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Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan New Settlement Study Consultation July – September 2016 Comments from Great Horwood Parish Council on the traffic effect in Great Horwood of a possible new settlement north of Winslow Introduction These comments are in response to the Draft Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan Consultation (July to September 2016), where comments are requested on the new evidence documents published in support of the draft plan. The comments in this document address a specific point: if there is a new settlement north of Winslow, what effect will there be on Great Horwood in terms of traffic, and how might this be mitigated? These comments are presented without prejudice to the general view of the Parish Council on the New Settlement Study and, in particular, to the appropriateness of a new settlement north of Winslow. This more general view will form part of the Parish Council's response to the overall Draft VALP consultation. Contents 1. The 2008 proposal for “Winslow Green” 2. Access to a new settlement at Winslow 2.1 With a new road to the A421 2.2 Without a new road: traffic flows north 2.3 Without a new road: Little Horwood Road through Great Horwood 2.4 Without a new road: B4033 Nash Road / Little Horwood Road junction 2.5 Without a new road: Little Horwood Road / Church Street junction and onwards 3. Conclusions Page 2 1. The 2008 proposal for “Winslow Green” 1.1 At the end of 2008 an application for outline planning permission was submitted to AVDC with reference 08/02944/AOP, and was validated on 29 December 2008. This was an application for the Construction of mixed use development to provide a sustainable extension to Winslow comprising 3300 new dwellings (including affordable); open space and recreation facilities (including sports pitches, country park, nature reserve and play area); employment land (up to 68,000 sq metres of office space) retail floor space (up to 3500 sq metres) and supermarket (3000 sq metres); hotel; education facilities (1 secondary, 3 primary and 3 nursery schools); community facilities (including community centre, creche, GP centre, PACE facility, library and allotments) cemetery; railway station and bus interchange (including parking); relief road with landscaping; Sustainable Urban Drainage Scheme; drainage attenuation lakes; and Sewage Treatment Works | Former Little Horwood Airfield And Adjacent Land To The North Of Winslow Winslow Road Great Horwood Buckinghamshire MK17 0NY on a site of 270.2 ha (area taken from the application form1) at Former Little Horwood Airfield and adjacent land to the North of Winslow, Winslow Road, Great Horwood MK17 0NY. 1.2 Although the application was refused by committee decision dated 1 April 2009, the details of the proposal and its supporting evidence may be used to illuminate the VALP new settlement options of a development to the north of Winslow, with either Option 2 “Northern expansion” or Option 3 “New garden village” proposing 6000 new dwellings on the Airfield site. Either new proposal would provide 80% more housing than that proposed in 2008. 1.3 As a passing comment, one should note that the capacity calculations for Options 2 and 3 are claimed to be based on keeping 40% of the site area for open space, drainage, etc. and a density of 35dph, which would give 5670 dwellings. However the indicative splodge on the map for Option 3 in the Winslow Options Assessment document is rather smaller than the 270 ha of the earlier proposal as it is entirely to the north of the Washbrook stream. 1.3 Of particular interest is the Transport Assessment2 submitted in 2008. This states, in paragraph 10.3 in the Summary and Conclusions, The existing road network immediately adjacent to the site includes the B4033 Great Horwood Road to the west, the Little Horwood – Winslow Road to the east and Little Horwood Road to the north. These roads are typical country roads which do not conform to current highway standards. The mothballed Oxford – Bedford railway line provides a southern boundary to the site. and in paragraph 10.4 The proposals include a new development road which will provide the sole allpurpose vehicular route to the development. This road will run from the east of Winslow, along part of the existing Little Horwood – Winslow Road, through the development to the improved 1 Document reference 843001 in the AVDC public access database 2 Document reference 843151 Page 3 A421 / B4033 roundabout, north of Great Horwood, providing relief to Winslow from through traffic travelling between Aylesbury and Buckingham. Traffic from Winslow Green will be discouraged from travelling through Winslow and the Horwoods via the provision of this more direct route to Aylesbury, Buckingham and Milton Keynes. 