Dear Helen,

Thank you for your email. I would like to make comment regarding the Highways report and would ask that my comments be forwarded to the Inspectors for their consideration. I believe that the proposed development at is totally unsustainable and having read the report by Highways England regarding the impact of this as well as nearby developments in the Outer South East area I am appaulled that it is still being considered! It reports that there will be significant volumes of traffic and considerable congestion caused on local and the strategic road network which is what I have mentioned in my previous letters regarding the SAP. I have lived in the conservation village of Aberford since 1993 and so know the village and surrounding area extremely well. We already suffer from a number of existing problems regarding traffic. Whenever there are accidents on the A1 , which are becoming very frequent, resulting in the A1 being blocked ,all traffic travels through the village along Main Street. My driveway is directly on to Main Street and I am unable to exit the driveway in either direction for hours. Last December it happened on four occasions and I’m sure this will continue to get worse without any development at Parlington. Whilst I appreciate that traffic must be diverted through the village it causes terrible pollution and inconvenience to those living in Aberford. The Main Street is an’ Emergency Vehicle relief road.’ We also suffer from ‘rat running’ through the village along Main Street, Cattle Lane and Lotherton Lane terribly at peak times. These are small ancient country lanes that were not intended or designed to provide for the present volumes of traffic. Many of the vehicles rat running are coming from Sherburn in and other North villages. We often have large tractors and large farm machinery travelling between the farms through the villages . At peak times traffic is queuing for long periods trying to exit Aberford at Hook Moor and at the A64 junction with Main Street. For people living in the village with children at either Tadcaster Grammar School or Academy it is a particular problem. We also suffer from people leaving cars early morning along Main Street as well as at the junction of A1 and A64,to car share into . There are significant problems at junction 47 M1 on evening times where traffic are queuing nightly to exit for Garforth and Lotherton on the hard shoulder and near side lane sometimes for a mile . Highways England are already aware of this issue and it will be made even worse by the new ELOR at junction 46. Please see attached photo. LCC have announced they are hoping to attract 100,000 visitors to with its new attractions. They can only get there by using junction 47 M1 or travelling through Barrick in Elmet, Aberford ,Garforth or from the villages in North Yorkshire area. Have these visitors been included in H E ‘s estimation! Have the additional house building in North Yorkshire area been taken into account as they will surely use all of the roads already under pressure before any building at Parlington. Long Lane between Barrick and Garforth is also subject to ‘rat running’ at peak times. It has narrow single track bridges as has Cattle Lane which is also subject to ‘rat running ‘. HE has commented on 1,000 vehicles per hour at peak times travelling through Garforth. Town end and Main Street already has terrible traffic issues which will be added to by the development’s in the OSE HMCA. This makes it even more unfathomable as to why Parlington should be included in the SAP when the ONE and OSE proposed developments are so close together. Aberford is mainly a car based settlement now and has a poor bus service. Parlington will be also car based and unlikely to have a bus service at all. The report does not appear to take into account of this and it will therefore be isolated. I am very concerned that LCC has had little time to consider the ramifications of H E report or if it even wants to consider them! How could they have fully considered it if the report has only been published early July and the statement of common ground only published on the 11 th July! !The report states that the mitigation has not been properly costed and is unfunded. How can LCC have a preferred mitigation option if they don’t know costs for each option! Any mitigation will merely reduce how horrendous the traffic situation will be in and around Aberford, Barrick,Scholes and Garforth. The measures do not provide full mitigation and I doubt if funding will even be available for what they propose. Unsustainable growth in traffic volumes will destroy Aberford and Barrick and cause terrible pollution of the area when Leeds council are promoting a clean air policy. Do the council even know what policy’s they have decided in relation to Green belt and pollution! The building proposal at Parlington is unsustainable! LCC proposed inclusion of a historic grade 2 listed estate of great historic interest into the SAP. It will render not only Parlington, but all of the surrounding settlements unsustainable. I truly despair of decisions that are being made that will destroy so much of this area ,for a ridiculous housing target. It will not provide houses that are needed. It will just play into the hands of the developers!

Yours Sincerely

Carole Sinclair