BASE HEADER

We strongly object to any development on hatton park. We object to new housing on land north of Birmingham Road - 5.21 ha developable area with a substantially reduced development capacity of 90 dwellings. We object to this proposed preference site 1. We will aim to give our reasons below. We will highlight how you might address these issues.

Please note that at the recent hatton parish meeting on 13 January, 100% of attendees rejected any housing development on hatton park. I encourage you to closely consider the points highlighted as to why residents objected.

Firstly, we have on many previous occasions, repeatedly written to you by email about our representation and strong objection to the new planned housing development on land adjacent to Birmingham road on Hatton Park. Despite our requests you are failed to confirm receipt or respond to my concerns. We would like to receive clearly communicated feedback on how my issues will be addressed.

A major objection for plans for new housing on Hatton Park is accessing directly onto Birmingham Road would cause even more havoc and significant congestion. This plan is ludicrous and clearly not researched, especially in terms of congestion at peak times in term time. The planned access is on a blind bend, shortly after a very busy petrol station and in front of residents housing on to he opposite of the road. Cars accelerate as they are approaching a 50 miles per hour limit (recently changed from 60 miles per hour) only 100 metres or so away from the intended access point onto Birmingham road. This is highly likely to cause serious road traffic accidents. You should be aware that residents are already concerned about the high load of traffic and heavy congestion on Birmingham Road. If traffic was intending to enter Birmingham Road and turn right from the intended planned housing, they would be waiting for a very long time during rush hour periods. It can take me over 30 minutes to get from Hatton Park to the end of the Birmingham Road (A46) at 8.15am. If traffic control measures were implemented, this would result in even longer cues of traffic in both directions on the Birmingham Road (plus greater air polution problems which will impact on our protected rural souroundings). This would create a huge problem for commuters getting to work, accessing schools and in cases of emergencies getting to local hospitals (which for me, is a very significant concern). It also needs to be considered how other similar plans in nearby smaller communities might impact on the congestion a on Birmingham road. If the plans in Hampton magna go ahead, this again will impact on the current congestion outlined above.

We also need to consider children and families who wish to cross Birmingham road. At present it is not advised during peak periods. Pedestrianised crossings are therefore likely to be needed to allow people to get to the shop at the petrol station or canal. Although safety is important, just a small delay on traffic would result in huge bottlenecks way up past the hatton arms and beyond. Tailbacks already result should a car stop traffic by waiting to turn right into the petrol station.

If there were plans to develop an alternative access via Ebrington Drive, this is simply not possible as traffic parks along this narrow road from neighbouring houses, this has resulted in it being a single lane road during almost all times in the day and night. Young children reside in this street and a massive increase in traffic along Ebrington Drive would significantly compromise their safety. Parking along this street would cause extreme difficulties for contractors and for any new residents. Please note the small plot of green land at the end of ebrington drive is used by children on the street to play and during the summer months, people residing in this area gather for social events on this land. This is a really important plot of land which should not be considered as a road to connect the new planned housing.

I strongly encourage you to retract this plan to build on the important green belt of land and focus on other larger scale housing developments in other areas. Please refer to our other considerations below.

We wanted to provide some general feedback on the plethora of information available related to the New Local Plan. Over recent years we have attended two planning meetings in Hampton Magna. We are aware of some of the issues that residents are concerned about. We will aim to outline the main issues below and also include our own personal thoughts. However, these are not exhaustive and we strongly encourage you to speak to your representatives, who attended all of your meetings, to get their feedback on issues that were raised.

We strongly object to the development of additional housing on land connected to Hatton Park. Please see below for a detailed explanation as to why we oppose this development at Hatton Park: a) Birmingham Road would not cope with the considerable congestion that this would cause and the dangers this would bring to drivers and padestrians; b) transport links are already stretched; c) it would have a significant impact and destroy our longstanding animals and wildlife that is established on this land; d) our local primary schools would not have capacity to cope with more children requesting places; e) impact on drainage; f) impact of current residents quality of life and psychological Wellbeing; and g) impact on child development through added pressure on early starts caused by transportation to schools. You would need to consider and implement changes in the education, transport, drainage infrastructure and maintain a greenbelt space for the wildlife already in place on this land for us to be happy with these plans.

