07/00102/OUT CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW WATERWAY ARM TOTALLING 6.5 KM IN LENGTH INCLUDING ROUTING THROUGH WILLEN LAKE, OVER THE RIVER OUZEL, CANALISATION OF BROUGHTON BROOK, WATERWAY TERMINUS AT EAGLE FARM NORTH AND PROVISION OF ASSOCIATED INFRASTRUCTURE INCLUDING BRIDGES, LOCKS, WEIRS AND STRUCTURAL LANDSCAPING (OUTLINE) AT Proposed Development At,, Newlands, Fox Milne,, Atterbury, Broughton, FOR British Waterways INTRODUCTION The application site lies to the east of Milton Keynes taking in land through Newlands, Fox Milne, Atterbury and Broughton. The 6.5 kilometre site comprises open areas of partly developed grid squares, the canalisation of part of Broughton Brook and partly within the Milton Keynes Eastern Expansion Area. The site is within both Milton Keyes Council and Milton Keynes Partnership Authority areas for the purpose of development control. Two applications have been submitted relating to the relevant areas. The applications will be reported to the respective Development Control Committees at the two authorities. The outline application is in support of a submission for a £25m lottery bid which was to be submitted at the end of May 2007. RELEVANT HISTORY AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT In 1995 the local community based Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway Trust was founded and made a short listed bid for millennium funding. The Trust members engaged British Waterways in further consideration of the Water Park project in 2000/2001. In 2001 a project partnership was formed which funded the first feasibility study. British Waterways and Trust volunteers together spent two years collecting community views through a wide variety of channels including consultations with parish councils and stakeholders on the route, a citizens jury in 2002, and a technical day in 2003. The consultations informed the deliberations over the route and the design of the waterway park. At the early stages route options included a route joining the Grand Union Canal at Fenny Stratford and a route passing to the north rather than south of Willen Lake. More recently (2004) various routes across the Broughton area and the EEA were considered. These alternatives can be characterised as passing through the EEA towards the north, the middle, or south of the residential areas. The route that was incorporated into the Eastern Expansion Area Development Framework in October 2005 was the most southerly option passing along the Broughton Brook. This consultation process has continued informing the detail of the route and locks and bridges. PROPOSAL The proposed waterway which is approximately 6.5 kilometres in length will vary in width from 9-15m. The actual depth is 1.5m although its position above or below existing ground level varies through the route. The waterway will branch off the Grand Union Canal by Campbell Park in Newlands and head east towards the M1. The waterway will initially run alongside and north of H6 Childs Way down 5 locks through a new culvert before crossing an area of open recreation land to join Willen Lake. A new green bridge is proposed to the edge of the lake to allow people to continue to walk around the lake without realising they were walking over a bridge. The waterway will run through the lake at the same level. A pontoon is currently proposed to separate the waterway from the remainder of the lake. At the eastern end of Willen Lake, the waterway will rise up via a double lock before crossing the River Ouzel on an aqueduct. For approx 100m the waterway will be above the existing ground level on a 2m high embankment. The waterway will run parallel with Childs Way to the south and commercial buildings to the north where it has a slightly amended route. It will then drop down below Tongwell Street and Childs Way via culverts. The waterway then enters Atterbury, skirting around the southern and eastern flank of the new Milton Keynes Hindu Association residential developments. Once leaving Atterbury the waterway will enter the Broughton Brook just north of the new cable stay bridge. The waterway will then run through the Broughton Brook for approximately 3km passing below the cable stay bridge and H7 extension rising through one lock before going below Kingston Bridge. The waterway will run east through Broughton Brook for a further 900m before rising back out of the brook through a lock before crossing a short section of floodplain and terminating at an open area at Eagle Farm North. Along this section the waterway will be fitted into the existing ground profile. The proposed works through the brook will involve increasing the width of the waterway in places from its existing 3-4m to a total width of 24m. This would include a 15-18m navigable channel with a 5m wide shallow vegetation shelf running along the south west bank. The application is accompanied by an Environmental Statement which covers topics on water resources, biodiversity, soils geology and contaminated land, landscape and visual, cultural heritage, socio-economic