NHDC stated that the presence of an Air Quality Monitoring Area was recognised "which is why developments are being considered away from these areas". Recent monitoring results of the WY1 site area abutting the A602 carried out by the Wymondley Neighbourhood Plan Committee in co-ordination with Friends of the Earth, has established consistent readings following the correct DEFRA process and independently tested. These readings exceed the EU maximum allowable levels of air pollutants.

We welcome Main Modification 153 - Air Quality:
"The following are types of developments for which the Council would expect the submission of an air quality impact assessment: ...
- Anywhere else in the District, applications that are considered to be 'major' in scale for example: significantly increase vehicle movements, particularly heavy duty vehicles; . . .
- Or that: introduce humans to an area where air pollution is an issue, but where humans were previously not present."

However, this policy seems to have been ignored in large parts throughout the plan, especially in light of Main Modification 010 to Policy SP2 whereby Little Wymondley has been re-categorised as a "Growth Village" - the consideration of Main Modification 153 has not been applied to site WY1.
It also worth noting that the Transport Strategy of October 2017, written by Markides Associates Ltd (MA) on behalf of North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) to support the emerging Local Plan recognises there are severe issues:

"These historic towns and links to/from them [sic. roads through the villages] suffer from traffic congestion and some air quality problems. Their 'environmental capacity' to accommodate further traffic growth without detrimentally affecting the high quality of the local environment is limited, and a starting point should be managing traffic growth and avoiding significant increases in traffic through the towns where possible."
In the same report, it also acknowledged that the NHDC Local Plan will indeed increase traffic volume through the Parish of Wymondley. Section 3.44 of the same report also recognises that the roads in Wymondley Parish are "unsuitable" for volumes of traffic:
"Use of unsuitable roads by through traffic
3.44 As with most urban areas, there is some evidence that motorists are using unsuitable roads to avoid delays on congested routes. There are many locations where traffic volumes are probably unsuitable for the nature of the road, but the more 'strategic' routes noted in the modelling include:
* Routes through Great Wymondley, by which traffic can bypass delays on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage;
* The B197 through Graveley between Letchworth and Stevenage;
* Willow Lane in Hitchin, which can be used by east/west traffic to bypass delays on the A505/A602 route; and
* Stevenage Road [sic. in Little Wymondley], which can be used to bypass congestion on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage."
Despite their own Transport Strategy document highlighting the unsustainability of Wymondley Parish in terms of air quality and transport, NHDC are still including site WY1 in their emerging Local Plan and stating they will address the infrastructure issues "later" - this is simply unacceptable when the adverse impacts on people's life expectancy is so severe.

MM028 (policy SP6 "Sustainable Transport") states:
"We will deliver accessibility improvements and promote the use of sustainable transport modes insofar as reasonable and practicable. We will:
1. Comply with the NHDC Transport Strategy and the provisions of the Local Transport Plan and other supporting documents as relevant and considered necessary;
2. Encourage development in locations which enable sustainable journeys to be made to key services and facilities;
And yet NHDC have decided to add MORE houses to site WY1, which contradicts their own policy above.

Flood Risk:

Little Wymondley Village has suffered regular flooding incidents for more than a century as recorded by the McCloys report on behalf of the Hertfordshire County Council in 2015 following the severe flood event of 2014. There are 82 homes that will likely be affected and many residents along Stevenage Road, Little Wymondley, pay considerably high insurance premiums as a result of these regular events. Site plans emerging for the development of WY1 show a number of "lagoons" to collect surface water and these are sited higher than Stevenage Road with the potential to flood the homes below. No method to distribute the collected water elsewhere, or to drain it away from the lagoons, is stated within the developer's proposal. As the development at WY1 is proposed to be on higher ground than the existing Village, it will clearly contribute to increase flooding events for the existing residents.

The proposed and ONLY road to and from the proposed development at WY1 emerges in the worst flood zone within the Village. This area is detailed in the McCloys report and referred to regularly by the Environment Agency in other similarly located planning applications as a major flood zone.

Further, in assessing flood risk in HOU1 (Nov 2014), NHDC state:

4.65 These three sites [site 121 - now known as WY1] have a combined estimated capacity of 439 new homes. Removing these sites from consideration would not, by itself, prejudice the Council's ability to meet its Objectively Assessed Needs and it is therefore considered highly unlikely that these sites would be required. All three sites are within the Stevenage HMA and in the Green Belt.

Which does beg the question, why are NHDC pursuing this site when there are so many serious issues with it and it is not a large site in view of the total housing level required?

Education:

Little Wymondley currently has a primary school that holds an "outstanding" Ofsted capability. The increased size of Little Wymondley will require an increased FE size provision and a new site is offered by the proposed WY1 development. The proposed site at the south side of the proposed new development will place pupils and teaching staff, close to contaminated land, the known effects of overhead electricity pylons and alongside an illegal Air Quality area. As a consequence of the need for this provision, we request that the Schooling provision and its eventual site is decided upon BEFORE any permission is provided for a development in WY1.

