Testun llawn:
I wish to make comments on the new local plan, particularly having regard to Bishops Tachbook.
Data has already been gathered locally showing that the need for more housing in the village is small. However, the new local plan considers sites on the edge of the village proposing development on a much larger scale and while only one of these potential sites is suggested for preferred status, even that is for development on a scale beyond what is required. Such is the scale of the development outlined it could not be regarded as sustainable having regard to the present character of the village, its facilities and its infrastructure.
Bishops Tachbrook has only the infrastructure one expects to be associated with a small village .Even if one thinks just of the extra traffic generated by a development of the size proposed, roads in, around and through the village are inadequate for what would be required, quite apart from extra traffic then having to feed into already busy junctions on the Banbury Road, Chuch Hill and Harbury Lane.
The preferred site - option number 1 - is arable famland, a resource for which there is already national concern to ensure continued, sufficient, availability. Bishop Tachbrook's surrounding farmland is also one of the things helping to define the village's character and ambience. Turning any large areas of this farmland into housing would have an undeniably detrimental impact on the local landscape and would also place unrealistc demands on the village school, medical centre and parking facilities for the convenience store.
Three possible access points have been identified for the preferred site. Numbers 1 and 2 are both extremely unsuitable as they connect directly to the narrow Holt Avenue. The free flow of traffic along Holt Avenue is already seriously compromised because of substantial on-road parking. For the same reason it is even more hazardous for cyclists.
Further militating against the flow of traffic along Holt Avenue is that all but 3 properties have driveways or drop kerbs used regularly by residents to manoeuvre vehicles off or onto the road.
Within a few yards access point 1 feeds into a sharp 90 degree bend with driveways both on and adjacent to it.
Access point 2 has driveways on both sides and one corner of The Lees and there is only a short distance before The Lees joins Holt Avenue where it does so on the apex of another bend. At this bend traffic would confront vehicles travelling to and from the direction of access point 1 and from time to time, presumably, there would be traffic pausing on the bend to turn right off Holt Avenue and into access point 2.
On-road parking, which is exacerbated at school run times, and having its own driveways means the narrow Court Close is also poorly served to deal with any increase in traffic aiming to use Holt Avenue.
The Holt Avenue junction with Mallory Road is hazardous due to the speed of traffic in both directions along Mallory Road and the fact that visibility to the left is less than ideal. This particular issue is compounded by the excess speed of many vehicles approaching the junction along Mallory Road from the right. Visibility to the right is better but, as they approach from this direction and are close to leaving the village, drivers are even more inclined towards excessive speed. Coupled with the reduced left visibility already mentioned, this junction requires the highest level of caution at all times.