TRASCRIPT OF THE REPRESENTATION BY ALF HANNAN ON BEHALF OF PARISH COUNCIL MADE AT THE PUBLIC HEARING OF 26 JANUARY 2021 IN RESPONSE TO THE AMBER REI APPEAL

Thank you, Inspector.

You requested I provide a transcript of my statement to Tim Salter, and this I will do later today.

As previously advised, name is Hannan, Alf Hannan and I am the current Chairman of Haughley Parish Council.

I have no qualifications regarding planning, highways, environment, heritage or the like and so I cannot and will not try to comment on any technical or legal aspects of this appeal. I do though have the privilege of living in Haughley, to where my wife and I moved in 2013 having lived in Westley, West for the 12 years previously. I have been Chair of Haughley Parish Council for more than 3 years and a councillor for more than 4 years. For a while I chaired the Council’s working party on the Haughley Neighbourhood Plan that was made and adopted by District Council in October 2019 and which set out the vision for Haughley to 2036.

My reason for wanting to speak today is because I CARE about Haughley and what happens to its surrounding community and environment.

There are many of you I am sure that will remember the 1985 TV series ‘Blott On The Landscape’. Somewhat paraphrasing the title of that TV series by removing a T, I should like you all to hold one thing in your minds when considering this appeal and planning application. And it is this: that is the proposed development of 120 dwellings at Haughley Park would create a………. ‘blot on the landscape’.

At the outset of my brief time attending this public hearing, I should like to say that in my opinion it is outrageous that a significant amount of information provided to this appeal occurred at such a late stage of the process, on 16th and 17th December 2020. This is probably due to my lack of experience in this matter and my naivety regarding the appeal process. However, the information has not been made readily available to the public in the same way as are planning applications and due process for public engagement in these last- minute documents has not allowed the public to review and provide comment to local parish councils or indeed directly to the Planning Officers of Mid Suffolk District Council. Other than at the very early stage of the thinking about housing development at Haughley Park, in 2017 I think, when has the appellant engaged with the local community or local parish councils to put its case for the development? What has the appellant done to engender community support for its plans? Not at all and nothing are the answers! It would seem that local communities are of no consequence to the appellant and I dare to say that it is driven solely by the profit motive.

Sustainability will most probably give rise to legal debate on in its interpretation but sustainability is mentioned throughout the documents to this appeal and a significant amount of argument is placed on the sustainability of transport, traffic and highways, the latter about which, amongst others, the Parish Council Chairman will speak. It is also mentioned that sustainability may be a holistic and a subjective concept and the

26th January 2021 1 TRASCRIPT OF THE REPRESENTATION BY ALF HANNAN ON BEHALF OF HAUGHLEY PARISH COUNCIL MADE AT THE PUBLIC HEARING IOF 26 JANUARY 2021N RESPONSE TO THE AMBER REI APPEAL appellant quotes documentation that sets out three objectives for sustainability of economic, social and environmental. My view is that the social and environmental aspects of this development are just as important or even more so, than all the concern about the sustainability of travel, on which the appeal documentation seems to have a major focus.

Haughley has been defined as a Core Village in the draft Joint Local Plan and proposed Settlement Boundaries were set out for Haughley itself, Haughley Green and Haughley New Street. Haughley Park was not included in the proposed Settlement Boundaries but it is part of Haughley Parish. Within the proposed Settlement Boundary for Haughley, sites had been put forward as suitable for development, in excess of that expected in the draft JLP. Haughley Park to my knowledge was not put forward at all nor has it ever been. It is outside the proposed Settlement Boundary for Haughley. As has been stated in several documents to this appeal, Haughley Park was not considered in the Haughley Neighbourhood Plan. This was not just because it was outside the proposed Settlement Boundary but it was superfluous to or in excess of housing requirements that will be met for the period of the Neighbourhood Plan i.e. to 2036, by development on the sites that were put forward. 163 dwellings are in construction as we speak and a further 29 have outline planning permission, all within the proposed Settlement Boundary of Haughley.

As I have already said, I have no expertise in planning and therefore will not argue the legal or technical issues of the Haughley Neighbourhood Plan and the Policies it contains in relation to existing planning policies and draft JLP nor whether or not these are out of date. Whether the policies are right or wrong or out of date, Haughley does not need further housing development and the proposed development at Haughley Park is not needed nor is it wanted by so very many groups, parishes and the community at large. I repeat, further housing would be in excess of need. Housing at Haughley Park would be in the wrong place and isolated from surrounding communities despite any mitigating proposals presented by the appellant.