Due to all the reasons given above, I believe that the NHDC Emerging Local Plan and Main modifications are not sound, or justified.

Green Belt and "exceptional circumstances": Main Modification 023 (Policy SP5)

The Green Belt review update 2018 provides further confirmation that the area surrounding Little Wymondley, including the proposed development site WY1, makes a significant contribution to the Green Belt, yet the Main Modifications and Emerging Local Plan fails to explain the "exceptional circumstances" or "very special circumstances" that justify it's removal from the Green Belt. The only justification NHDC have given is that the site is available and that there is a need to build houses in their jurisdiction. The NPPF 2012 against which this NHDC Plan is being tested clearly states that housing need alone does not justify removing land from Green Belt. It is unrealistic that a Green Belt Review can in effect be in entirely re-written yet still arrive at exactly the same conclusion without modification of the Green Belt boundaries proposed for change.

Indeed in their supporting document for the Green Belt Review, HOU1 (Housing and Green Belt Background Paper, including the Housing and Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper, November 2014), NHDC state:

"The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) advises as follows:
If it is necessary to prevent development in a village primarily because of the important contribution which the open character of the village makes to the openness of the Green Belt, the village should be included in the Green Belt. "

This is partly why the village of Little Wymondley was excluded from development in the NHDC Local Plan 1996 and in the saved policies (2007) from this plan.

The modifications to the plan also extend the physical site size of WY1, as a result of a developer's request to build up to a geographical brow. This contour is not a natural physical element of the site, but manmade from the distribution of soil excavated from the bypass construction, which, I believe, may contain contaminated materials unrecorded from the early 20th century.

Additionally, the ONS household formation figures released recently indicate that NHDC have overestimated the number of houses needing to be built in their jurisdiction.

Brownfield sites in the district also seem to have not yet been exhausted, and it is my belief that these should be used in priority over Green Belt land.

Openness (Green Belt/Green Spaces): MM023

The NHDC main modifications to the plan reduces the openness of the area as a result of further extension, and does not take account of the sight-lines from the listed buildings identified in a land assessment survey conducted by NHDC, which is why the original site was considerably reduced in size initially. There has been no practical suggestion as to why the extension has now been permitted.

The NPPF 2012 states in Paragraph 97 (b) that "the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location;" - NHDC's plan and Main Modifications have no compensatory equivalent open space in the locality of Wymondley Parish, or the surrounding areas.

When looked at as a whole for this locality, NHDC's proposals for site WY1 (Little Wymondley), NS1 (1,700 dwellings near Graveley) and Stevenage Borough Council's proposals in their Local Plan for sites HO3 (abutting Graveley), EC1/4 & EC1/7 (industrial estates on the land adjacent to the A1(M) Junction 8 and on Little Wymondley village boundary at Chantry Lane), plus the additional live planning application (Application No 19/00123/FPM) for 133 dwellings on the land to west of A1(M) and south of Stevenage Road (Todds Green) (formerly part of the Wymondley Parish, until NHDC removed this when the parish applied for it's neighbourhood plan area), the rural character of the entire area around Wymondley Parish will be completely eroded, destroying the villages and creating an urbanised area - this is exactly the situation that the Green Belt protection was originally designed to prevent (urban sprawl).

Infrastructure/Traffic & Air Quality Issues:

The cumulative effects of all the above listed sites will also add unsustainable and unacceptable additional traffic movements in and around the parish of Wymondley. This added to the existing congestion issues, particularly around Junction 8 of the A1(M), and throughout the road network in the parish, will exacerbate existing air quality/pollution issues. Plus, the proposed expansion of London Luton Airport (work is proposed to start on a second terminal in mid-2020) from 18 million to 32 million passengers, will also lead to increased traffic from the A1(M) Junction 8 onto the A602 as a main route to the airport and increased air pollution.

Despite the Main Modification 119, Policy T1 of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan stating:
"planning permission will be granted provided that:
a. development would not lead to highway safety problems or cause unacceptable impacts upon the highway network and safety;
b. mechanisms to secure any necessary sustainable transport measures and / or improvements to the existing highway network are secured in accordance with Policy SP7 (SP7: The Council will require development proposals to make provision for infrastructure that is necessary in order to accommodate additional demands resulting from the development.)"
- no such consideration appears to have been applied in NHDC's allocation of sites for housing development in the Wymondley Parish area and its immediate neighbours.
Further, Main Modification 369 states: "Some minor roads leading to and from the villages within Wymondley parish may require other traffic management measures which will also need to be investigated and will be reflected in future iterations of the Infrastructure Development Plan. Mitigation could include environmental improvements to the village centre. The mitigation of these issues will be part of the wider package of measures identified through the wider consideration of network issues concerning A1(M) J8 and alternate routeings to this."

