Objec on to Large Site Development at Chawton Park Farm
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10/10/2019 Mail - Woodgate, Jenny - Outlook Large sites - Chawton Park Farm - Objection Sun 06/10/2019 13:52 To: EHDC - Local Plan <[email protected]> Objecon to Large Site development at Chawton Park Farm The plans for this site fall short in many areas and go against EHDCs own guidelines regarding the choice of site. This is why the site was rejected as unsuitable in the original Land Assessment, which has since been changed. These are the key objecons: 1) There are significant issues with access. Vehicle access is clearly unsuitable at this locaon, in part due to the 280 homes to be developed on Lord Mayor Trealor’s land 200m to the east. Chawton Park Rd will see hugely increase traffic, especially as the development proposes no shopping and has few other amenies and the development is over 1.5km from Alton town centre. This Road will be prone to significant traffic at peak mes alongside an increase in accident risk. Perhaps more significant is the access to the south through the railway arch onto the A31. This will be the main access route for the 1200 homes and, with the average vehicles per home in 2018 being 1.4 (Department for Transport), this means an esmated 1680 vehicles or probably more in reality due to poor and expensive public transport (the 64 bus is the most expensive route in the enre UK) and the very rural locaon. There are properes either side of the road north of the bridge with 4m between them. This means that a single lane will be needed right up to the arch and will not be able to have migaon for increased traffic. Also, the site exits onto a notorious roundabout which sees weekly accidents, mostly small bangs which are not reported to the Police. Even with migaon of two exit lanes on the exit to the A31 there sll will be significant queuing traffic and traffic pulling out slowly leading to a high risk of accidents – just see the current chaos at rush hour with the Bu’s bridge diversion in place and temporary traffic lights. Vehicles using the A31 do not slow down for the roundabout and frequently speed around it at close to 90mph (please do send your traffic team here as they will confirm this). Moreover, the modelling used by Redrow as present is based upon outdated data and is hopelessly underrepresenng the scale of traffic seen there. Redrow suggests that approximately only 300 extra vehicles will be seen per hour at peak hour – clearly with 1200 homes and 1700 plus vehicles common sense alone dictates that between the hours of 7-8am more than 300 addional cars will pass this pinchpoint. EHDC must surely realise the reality here. Furthermore, addional factors exacerbate this: There are also 529 additional homes being built within 1km and approx. 1000 homes within 1.5km of the site. This will clearly hugely increase the volume of traffic– especially the homes at Lord Mayor Treloars, who will use this road as the main access to the A31. There is a planned employment site on Northfield Lane which will mean the probability of queuing traffic into this site. This has not been modelled by the developers and the entrance to this site will be very close to the proposed traffic lights making a confused and even busier layout. The arch is on the brow of a relatively steep hill. This restricts sight lines. Even with traffic lights this issue cannot be mitigated due to the reality of people running lights and entering the road at speed from the A31. The road runs at a 10 degree angle to the arch. This makes the visibility slightly less clear and increases the chance of heavy or tall vehicles hitting the arch. The arch is likely to be unsafe if heavy construction traffic and an increased number of vehicles use the road through it. The Butts’ Bridge arch was the same age and materials and found to have structural issues of serious historic cracks meaning the requirement for the installation of steel bars encased in grout to make them watertight. The Northfield Lane Bridge looks like it has already had metal ties holding it together and it is highly likely to have the same issues as Butt’s Bridge. Twelve years of heavy construction traffic together with increased traffic volumes generally would clearly make the arch unsafe and may lead to a serious and clearly foreseen incident. https://outlook.office.com/mail/none/id/AAMkADIxNjE3NWJlLTMxYmEtNDEwZC1iOGM4LTYxOTllYjNmN2MzZQBGAAAAAABrEkrzGtHSSpsf0nN… 1/6 10/10/2019 Mail - Woodgate, Jenny - Outlook Moreover, there will be insufficient scope for pedestrians and horses to safely cross this juncture due to the width, unless the railway arch is redeveloped. The railway arch is too narrow to safely accommodate pedestrians (the plans will reproduce the dangerous