A509 Isham Bypass Regulation 3 - Planning Support Statement April 2011
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A509 Isham Bypass Regulation 3 - Planning Support Statement April 2011 A509 Isham Bypass Application No’s KE/05/790 and WP/05/584 Regulation 3 Planning Support Statement 1.0 Summery of Current Situation On 5th May 2006 Northamptonshire County Council were granted planning approval for the A509 Isham Bypass, and following a Public Inquiry in October 2007 the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) and the Side Roads Order (SRO) were confirmed in April 2008 by the Secretary of State. In January 2010 and March 2010 the tenders were issued and returned respectively, and the Major Schemes Business Case (MSBC) for full funding approval was programmed for issue in April 2010, but on advice from the Department for Transport (DfT) no MSBC‟s were being accepted prior to the Governments Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) In October 2010, the post CSR announcement by the DfT as part of their “Investment in Local Major Transport Schemes” document which included the A509 Isham Bypass in their “Pre-Qualification” pool. In early January 2011, the Authority to submitted the required Expression of Interest (EoI) for the scheme, and subsequently in early February 2011 the DfT issued an update to the Investment in Local Major Transport Schemes which confirmed that the A509 Isham Bypass would not receive funding in the current spending period between 2011 /12 and 2014/15 and therefore the delivery of this piece of infrastructure will be delayed until post 2015 at the earliest. A report to the Authorities Cabinet on 10th May 2011, will recommends that cabinet: reaffirms the Authorities position of the A509 Isham Bypass as a high priority scheme within the county and commit funding from the existing NCC capital allocations. agrees to the revised financial strategy for continuing support of the project show continued support for the A509 Isham Bypass through an extension in time of the schemes planning permission. The reason for making this Regulation 3 Application relates to that final point, as the Current Planning Approval will expire on 5th May 2011. 1.1 The Proposed Application The proposed application is requesting a 5 year Extension of time for Implementation, as part of Planning Condition 1- Time Limit of the original approval given in May 2006. The scope of the works relating to the A509 Isham Bypass has not changed since the original planning application made in July 2005, there are no proposals to alter the original route, alignment or scope of works. The changes to the layout of the scheme relate to the earthworks around the bridges and structures following the completion of the engineering design, and these minor changes have not affected the original “red line” boundary on the planning drawings. The latest drawings are included in Appendix A - Planning Condition 2 - Scope of Permission The Planning Approval dated 5th May 2006 set out a number of site specific planning conditions that must be discharged by the Planning Authority prior to the works commencing on site. Northamptonshire County Council Highways and Transportation Page 1 of 16 A509 Isham Bypass Regulation 3 - Planning Support Statement April 2011 department and their consultants have previously submitted information to the Planning Authority and have been working with them on the discharging of the Conditions, at present the Planning Authority have not issued their formal responses to the information provided. The current statues of the Planning Conditions are indicated in Appendix B 1.2 Ecological Surveys It is recognised that this request for an “Extension of time for Implementation” submission does not include an up to date report or addendum to the biodiversity section of the original Environmental Statement. In anticipation of a construction start in April 2009, a “Pre- Construction Ecological Survey Report” dated December 2008 was submitted to the Planning Authority. This report did not highlight any significant changes to the ecological characteristics to the study area, however it did update the mitigation requirements for protected species and breeding birds and in line with the requirements of the planning conditions and mitigation measures were due to be implemented prior to commencement. However, since the above report was published monitoring of the areas has continued, Unfortunately due to the timing of this submission and the recognised survey season time scales for various species, an up to date ecological report is not available at this time. The timescales for survey works are as follows Survey Recognised Survey Suggested timescales season Great Crested Newt presence / Mid march to Mid Mid April to mid may 2011 likely absence survey April Bat activity Survey May to September June to August 2011 Badger survey April to June 2011 Water vole and Otter survey April/May and August to September 2011 August/September White Claw Crayfish survey July - October July to October 2011 Reptile Survey April - October May and September 2011 Hedgerow surveys April to September May to September 2011 These surveys will be undertaken and an addendum to the original biodiversity section of the Environmental statement will be provided, the completion of the addendum is likely to be 6-8 weeks after the final survey being completed. Although early findings will be reported to the Planning Authority at the earliest opportunity, and the final report issued as soon as possible. 