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COMMENTS RECEIVED in RESPONSE to the DRAFT MARLBOROUGH NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN CONSULTATION 18 January to 8 March 2021

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COMMENTS RECEIVED in RESPONSE to the DRAFT MARLBOROUGH NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN CONSULTATION 18 January to 8 March 2021 COMMENTS RECEIVED IN RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT MARLBOROUGH NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN CONSULTATION 18 January to 8 March 2021 Comment 1 13 - Land at Kelham Gardens. This site is deemed unsuitable for development in the SHELAA available on the Wiltshire web site, due to the risk of flooding presumably. How can it be suitable under the neighbourhood plan? Has flood risk assessment or sequential testing been carried out? 2 Many thanks for the opportunity to respond to the Marlborough Area Neighbourhood Plan. May I make one query about something I have not been able to find in the plan: • P.14, para 2.26 - There is no reference to the Rabley Wood development of 39 dwellings (40% affordable) which is currently underway. • P.21-28 - Should this section showing future proposals and numbers of dwellings take account of the Rabley Wood development that is already underway? 3 What happens if there is not a majority “yes” vote which would have “made” the Neighbourhood Plan 'made'? 4 By accident, I saw your recent post online of a proposal for the Marlborough Neighbourhood Plan. Please could you explain the process you go through in normal times (when there are no Covid restrictions) to communicate such proposals to the residents of Marlborough. Separately, could you explain the process you are now going through to communicate the proposals to Marlborough residents. I live in Marlborough. 5 Thank you for your prompt reply. I have not seen any of the new communication measures you list below and you say have been put in place to communicate with the community. Please can you explicitly answer my questions and take note of my points below: • we have not received any leaflet through our door – when will this happen? • we have not received a recent copy of the Marlborough Town & County magazine - when will this be published with the information about MANP? • I have seen no posters posted – I have walked through Manton and I saw nothing and I do not go anywhere else since we are in a national lockdown that asks us to stay at home unless absolutely necessary • If you don’t know the web link exists to the MANP site how will you watch the video or attend the zoom calls? If your engagement and communication to the community is to be sincere and meaningful you cannot open the “consultation” period before people are aware and informed, and potentially close it before people know what is happening. I appreciate Covid complicates things but you need to reflect these extraordinary circumstances and delay the start of consultation until the community can be adequately engaged and extend the consultation period to allow people to manage the complicated situation we all find ourselves in, some facing real risk to health and wellbeing. I would repeat that it was only by accident that I found out about the new MANP and not through any of the means you mention below. I have other points I want to make and ask that I will put into a separate email. I would be grateful for your response to this email. 6 I live at REDACTED. I note on page 23 that the Neighbourhood Plan discusses a proposal to build 50 properties on crown estate land off Elcot Lane and adjacent to the St Johns Park estate. I wish to state that I have no objection to the building of new houses in that area and welcome the Council’s proposal for a number of new housing developments in Marlborough, my concern however, lies with the access road to the proposed development being off White Horse Road which I do not believe will accommodate more traffic. Due to limited parking on the estate the majority of households park on the road which results in a single flow of traffic around the estate. I raised the question of lack of adequate parking provision on the St John’s Park estate with Wiltshire Council in 2010 and was told that it was to encourage people to use public transport rather than own cars. Recently there has been a large increase in the numbers of delivery vehicles on the estate who quite often have to mount the pavement to get past parked cars (evidence of this can be seen by the damage that has occurred to the kerb edging) I would be very concerned about construction traffic using the estate to access the building site as happened when the St Johns estate was being built although at that time there were no cars parked at the side of the road. I would therefore suggest that a better solution to the problem of an access road through the current St Johns Park estate would be to widen Chopping Knife Lane to the south of the properties that are on White Horse Road ( at the junction of Chopping Knife Lane / White Horse Road) and build an access road to the proposed new development to the east of St Johns Park alongside the current public footpath. I would respectfully request that you give consideration to this matter. 7 Having read the neighbourhood plan and in particular the suggestion under Policy MARL1 and 1 - Land off Elcott Lane, i would make comment that this proposal is not feasible / sustainable. The existing estate where its proposed the access would be off, already struggles to deal with the level of traffic and parking. The current estate is overrun with parking on footpaths creating problems with traffic movement and emergency and refuse collection. Access for another estate would just compound the problem. Furthermore it would destroy an area of outstanding natural beauty, and habitats, and would set a precedent for further development creep in future years into the rest of the adjacent field. The existing Crest site was justified as it was brown field redevelopment of the school....allowing construction on green / agricultural land is poor policy planning. 8 I am a resident in the St. John’s estate and live on White Horse Road. I am concerned about the proposed residential development for 50 new homes with the main entrance through White Horse Road. I believe that the infrastructure of the existing road will not support the additional traffic, as it is strained already. Therefore I object to this project going forward 9 These plans were produced and approved in Cherhill. To protect Green Open Spaces, Historic Properties, Natural Hedging, Future Development etc. etc. Then it was discarded and ignored. All that work and money, then no protection at all. This happens across the Country. 10 I am writing to voice the strongest possible objection against the neighbourhood plan proposal to build approximately 50 homes at the bottom of the White Horse Estate. SN8. Further development of the estate would make traffic on the roads unbearable and unsafe. The roads will simply not support further development. Having one access point for so many houses is just not sustainable. In addition this is in an area of outstanding natural beauty, and should be left alone, as an area of beauty for all to enjoy. It is simply not ethical to be developing this location further 11 I wish to register my objection to the proposal to develop the field in front of the White Horse Road estate. The current close knit housing, narrow roads, under estimated parking for residents and volume of traffic along white horse road is a danger to children and other road users. Residents are already breaching conditions that should prevent the parking of commercial vans and lorries. The existing road network on the estate is unable to cope with the requirements of residents. The roads are already littered with all manor of vehicles parked on the roads, across pavements, parking on double yellow lines, across driveways and in other ways that would not easily allow for emergency vehicle access. The combination of the current high density living conditions will not cope with any additional traffic that will inevitably lead to increased risk to life and a reduction in the quality of life for existing residents. 12 Just a few points of observation that came to mind while I was looking at the plans for development. Plans for affordable housing :- There have been many initiatives already to provide affordable or social housing (some of which quite old now) that soon become unaffordable within a short time because of market pressures and also home owners extending small properties. Examples such as Rogers Meadow, Rabley Wood, The Mead, Cherry Orchard, Chiminage Close area, The Acres, Cunetio Road, Salisbury Road development flats. Could there not be a scheme to help young people buy within the housing stock that is already built? Building beyond Elcot Lane :- Pushing building development further into this very beautiful valley towards Stitchcombe would be a great shame, especially as Marlborough is within an AONB. There is already pressure to develop green spaces for sport within Marlborough but we also need to leave accessible places to just walk, without the need to always go somewhere in the car. 13 1. Conflict between the proposed new developments and facilities for schooling. 1.1. It is admitted, at 2.12, that St. John’s School “…is currently oversubscribed…”. 1.2. There is nothing in the plan to create additional facilities for secondary schooling in state education. 1.3. Despite the total lack of any extra state secondary schooling, the plan proposes approximately 180 new homes. On an average of 2 children per new home 360 extra children will require schooling. Although the need for affordable housing is accepted, how does the council propose to school the additional children that will require education? 1.4.
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