Appendix 1 – Parish Council responses Oakley Parish Council Initial Comments Object: “The Planning Committee of the Oakley and Deane Parish Council met last evening and discussed the above application. The members object to the application, for the following reasons: The closure of Roman Road will be a huge mistake. The safety issues at Wellington Terrace are undoubtedly important but to close the access to the A339 will make the Main Street slow and congested, and add time to journeys from Oakley , Overton and Whitchurch to the hospital, to Chineham and Reading etc. Re the traffic control from the closed off Roman Road to Main Street – it is not clear from the application how this will be managed. Traffic flows from Oakley, Overton and Whitchurch do not take into account all the new developments agreed in the Local Plan (a total of 870 new homes). The projected Main Street traffic flows appear to ignore all traffic from Oakley and Overton. If Roman Road is closed, Main Street itself will be a barrier across the development and there is no realistic chance that people will walk or cycle along a road that will have to take all the HGVs (who are following the recommended route from the M3 to the B3400 ) that cannot come under the Worting Road bridge due to height restrictions, plus all the traffic from Oakley and Overton and other points west. The proposed closure of Roman Road will make drivers use the rat run through Wootton St Lawrence to avoid using Main Street. This will create safety issues, because the Wootton Road has poor visibility, is very winding, and has no lighting. Further issues, that while not the subject of this application are fundamental to the development and must be considered before any building commences. Drainage/Sewage Although this is, according to the application, a reserved matter, it cannot be left until building starts – this is a major infrastructure project and Thames Water have said they can accommodate only the first phase of building into the existing facilities. The issue is not only around treatment of waste, it also involves the pumping of the treated water back into the water system. The low water table at Ivy Down Lane, and indeed all around Deane, means that there is risk of flooding and this will only be exacerbated by the increased volume of water being pumped back into the system. To leave this unresolved will result in a piecemeal, suboptimal solution and it needs to be addressed at the outline stage, not left until later. Pipeline The proposed flyover/under is shown within the restricted area around the pipeline.” Oakley Parish Council (Amended Scheme) Object: “The Planning Committee, with input from other members of the Parish Council, have discussed the most recent proposals for road junctions onto and from the new development. The members OBJECT to the application, for the following reasons: Closure of Roman Road The Parish Council continues to object to the closure of Roman Road: whilst we appreciate that there is a problem with Wellington Terrace, the closure of Roman Road to solve it seems totally disproportionate. The idea of some kind of dog-leg to join up Roman Road traffic with traffic on Main Street will cause major delays and the roundabout or whatever is proposed would have to be large enough for Bakers Recover vehicles with trailers. A better solution could be to give Wellington Terrace access to the roundabout on the A339 directly and close off the existing turn onto the Roman Road. Main Street The plans involve ‘pushing’ all through traffic into the development but there are already going to be so many internal movements that there will be huge delays, including for emergency vehicles accessing the hospital. The developments further along the B3400 at Overton, Whitchurch and Andover will all create extra traffic that will be funnelled into the development and this can only add to the problems. Members suggested that there should be one way into and out of the development from the A339, that does not then not allow through access onto the B3400 ( other than for buses and emergency vehicles). B3400 The documents say that the purpose of the cross roads at the brow of Scrapps Hill is to enable traffic to be limited to 40mph but members are not sure what exactly is planned – is it intended to be traffic light controlled? If so, this will just cause further delays for traffic from the west trying to get into town or to the hospital and will encourage use of the rat run through Wootton St Lawrence to the A339. Multi User path If the re-routing of the B3400 goes ahead there will be disused road that could easily be adapted into a Multiuser path from the development to Oakley, which the Parish Council and HCC have been requesting. If the B3400 is not rerouted there is still a definite need for this path and it must be included in the plans.” Oakley Parish Council (Amended Scheme) Object: “The Planning Committee of the Oakley and Deane Parish Council met last evening and the above application was discussed. The members object to the application: Closing Roman Road is going to add significantly to journey times to and from Oakley and the towns and villages to the west, The predicted traffic flows appear to be vastly underestimated and do not consider the new developments further along to the west of Oakley, The predicted traffic timings are based on free flowing traffic, but this is unrealistic especially with so many turns off main street which will create waiting traffic, There is mention in the documents about the Hampshire Traffic Modelling scheme but no details are provided, The intention should be to direct traffic away from the B3400 but this does not appear to be achieved in the current plans, Any roundabouts/crossroads have to be negotiable by Baker’s recovery vehicles (the Redrow roundabout at Worting Road is the HCC agreed size and layout), There is an implicit assumption that residents will use public transport but the routes have to get them to where they want to go, and when they need to travel. It is likely that many of the residents will commute so they will need to get to the rail station early in the morning. If public transport is not in place from the onset, residents will get into a routine of driving. With the huge cuts in subsidies for travel, what is the guarantee that such routes will remain functional for any given period? There is much emphasis on cycling but realistically this is for leisure and occasional use – very few people cycle to work or to shop. Even if the development itself offers opportunities for safe cycling, main roads around the town do not. Trenchards Lane will become a rat run as more and more vehicles try to avoid the B3400: there are often problems with vehicles speeding, there are very sharp bends, the road is single carriageway with passing spaces and is not able to deal with the traffic as it is, let alone with a significant increase, Where will traffic from the Oakley Park development egress – on to the B3400 ( if so, will this be by roundabout or by a traffic-light controlled junction?) or be put onto the Main Street so that they have to do a tour of the development to get out?” Oakley Parish Council Final Comments Object: “ The members of Oakley & Deane Parish Council’s Planning Committee met on 2nd January to discuss the above application. Members have multiple objections to the application: Roman Road closure: members continue to strongly object to this. This is an ideal opportunity to make Roman Road a dual carriage way. If the issue is Wellington Terrace then there are alternative solutions, including bringing out Wellington Terrace to join the roundabout on the A339. Alternatively there is a precedent to closing such a route to/from a major road, for example at Kempshott Lane. Similarly, along the A340 near the Childrens’ Cemetery, there is a road that was closed off but still exists, which potentially could be reopened to mitigate some of the traffic around Rooksdown. Closing Roman Road will just push all the traffic onto the Main Street, which if it does have a 20mph speed limit, with all the junctions to and from it feeding the other estate roads, will simply push drivers onto minor roads to avoid the resulting holdups. Creating rat runs using country lanes is not the solution. Also, Bakers of Oakley who operate the recovery service from the M3 and other major local routes use this route to get to and from Oakley and any changes to roundabouts etc must accommodate their specific requirements. Prohibition of right turn into Old Kempshott Lane: this will cause significant extra traffic at the roundabout at the end of Worting Road at the junction with the B3400/Buckskin Lane. At a time when green issues are so high on the list of priorities for most residents, to make people drive up to a mile extra to turn right is not justifiable. Public transport: P9 of the Movement Strategy (MS)states that 70% of all journeys will be made by car: if there is no public transport in at the start of the development this will be much nearer 90%. The Transport Assessment Second Addendum (TASA) states ‘ bus priority can be considered as part of the investment package for later phases of the development as part of the monitor and manage approach’. There is no mention of a direct bus to Kingsclere, yet with the amalgamation of Watership Down Health, many residents from Oakley have to travel to Kingsclere to access services.