effects, traffic and accessibility, noise, air quality and climate change, interactive and cumulative effects, services and utilities. There is also a Flood Risk Assessment. MAIN ISSUES Impact on the landscape Water resources Ecology Socio economic and Loss of employment and local residents' concerns POLICY Adopted Milton Keynes Local Plan 2001-2011 S3 City Expansion Areas S12 Linear Parks S13 Areas Liable to Flooding D1 Impact of Development Proposals on Locality NE1 Nature Conservation Sites NE2 Protected Species NE3 Biodiversity and Geological Enhancement T1 Transport User Hierarchy T2 Access for those with Impaired Mobility T3 Pedestrians and Cyclists T4 Pedestrians and Cyclists T8 Rail and Canal Freight L1 Facilities Acceptable in the Parks System L2 Protection of Public Open Space and Existing Facilities E1 Protection of Existing Employment Land EA1 General Policies for Expansion Areas EA2 General Policies for Expansion Areas EA3 Eastern Expansion Area Site MK1 Government Guidance:- PPS1 Delivering Sustainable Development and General Principles PPS9 Biodiversity and Geological Conservation PPG13 Transport PPG15 Planning and the Historic Environment PPG17 Planning for Open Space, Sport and Recreation PPS25 Development and Flood Risk CONSULTATION AND REPRESENTATIONS The applicants presented an overview of the waterway project on the 20th March 2007 which members of the committees from MKC and MKP attended. The meeting was also available to the public. The evening meeting involved a short presentation and question and answer session. There was no debate on the merits of the proposal. Development Plans Manager indicates that the waterway is identified on the Local Plan Proposals Map within the Eastern Expansion Area. The rest of the route through the city is not identified because of a lack of route feasibility work at the time of preparing the proposals map. In more detail he comments:- Newlands Section The application would conform in principle to the leisure and recreation open space/ Linear Park designation of Newlands. In terms of the transport reservation the Waterway route itself is covered by Policy T13 and a transport reservation from Atterbury right through the Eastern Expansion Area. Therefore it is considered to be a use that would be acceptable in principle in a transport reservation. The main issues would be whether the transport reservation is required for any other transport scheme (advice required from Highways) or whether the use would have a detrimental impact on the Wildlife Corridor. Willen Lake Section In principle the application would conform to the leisure and recreation open space/ Linear Park designation of the area. However the council would need to be satisfied that the waterway did not have an adverse or significant impact on the Wildlife Corridor and the floodplain. Fox Milne Section The thin linear nature of the proposal and its location along the southern boundary of Fox Milne means that the proposal is unlikely to result in an unacceptable loss of employment land under criterion (iii) of E1. In terms of the transport reservation, the same considerations as for the Newlands section apply. Atterbury and Broughton Brook Section (to the A5130) The Local Plan Proposals Map route alignment through Atterbury and at the top end of Broughton Brook does contain some sharp bends. The alignment that is in the application eliminates these bends and illustrates an easier navigation (including a widening of the waterway at the point of aligning with Broughton Brook). As with the Fox Milne section, the majority of the Atterbury site stays intact for employment development. This part of the proposal will result in the loss of more employment land than at Fox Milne as it will isolate a small part of the allocation to the north of the waterway. However this is still likely to be insignificant in terms of Policy E1. The safeguarded route on the Local Plan itself cuts through part of the housing allocation, so this is potentially less significant. However clarification is required that this alignment does not conflict with development already permitted on this site. As with the Willen Lake section, the council needs to be satisfied that there are no significant adverse impacts on the floodplain or the Wildlife Corridor through the Broughton Brook area. The alignment of the waterway across development on the Broughton Gate site is not acceptable and clarification should be sought on why the Local Plan safeguarded route has not been followed at this point. Natural England originally objected to the application on the basis of a lack of ecological survey information. They advise that surveys and mitigation strategies should not be made a requirement of a planning condition or be undertaken after permission has been granted. On the 9th May Natural England withdrew their objection following further work from the applicant's agents. They state that they are now satisfied with the information relating to previous survey work and proposed additional survey work for protected species.