Object

Representation ID: 5826

Received: 07/09/2021

Respondent: Mrs Hilary Ashby

I object to this site being included in BBC’s 2040 Local Plan for the following reasons:
• Planning has already been refused on this particular site.
• Development of this site will create a major traffic problem in the village. There are already 70 new homes at the rear of Whitworth Way and the additional traffic joining Cotton End Road, opposite a layby where children are picked up and dropped off by school buses, will be even more hazardous than it is at the moment. The proposed entrance to the site is on a blind bend, near to the school and the village post office. It is difficult enough now to exit safely by car onto Cotton End Road from Dines Close. I can only imagine the traffic chaos a further new development of a possible 65 dwellings would bring to Cotton End Road.
• Cotton End Road is already used as a ‘rat run’ to the A600 from Wixams with vehicles speeding through the village. If the proposed Central Beds development goes ahead south of Wixams, then Cotton End Road will inevitably be used more for this purpose and become even more dangerous than it is now.
• In this area we are lucky enough to have wide variety of mammals and birds including hares, deer and bats whose habitat will be threatened by this development. I mention, in particular, barn owls, which we see every evening and are known to nest in the barns at Village Farm.
• The site is close to a flood plain. The existing drainage ditches cannot cope now never mind the additional strain any new development would put on the current drainage. With insurers becoming more reluctant to insure houses liable to flooding and charging exorbitant premiums, would these new houses sell?
• The proposed development (more or less in the centre of the village) will not be in keeping with the character and history of the village. It is important to maintain Wilstead’s own unique identity.
• Wilstead’s current infrastructure cannot cope with more development.
• Development in Wixams is still on-going, Therefore Wilstead does not need more housing estates.