Haughley Parish Council actively supports housing development – in the right locations. Housing, particularly affordable housing, is essential for the young of families already living in Haughley and for those wishing to live in Haughley who have had to move further afield because housing costs were and are too high. It is also essential for community engagement, mental health and spirit of those living in Haughley and engender a feeling of belonging to a village by having several facilities. Such facilities include the Ron Crascall Pavilion, King George’s Playing Field for football, bowls and other outdoor sports; a children’s play area, skate park and basketball court; Crawford’s junior school; pre-school at the Village Hall; a Post Office; the historic C of E church The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; pet care at the Haughley Veterinary Centre; an outstanding bakery at Palmer’s; The Village Green; community events and of course shopping at the Co-op and dining at the Old Counting House restaurant and The King’s Arms public house.

In the right location means within easy access of the facilities of Haughley. The facilities that I’ve just mentioned would not be readily available to residents of any housing development at Haughley Park. The Haughley Co-op is at least 1.9 miles (approximately 3Km) from Haughley Park and shopping there would mean a car is essential. This would result in

26th January 2021 2 TRASCRIPT OF THE REPRESENTATION BY ALF HANNAN ON BEHALF OF HAUGHLEY PARISH COUNCIL MADE AT THE PUBLIC HEARING OF 26 JANUARY 2021 IN RESPONSE TO THE AMBER REI APPEAL increased pressure on the infrastructure and exacerbate the parking problem in Haughley. The Co-op in is of a similar distance to that in Haughley. There is no shop of any sort in Wetherden. Inevitably, traffic from the development would either turn left on Haughley New Road to go via Warren Lane through Elmswell to the A14 for travelling west or, turn right onto Haughley New Road through Haughley New Street and Tot Hill for to the A14 for travelling east. In addition to the traffic using the Stag Café, for which planning applications exist for a restaurant and industrial units, together with traffic from the developing Woolpit Business Park, traffic from any new housing development at Haughley Park would undoubtable add to the already problematical traffic issue from the A14 through Elmswell, Haughley New Street and Tot Hill, particularly HGVs to and from AggMax and to the approved housing development sites in Haughley and surrounding villages such as Woolpit, Elmswell and Bacton. An east- bound junction onto the A14 at 49A would help to alleviate the problems. Perhaps Amber REI would like to obtain approval and pay for this?

Despite the appleeant suggesting that there would be a range of facilities such as a community building and playing fields to engender the well-being of residents and community cohesion, any housing development at Haughley Park CAN NOT be thought to be part of a community such as Haughley or indeed of Wetherden, Elmswell or of Woolpit. Such development would be isolated from these communities and almost might be considered dormitory dwellings for Stowmarket, Bury St Edmunds and further afield such as Ipswich and even Cambridge. Residents would always be seen as outsiders. Social interaction with the surrounding villages would be very little. Community spirit would not exist. Residents would not experience village life. This cannot be good for the people that would live there. There may even be resentment and conflict. The appellant may even be seeding a ghetto for the future if this development were to be approved.

It is accepted by all that there is a need to protect the environment and landscape value outside the proposed Settlement Boundaries that provides the setting of Core Villages such as Haughley. I will not argue the veracity of environmental pollution from increased traffic or the proposed car-share schemes or e-car charging points, the redirecting of bus routes and the unbelievably pointless footpaths to Wetherden (where admittedly there is a bus stop, post box and church but there is no school or retail facility whatsoever), but I will state as forcibly as I can Haughley Parish Council’s objection to this development not only based on what I have said, but also on the grounds of destruction of a unique central Suffolk country park, which would endanger the environment and landscape value of Haughley and surrounding villages. I will leave it to others speaking during this public hearing to put the environment and heritage case more succinctly than I.

In closing, I should like to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak on behalf of Haughley Parish Council and the parishioners and community of Haughley and I would urge the Inspector to consider what I have said and reject this appeal and refuse this application and deny any housing development at Haughley Park and thus avoid yet another eyesore like the existing industrial buildings and a potential blot on the landscape.

26th January 2021 3 TRASCRIPT OF THE REPRESENTATION BY ALF HANNAN ON BEHALF OF HAUGHLEY PARISH COUNCIL MADE AT THE PUBLIC HEARING IOF 26 JANUARY 2021N RESPONSE TO THE AMBER REI APPEAL

Alf Hannan, Chairman, Haughley Parish Council

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