Recent proposal by developers:
I have recently been informed about more details of the housing plans for the preference site 1. The plans are outrageous and go against the considerations outlined in the proposal related to respect for current residents along the side of Tidmington Drive and Combroke grove. There is a lack of open space and the houses are packed in allowing scope for further development at a later date. Please be aware that the local plan states that a "comprehensive masterplan will be required for this area to integrate the site with the existing settlement. Attention will also need to be paid to providing sufficient screening from existing residential properties and the area of ancient woodland to the north of the site." The proposed housing does nothing of the sort and takes no consideration of the points we highlight.

Evidence base
We are extremely concerned that the available documents are still not fully engaged in "evidence-based" consultation. Specifically, it is our concern that there are limitations in the methodology used to develop the Local Plan Preferred Options Consultation. This is an important foundation to any research, report and future recommendations. The consultation documents still lack transparency in terms of the employed methodology. We strongly encourage you to document how you plan to utilise the information gathered at meetings across the district. This is a valuable opportunity to gather qualitative evidence on people's acceptability, satisfaction and attitudes towards the plans. There has been a lot of frustration voiced at meetings related to the apparent failure to consider, appreciate, and operationalize people's views. There is a need to inform people how about how their views are going to be considered and synthesised to inform your decisions. For example, large scale questionnaires have been undertaken with residents by local parishes (Hatton Park and Hampton Magna) which provide valuable information. These state clearly that the majority of respondents strongly oppose any further development on sites connected to Hatton Park. People need to feel listened too. At the meetings in Hampton Magna we were assured that housing development would not take place in Hatton Park. I feel extremely disappointed that our voices and views were not taken on board. It is important to allow people to voice their opinions and acknowledge how they will be considered. You need to empower people. Your research will then be richer and more representative. At present it is not representative and lacks the rigour on which you are planning to make decisions.

We are extremely concerned about the generalizability of your 'research' / 'evidence base' to date. There are clear weaknesses in the rigour and robustness of your methodological approach and evidence base which need to be considered again. Asking experts/developers/planners their opinion is low quality evidence. How you synthesise the data already collected is crucial. If you have lots of meetings, obtain lots of response to the plans and don't individually consider each of the points raised then your data gathering is confounded and flawed - I am sorry to say, this appears to be the case.

Residents views about planned housing on land adjacent to Hatton Park:
From a personal point of view we need to express our upmost disapproval over expanding housing adjacent to Hatton Park on green belt land. There is considerable worry and upset among residents who live on Hatton Park and surrounding areas about potential increased housing on this site. This would significantly impact on their quality of life. These small communities are already overburden by through traffic (e.g. Birmingham Road) and schools are at capacity. Please work closely with parishes and residents before considering any expansion in these areas. I repeat you have not responded or acknowledged our previous highlighted concerns. Residents now feel helpless as you are not listening to the issues. Residents now feel that regardless of how much they object, the planning office will not listen to their objections, since they have been telling you the same issues and considerable concerns for the last two years.

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS:
Schools and early year care:
There needs to be greater focus on the impact on what more children residing on Hatton park will have on local schools. These schools will need to be expanded. Please be mindful of the plans for other housing in Hampton Magna which will also mean school places will be in greater competition. For example, as you are aware, Budbrooke Primary is at capacity and it takes children from Chase Meadow & Hatton Park. The Ferncumbe Primary School at Hatton is over capacity. How much expansion is needed? Further growth on Hatton Park would result in more children having to travel to schools outside the catchment area, resulting in greater pressure on families and impact on their quality of life. If you go ahead with development on Hatton Park you would force people to leave the area and take their businesses elsewhere due to the likely impact on commuting, links to the A40 and transport to schools. This would certainly be the case with my family. Children are already having to set off earlier and earlier to get to school on time - again this is likely to have an impact on their maturational development and quality of life. I cannot take this risk for my family.