It is unacceptable to plan for these major developments now (WY1, NS1, HO3 etc.) without a robust infrastructure plan in place to accompany these and mitigate adverse impacts on air quality and climate change. It is also potentially dangerous to health, particularly to children. In SP7, MM033, it is suggested that people should "change their behaviour" and walk or cycle instead of using their cars - this is an unrealistic expectation, altruistic at best and is unreasonable, especially re: site WY1 where the resident's homes are some 4 miles from any town centre. It is certainly unreasonable to expect people to walk 4 miles to train stations to start their commutes to London (for whom the majority of these houses are seemingly being built), particularly in inclement weather.

NHDC's lack of infrastructure plan would appear out of touch with the core planning guidance on "sustainable development" as defined by the NPPF 2012 and Government Planning Guidance. Indeed, NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy SP1, paragraph 4.1 reflects the legal definitions sustainable development as "improving our lives today while not comprising our ability to do so in the future". SP1 also states that they grant planning permission for proposals that, individually or cumulatively: "provide the necessary infrastructure required to support an increasing population" and "secure any necessary mitigation measures necessary that reduce the impact of development, including on climate change".

The current Emerging Local Plan, Main Modifications and other neighbouring authorities' plans affecting the immediate locality of Wymondley Parish, are completely at odds with Policy SP1 for the reasons stated earlier. Put quite simply, humans need to breath clean air, and increasing vehicular movements, in an area where there is existing heavy traffic congestion and air pollution issues, cannot possibly be seen as "improving our lives today" or in the future. Breathing dangerously toxic air in the place that you live or work over a period of time shortens life expectancy as evidenced by Public Health England.

In the Main Modifications of NHDC's Emerging Local Plan Strategic Policy 7 includes a requirement

"for developers to include infrastructure plans for developments to address cumulative impacts that might arise across multiple developments and to avoid placing unreasonable additional burdens on the existing community or existing infrastructure"

- however, no such infrastructure plans have accompanied any plans for site WY1, or any other plans in the locality, suggesting that no developer has a plan, and it would appear NHDC also do not have a plan.

Total additional traffic from the combined sites could total more than 5,000 additional vehicles (or 10,000+ vehicle movements on a daily basis) in an area where the A1(M) and A602 are already at a standstill during peak commuting times. More standing traffic, standing for longer, will obviously increase air pollution levels - levels which are already in excess of the WHO and EU safe legal limits.

On the Bovis Homes plan for site WY1, the pedestrian and cycle access point in the private lane alongside the listed "Croft" dwelling is an agreed vehicular access to Ashwater House and the Lane incorporates a blind bend making it totally inadequate for the purpose suggested. Consequently the new residents of the WY1 development will find great difficulty with accessing sustainable transport links in the village or their own homes on the occasion of flooding.

OBJECTION TO: Change of Categorisation of Village: (Main Modification 010 & MM012)

The main modification 010 (SP02) now lists the village of Little Wymondley as a 'Growth Village' to disassociate it from a category A village, yet no public consultation has taken place in relation to this concept and the public are generally unaware that there are now five villages within the Local Plan that are destined to lose their 'Village' status. Nor has NHDC provided any justification for stating that Little Wymondley is now a village that "can support growth". There was no explanation during the NHDC local Plan Examination in Public. The examiner remarked that the local plan seemed unfair that some Category A villages were being expected to have a high level of growth (for Little Wymondley, this growth is 88%), while others had none. Instead of NHDC reviewing this unfairness, and re-distributing house allocations fairly and evenly, they have simply attempted to resolve this issue but changing the classification of 5 villages to "Growth villages" with little regard as to whether these villages could realistically contribute towards "sustainable" growth (i.e. the harm caused by the development does not outweigh the benefits of the development).

The Examination in Public (EiP) of NHDC's Local Plan provided a Memorandum of Understanding from NHDC with Bovis Homes to develop site WY1, despite the landowner confirming that it is now unlikely that Bovis Homes would be the final developer. Therefore deliverability of a readily available site is entirely questionable.
Air Quality:

The EiP introduced a heavily modified report stating, "planning permission would be refused in areas of poor Air Quality". It is assumed that this refers to Air Quality pollutant levels close to or exceeding the EU maximum allowable. At the EiP the QC representing the NHDC stated that the presence of an Air Quality Monitoring Area was recognised "which is why developments are being considered away from these areas". Recent monitoring results of the WY1 site area abutting the A602 carried out by the Wymondley Neighbourhood Plan Committee in co-ordination with Friends of the Earth, has established consistent readings following the correct DEFRA process and independently tested. These readings exceed the EU maximum allowable levels of air pollutants.