situaon at the former Bu’s Bridge in Alton – already recognised as a formerly dangerous road crossing by EHDC). The Council, together with Knight’s Brown found that: The narrow, 5m wide carriageway leads to queues. The brick archway runs a higher risk of being struck by high sided vehicles (eg HGVs) than other arrangements. There is no footway provision underneath the bridge, which results in pedestrians either having to walk in the carriageway or face a detour around the bridge. A general lack of pedestrian and cyclist facilities at the junction makes the junction unattractive and forms a barrier to pedestrian and cyclist movement. The Northfield Lane bridge is narrower (4m) and on the brow of a hill. There will not be scope for suitable or safe migaon for access to the proposed site and so the proposal should be dismissed for this issue alone. If residents of the planned 1200 homes wish to walk, jog or visit Chawton, as many of Alton’s residents do, then they would also need to cross the A31/A32 juncon on foot. This is a most perilous acvity and certainly would lead to accidents of the worst possible kind. Furthermore, the recent presentaon by Redrow to Chawton Village was shambolic as regard to answering how this traffic would be migated. The suggeson that 3 sharp bends around exisng properes north of the juncture (to replace the current sharp bend from Chawton Park Rd onto Northfield Lane) is unrealisc and will even further exacerbate queuing traffic and possible danger as well as having a huge impact on residents living there. In terms of traffic, the construcon of 1200 homes will also mean Chawton Village itself will be subject to increase traffic accessing the Selborne Rd and local amenies here. This proposed development will adversely affect traffic and parking issues in Chawton Village which already has severe parking and traffic issues due to the fact it is a well-known internaonal tourist desnaon. This may lead to traffic disorder in the Village, considering the already extremely high number of cars due to tourism. At present there has not been sufficient scruny given to traffic modelling at this locaon and the developers seem short on answers regarding traffic issues. The issues regarding access traffic are unmigable and therefore Chawton Park Farm cannot be considered a serious site for development. 2) The impact on Chawton Village means that the selement character will suffer significant adverse impacts which cannot be migated. Currently approximately 200 homes exist in Chawton Parish. Adding 1200 would equate to a 600% increase in homes. Notwithstanding the impact on the ‘rural’ Parish, this means that the internaonally recognised and well-visited village of Chawton will change in mulple ways. There will be visible and notably increased urbanisaon due to the noise, traffic, light and increased fooall from the new development. This is compounded by the 529 new homes already granted permission and being built within 1km of Chawton Village. It doesn’t take much to realise that the impact will be enormous if (at the naonal average of 2.4 people per home) we see an addional 4222 people seled within 1km of Chawton Village. Related to this, the cultural and historic impacts will also be highly negave and must be considered. The Village core is an internaonally important historic and cultural conservaon area and the impact of broad development on this hasn’t been considered. Tourism and the Village, local and regional economy will be adversely affected if this development were to occur. Chawton is a key locaon (flagship locaon perhaps) for the South Downs Naonal Park and regional tourism strategy, notable for the home of Jane Austen and Chawton House. The development of the proposed site will harm and damage the natural beauty of the village and cultural heritage in the area through ruining the landscape and character of the village (as menoned above). This will harm businesses in the village and may have a wider impact on both house prices and the general economic value of the village. This has seemingly been ignored or not considered yet is a real risk as Chawton is a valuable and potenally highly strategic economic windfall worth protecng. Chawton is a special village within East Hampshire and this site will have a significantly detrimental effect on the surrounding area. The official tourism website for South East England refers to Chawton as a delighul village and Chawton played a major role in shaping the south east's and indeed UKs recent tourism strategy (Jane Austen 200 Gives Hampshire a £21 Million Boost; janeausten200.co.uk). It is in the South Down's Naonal Park (SDNP) and is noted as a gem of a village, chosen to be an official gateway locaon to the SDNP, with associated infrastructure and signage being placed.