Early-year care needs careful consideration at an affordable price. Already many nurseries are at capacity or in considerable demand. The costs are also unmanageable for many parents wanting to return to work after maternity leave. Added housing would place increased demand on these services. Schools would need to be extended, better transport to schools would need to be introduced and schools would need to be made aware of the fact that the children travelling for Hatton Park will need to be picked up by coaches much earlier that currently done, as it will take a lot longer to get to school. I hope the planners appreciate what this could mean for children's cognitive development caused by less sleep and sleep pattern disruption.

Respecting our green spaces and green belts:
The wildlife on the land occupying site 1 on hatton park outlined in the plan, needs to be respected and the natural habitats for our wildlife maintained. Housing on this planned site has resulted in considerable frustration and objection at meetings we have attended. Consult with residents please. Please note that Muntjac deers, bats, birds of prey, pheasants, and many small mammals reside on Hatton Park on this planned land. I can take pictures to prove this. You need to undertake a environment survey. I feel strongly about destroying their habitat. Protecting our natural flora and fauna is important. Adding just a small number of houses and introducing lighting and more cars, will have a high price on our wildlife (here and surrounding it) which will not be repairable. You need to ensure that you can guarantee that the above would not be damaged by any planned development. You also need to be mindful of the privacy of the current residents housing who would be adjacent to this planned housing. Building on greenbelt areas should only be done in exceptional circumstances - I do not believe the reasoning for expansion on this site is exceptional.

Transport:
As noted above, expanding our road networks is going to be important to deal with the increasing cars on our roads. Birmingham road is already heavily congested. People on the Hatton Park estate are being required to set off earlier and earlier to avoid the congestion which results every morning. We also need to consider the impact this will have on noise and air pollution for residents already residing in places of growth. There is no easy cheap solution to this issue. You are likely to need to spend alot of money to redevelop the road networks, introducing dual carriage ways, roundabouts, crossings - however, this would not be suitable in this quiet location.

Public Transport:
There needs to better public transport in areas of expansion. More regular bus services, in particular, to train stations and Universities are needed.

Parking:
More affordable parking in town centres and at train stations are urgently needed.

Drainage:
We are extremely concerned about how the current drainage system will cope with expansion on site 1 off Birmingham. The costs this could involve should not be overlooked. This small expansion could cause considerable problems. Caution is needed and careful mapping of the current foundations is essential. Please note flood water is common on Birmingham road at the planned entrance site.

Facilities on Hatton Park:
There is a lack of facilities to support an expansion on Hatton Park. There is only one shop and a shop at the local garage (across the busy Birmingham road). A GP surgery, nursery and another local school is urgently needed for residents on Hatton Park and surrounding area.

Employment:
Greater housing expansion requires more employment. Expansion in the health, retail and educational sector presents good opportunities.

Emergency services:
An increase in the population of the District will lead to an increased need for community policing and an increase in the number of local "incidents" to which the policing service will be required to respond. We need to make sure residents are protected from crime.

Healthcare:
Ensuring that GP surgeries and hospitals can cope with the housing expansion will be of upmost importance. GP surgeries are already struggling to cope.

To reiterate, we strongly object to the development of additional housing on land connected to Hatton Park for the reasons stated above. We do not feel you can adequately address our issues without considerable economic burden. The small housing benefits would be outweighed by the significant detrimental harm these plans would have on the current wildlife, quality of life of current residents are we therefore strongly encourage you to revisit this planned small scale development on Hatton Park. Please be mindful to our concerns.

We appreciate your careful consideration of these issues.