We welcome Main Modification 153 - Air Quality:
"The following are types of developments for which the Council would expect the submission of an air quality impact assessment: ...
- Anywhere else in the District, applications that are considered to be 'major' in scale for example: significantly increase vehicle movements, particularly heavy duty vehicles; . . .
- Or that: introduce humans to an area where air pollution is an issue, but where humans were previously not present."

However, this policy seems to have been ignored in large parts throughout the plan, especially in light of Main Modification 010 to Policy SP2 whereby Little Wymondley has been re-categorised as a "Growth Village" - the consideration of Main Modification 153 has not been applied to site WY1.
It also worth noting that the Transport Strategy of October 2017, written by Markides Associates Ltd (MA) on behalf of North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) to support the emerging Local Plan recognises there are severe issues:

"These historic towns and links to/from them [sic. roads through the villages] suffer from traffic congestion and some air quality problems. Their 'environmental capacity' to accommodate further traffic growth without detrimentally affecting the high quality of the local environment is limited, and a starting point should be managing traffic growth and avoiding significant increases in traffic through the towns where possible."
In the same report, it also acknowledged that the NHDC Local Plan will indeed increase traffic volume through the Parish of Wymondley. Section 3.44 of the same report also recognises that the roads in Wymondley Parish are "unsuitable" for volumes of traffic:
"Use of unsuitable roads by through traffic
3.44 As with most urban areas, there is some evidence that motorists are using unsuitable roads to avoid delays on congested routes. There are many locations where traffic volumes are probably unsuitable for the nature of the road, but the more 'strategic' routes noted in the modelling include:
* Routes through Great Wymondley, by which traffic can bypass delays on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage;
* The B197 through Graveley between Letchworth and Stevenage;
* Willow Lane in Hitchin, which can be used by east/west traffic to bypass delays on the A505/A602 route; and
* Stevenage Road [sic. in Little Wymondley], which can be used to bypass congestion on the A602 between Hitchin and Stevenage."
Despite their own Transport Strategy document highlighting the unsustainability of Wymondley Parish in terms of air quality and transport, NHDC are still including site WY1 in their emerging Local Plan and stating they will address the infrastructure issues "later" - this is simply unacceptable when the adverse impacts on people's life expectancy is so severe.

MM028 (policy SP6 "Sustainable Transport") states:
"We will deliver accessibility improvements and promote the use of sustainable transport modes insofar as reasonable and practicable. We will:
1. Comply with the NHDC Transport Strategy and the provisions of the Local Transport Plan and other supporting documents as relevant and considered necessary;
2. Encourage development in locations which enable sustainable journeys to be made to key services and facilities;
And yet NHDC have decided to add MORE houses to site WY1, which contradicts their own policy above.

Flood Risk:

Little Wymondley Village has suffered regular flooding incidents for more than a century as recorded by the McCloys report on behalf of the Hertfordshire County Council in 2015 following the severe flood event of 2014. There are 82 homes that will likely be affected and many residents along Stevenage Road, Little Wymondley, pay considerably high insurance premiums as a result of these regular events. Site plans emerging for the development of WY1 show a number of "lagoons" to collect surface water and these are sited higher than Stevenage Road with the potential to flood the homes below. No method to distribute the collected water elsewhere, or to drain it away from the lagoons, is stated within the developer's proposal. As the development at WY1 is proposed to be on higher ground than the existing Village, it will clearly contribute to increase flooding events for the existing residents.

The proposed and ONLY road to and from the proposed development at WY1 emerges in the worst flood zone within the Village. This area is detailed in the McCloys report and referred to regularly by the Environment Agency in other similarly located planning applications as a major flood zone.

Further, in assessing flood risk in HOU1 (Nov 2014), NHDC state:

4.65 These three sites [site 121 - now known as WY1] have a combined estimated capacity of 439 new homes. Removing these sites from consideration would not, by itself, prejudice the Council's ability to meet its Objectively Assessed Needs and it is therefore considered highly unlikely that these sites would be required. All three sites are within the Stevenage HMA and in the Green Belt.

Which does beg the question, why are NHDC pursuing this site when there are so many serious issues with it and it is not a large site in view of the total housing level required?

Education:

Little Wymondley currently has a primary school that holds an "outstanding" Ofsted capability. The increased size of Little Wymondley will require an increased FE size provision and a new site is offered by the proposed WY1 development. The proposed site at the south side of the proposed new development will place pupils and teaching staff, close to contaminated land, the known effects of overhead electricity pylons and alongside an illegal Air Quality area. As a consequence of the need for this provision, we request that the Schooling provision and its eventual site is decided upon BEFORE any permission is provided for a development in WY1.

Due to all the reasons given above, I believe that the NHDC Emerging Local Plan and Main modifications are not sound, or justified.