1.4 A plan of the proposed development road may be found in the Appendices to the Transport Assessment3, in drawing CS-18246-RD-400. This shows that the access road was planned to leave the north of the development, crossing Little Horwood Road at a new roundabout, and finishing at an improved A421/B4033 roundabout. 1.5 The rationale for the development road was given in the Transport Assessment at paragraph 10.11 This TA demonstrates that the Winslow Green development proposals have been considered in such a way so as to offer significant safety and capacity enhancements to the transportation network (walking, cycling, public transport and road) for residents of Winslow, and the Horwoods, whilst ensuring that additional vehicular traffic through these locations is minimised. and paragraph 10.12 It is anticipated that 55% of commuter trips out of Winslow Green will be to Milton Keynes; within AVDC, Winslow Green’s proximity to Milton Keynes is particularly compatible with RPG9’s requirement for developments to be “concomitant with Milton Keynes growth needs”. 1.6 The present options are being considered in a context different from that of the earlier proposal (although there are also some similarities – the delivery of East-West Rail was anticipated for 2012 in the 2008 proposal, whereas the current delivery date is not expected to be earlier than 2020). Nevertheless the earlier proposal was supported by detailed traffic modelling, and so a comparison with the access method proposed for the present options will be instructive. 3 Document reference 843165 Page 4 2. Access to a new settlement at Winslow 2.1 With a new road to the A421 2.1.1 Section 5 of the VALP New Settlement Scoping Study considers the potential for strategic growth at Winslow. Paragraphs 5.27 to 5.38 consider the highways implications of a new settlement on the Airfield site. 2.1.2 The Scoping Study makes several references to the possibility of a road linking any proposed new settlement to the A421. From paragraph 5.32: […] We have sought to identify potential mitigation at this junction4 which at least enables it to operate at a level similar to the situation without the development. This has required widening on each arm of the junction, longer flares and modifications to the central island. Given the scale of development planned, consideration would need to be given to providing a new link road connected northwards to the A421, and taking traffic away from Winslow Town Centre and Great Horwood. From paragraph 5.33: […] Signalisation could be considered here5 alongside provision of a new link road connecting Winslow northwards to the A421. Further work will be needed to investigate wider transport impacts beyond these immediate junctions. From paragraph 5.35: Further technical work is clearly needed to consider the potential for provision of a link road which takes traffic away from Winslow Town Centre and connects northwards to the A421. From paragraph 5.36: The strategic need for a western link road which diverts traffic away from Winslow Town Cntre; and for a link nothwards to the A421 to mitigate the impacts of growth on roads through Little Horwood and Great Horwood require further consideration. (Typos in the original.) 2.1.3 The Scoping Study does not, however, take adequate care when considering the implications of failing to build a link road. The rest of this representation provides further information about those implications, and explains why the planning harm of failure to build such a road would be fatal to the proposal. 2.2 Without a new road: traffic flows north 2.2.1 The Winslow Initial Junction Modelling appendix lists initial proposals for seven new or remodelled junctions. This representation is concerned with traffic to the north of any proposed new settlement, and therefore with the following junctions: 4 “This junction” is the A421/B4033 roundabout north of Great Horwood 5 “Here” refers to the B4033 Nash Road / Little Horwood Road junction in Great Horwood Page 5 1. A421 / B4033 Nash Road 2. B4033 Nash Road / Little Horwood Road 3. Little Horwood Road / New Settlement 4. Little Horwood Road / Church Street / Shucklow Hill 5. B4033 Great Horwood Road / New Settlement 2.2.2 Traffic flow from the new settlement to the A421 would therefore have three possible routes: a) north to junction 3, then left to junction 2, then right (B4033) to junction 1; b) north to junction 3, then right to junction 4, then left to the A421 at one of the two unimproved junctions; c) west to junction 5, then right (B4033) to junction 2, then left (B4033) to junction 1. The existing traffic from Winslow and the A413 would continue to take the B4033 to junction 5, and would then follow route (c) as at present. 2.3 Without a new road: Little Horwood Road through Great Horwood 2.3.1 The Transport Assessment for the 2008 proposal stated, at paragraph 2.30, Little Horwood Road is approximately 1.5 miles long and links the villages of Great Horwood and Little Horwood It has a 30 mph speed limit within Great Horwood and a 60mph limit between Great Horwood and its junction with Shucklow Hill/Church Street.