Councillor Paul Phillips, who represents Bengeo on East Herts District Council, has submitted his letter of objection to the County Council.
His comments highlight the impact of pollution, traffic, and the health and wellbeing of his constituents.
He also comments on the merits of the plan overall:
“… this application does strike me as opportunist when you consider the Consultation of the new Mineral Local Plan and I wonder if the application had been made 5 or 10 years ago whether the impact would have been as great.”
His full letter appears below.
Dear Ms Hart,
I am writing to express my profound objection to the application above.
I am a local Councillor for East Herts Council and have been presented with over 240 letters and emails of concern, many of which I am sure you will have also now seen.
As a Councillor, I am well aware of the needs of the larger communities, within Hertford, Hertfordshire and the Country as a whole. I also appreciate that as a County we have mineral deposits that we have an obligation to make available so that they Country can prosper, however with this application I do believe the risks greatly outway the benefits.
Having read through many of the Application documents on the County Council website, I find a number of things stand out.
1. Impact of Pollution
Of primary concern is the impact of dust, or specifically crystalline silica particles. The new Minerals Local Plan Consultation (Criterion 13), shows that “current guidance (e.g. NPPF) state that residential properties and other sensitive uses can be affected by dust up to 1km from the source”.
With the proposed site being on high ground above Hertford, there is a good argument that any mitigations would be negligible to stop this from occurring. This would impact thousands of households, at least 2, if not 3 schools, plus retirement and care homes.
The application information itself, states that there are 685 neighbouring properties (from HCC policy, within 250 metres) many of which are then adjacent to significant denser residential areas.
2. Traffic impact
The rush-hour impact from the Application documents suggest that traffic movements will increase by 4.2% in the morning, which is one of the busiest periods of the day coming through Wadesmill Road, into Bengeo and through to the A414.
This is made significantly worse by any issues that occur on the A602, A10 and the M25, and all of it impacts a B-road. The Wadesmill road is not designed for continuous heavy vehicles, let alone the level of traffic it already receives.
This will be made significantly worse by any increased traffic, not to mention that the 4.2% increase will be 20-tonne or 30-tonne lorries, which take up significantly more road space than a car and would have an impact of queuing traffic further down the B158, increasing the risk of accidents at the Chapmore End junctions and again significantly increasing pollution from stationary traffic in that area.
It is also already a very dangerous road, which as the Application documents have highlighted has already had fatalities. This situation will not be improved by the increase in vehicles and the wider road area around the site, which will encourage overtaking.
3. Health and Wellbeing
It is Hertfordshire Year of Mental Health, and myself and all of my colleagues at East Herts have given our commitment to support this.
The focus of this is to ensure that appropriate support and facilities are available to all who have need for it.
However, it would be remiss of me to point out that good mental health, is something that is strongly supported by exercise and the opportunity to be outside. I myself have walked the area in question many hundreds of times, following a stressful day at work, a disagreement at home or very bad Council meeting! The quick and immediate benefits that come from this can greatly reduce stress and anxiety. A situation that is far better than getting to a situation where further professional help might be needed.
The proposals, do suggest that the walkways will remain open in one form or another, and although these may allow for the physical activity, this will be in an area likely to have 10 feet high Bunds either side, in a dusty and more ‘industrial’ feeling area, and with high speed traffic flying past you.
This loss of open space will have a significant impact on the mental health of the residents within Bengeo and Chapmore End, as well as wider Ware and Hertford residents all of whom use this area.
To close, I have to say that this application does strike me as opportunist when you consider the Consultation of the new Mineral Local Plan and I wonder if the application had been made 5 or 10 years ago whether the impact would have been as great.
But now, we have a far greater number of residential properties in close proximity to this land, as well as significantly larger Primary School.
I feel that, with the current Mineral Local Plan about to be superseded, it would be irresponsible to approve this application, without allowing the new Plan to be completed as I believe that there would be many better sites, with far lesser a risk to the public available to meet requirements.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Paul Phillips