1.3 Updated information The main body of this document uses the original planning support statement dated July 2005 as the background, with any relevant information, comments or updates being added to sections 2 -7. Section 8 of this report – Measures to Lessen the effects of the scheme, has been updated to include comments and relevant information that has been submitted to the Planning Authority as part of the process to discharge the planning conditions. This information is included in a number of appendices at the end of this statement and will be available electronically. Page 2 of 16 A509 Isham Bypass Regulation 3 - Planning Support Statement April 2011 2.0 Scheme Objectives Northamptonshire County Council proposes to construct a bypass to the west of the village of Isham, The scheme will reduce community severance in the village of Isham by removing through traffic, particularly heavy goods vehicles; reduce the number and severity of road accidents; reduce congestion on the A509 particularly during peak hours; enhance the local environment of Isham and improve conditions for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians; improve transport links between Kettering and Wellingborough Update – The above objectives hold true and are as relevant today as they were in 2005, and form the basis of why a 5years Extension of time for Implementation is being sought. 3.0 The Existing Situation The existing A509 Wellingborough Road is a strategic route, running in a north - south direction, between the A14 Pytchley roundabout south of Kettering and the A509/A510 roundabout, located to the north of Wellingborough. The village of Isham is located on the A509 and suffers from the effects of through traffic, the observed traffic flows (base year 2002) through the village are approximately 21,300, 12% of which are Heavy Goods Vehicles. This is almost twice the capacity of the existing road Update - In 2009 the observed flows had increased to approx. 22,650 of which 9.5% (2155) were HGV‟s, however in 2010, there was a reduction to approx 20,350 of which 9.7% (1982) were HGV‟s. Even with this slight reduction, the traffic flows are still almost twice the design capacity of the existing road, and the village of Isham continues to suffer from congestion especially in the peak hours. 4.0 Development of the Scheme A preferred route for the Isham Bypass to the east of the village was chosen by Northamptonshire Planning & Transportation Committee in 1994. Preparation work ceased in the 1990‟s due to budget pressures. The Northamptonshire Local Transport Plan, published in 2000 identified the Isham Bypass as one of 6 top-priority road schemes in Northamptonshire which were appraised by Northamptonshire in 2000/2001. The County Council Executive decided, in July 2001 that the bypass at Isham was one of two top priority schemes whose implementation should be pursued during the lifetime of the Local Transport Plan. The Executive decided that the proposed bypass should be subject to a thorough review of potential route alignments and their impacts. The information on which the original decision was taken, being nearly 10 years old and the assessment being required to follow the „new approach to appraisal‟ methodology introduced by Central Government. A Wider Reference Group was set up in November 2001. This comprised of MPs, Northamptonshire County Councillors, Borough of Wellingborough and Kettering Borough Councillors, Parish Councillors of nearby towns and villages (Burton Latimer, Pytchley, Orlingbury, Finedon, Great Harrowden, and Little Harrowden) as well as representatives from local action groups. The remit of this group was to decide on which routes should be taken forward for further assessment and be subject to public consultation. Page 3 of 16 A509 Isham Bypass Regulation 3 - Planning Support Statement April 2011 The assessment of thirteen route options, included in the brief agreed by the members of the Wider Reference Group, commenced in January 2002. The Wider Reference Group was consulted in August 2002 following a technical assessment, which comprised preliminary environmental, traffic and economic assessments, and three routes were taken forward to public consultation in mid February 2003. The Northamptonshire County Council Cabinet decided on the Preferred Route in May 2003 and a bid for government funding was made in July 2003. Provisional acceptance of the scheme was received in December 2003. Following further work, consultation on the draft Environmental Statement took place from October to December 2004 and the Scheme was revised to take into account comments received.