On 26th August 2010, the Planning Control Committee of South Northamptonshire Council met to decide upon a planning application from Redrow Homes for 780 houses to be built on a green field site at Norwood Farm near Harpole, Kislingbury, Upton and St Crispin villages. See our earlier report.
This application represents just one part of a collection of separate planning applications totalling 4,300 new houses, which are planned on largely green field sites in this rural area. In spite of the fact that the Highways Agency has declared that the developments will result in an additional 2000 vehicles per hour along A4500 and around Junction 16 of the M1 motorway, in their briefing to the Development Control Committee, South Northamptonshire Council’s planning officers made the bold statement: “Air quality has been considered and there are no observations regarding this issue”. What they didn’t say was that ‘unbelievably’ they expect most of the traffic from Norwood Farm would travel to Jct.15a to get to work, leaving Jct.16 unaffected. Unfortunately, they did not account for the fact that Jct.15a is already an area of low air quality and if everyone did travel out of their way to access Jct.15a it will make matters much worse for the people who live around there who are coincidentally not resident within SNC’s area - Is this more ‘dumping’ from SNC?
However, when we researched SNC’s web site, we discovered that as far back as 2001, air measurements showed worrying levels of Nitrous Oxide (produced by traffic on the M1 and A4500 - a gas which can damage the development of children). We spoke to a number of Kislingbury residents recently who remember the survey, but say that as far as they are aware no follow up to these test was carried out. The residents say that during some morning rush hours a choking haze is experienced in the village, which sometimes affects breathing. Further research on SNC’s web site failed to reveal any later reports mentioning continuous monitoring of air quality at Kislingbury, which is surprising because it should be of great concern to a caring Council to monitor air quality and take measures to reduce unacceptable pollution levels. Such measures might include restricting development to keep traffic at lower levels. Councillors Curtis (Bugbrooke) and Janet Elliot (Harpole) are both on record saying that Harpole would not be affected by the proposed development at Norwood Farm. It’s surprising however that they didn’t stop to consider the health of Kislingbury, which sits in a valley bordered closely on two sides by the M1 and A4500 trunk road.
South Northamptonshire Council Planning Officers were asked to provide detailed reports to back up their claim that there isn’t an air quality issue at Kislingbury. Much to our surprise they took 14 days to discover that there is a report, but we haven’t been able to see it because it has not been made publicly available on their web site. We hope to phone in for a copy of this report, which wasn’t put before the Development Committee at its planning meeting of 26th August. We wonder what effect an additional 2000 vehicles per hour along A4500 will have on the beleaguered residents of Kislingbury and how the worrying levels of Nitrous Oxide recorded in 2001 have now been ‘improved’ to allow for a significant increase in traffic.
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE. DEVELOPERS PREFER GREEN FIELD SITES OVER BROWN FIELD SITES SAYS Cllr. CURTIS
In our fight to ensure probity in Planning circles, we often wondered why WNDC and Councils seem to favour applications to develop our beautiful farmland rather than encourage Developers to demolish or refurbish the plentiful brown field sites that blight our towns. Finally Cllr. Curtis has decided to be honest and explains the blooming obvious to us in a letter to the Chron entitled:
“Brown fields cost a lot more to develop”
He goes onto show unwarranted sympathy for the Developers by saying:
To continue his train of thought, this is why St Crispin and Princess Marina hospitals have been abandoned in favour of the nice green fields at Norwood Farm. If this Developer-appeasing policy is allowed to continue, Northampton will continue to gobble up valuable farm land, leaving a growing wasteland behind it. At St. Crispin, for example, no-one can persuade Taylor Wimpey to refurbish the glorious hospital and clock tower, which is now in danger of falling down. (Perhaps Developers consider demolition to be marginally cheaper than refurbishment)?
Everyone in the County should be very concerned about Curtis’ momentary lapse into the honest truth, because it demonstrates who is really running Development Control at the Councils these days. The problem is that Curtis is supported by all the other well-meaning and easily bamboozled elected Councillors on the Committee, whilst their Planning Officers are making wild recommendations to approve anything on green field sites and making no insistence on a necessary preference to clean up brown field sites first. Who benefits from this policy? Brown field sites already have much of the infrastructure required to make them sustainable. It makes sense to Councillors and residents alike to make good use of these areas rather than leave them abandoned. It also makes sense to avoid the destruction of farmland at all costs. We can only conclude that the powerful and litigious Developers have our representatives cowering in a corner.
TORY WOES INFLICTED BY THEIR OWN COUNCILLORS?
CONSERVATIVES REVEAL NEW PLANNING POLICY
ABANDONED BY DEVELOPERS
