Representation by Francis Wolfe
- Date submitted
- 4 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am concerned whether there will be any effect on the traffic on Church Lane, Broxholme, where my house lies. This leads to the agricultural land where the planned panels would be placed: 1) Dog walkers use the field, presumably with the permission or non-objection of the landowner since there is a sign asking people to clean up after their dog. The panels will be fenced off but there is no mention in the plans whether the buffer zone between the fence and Broxholme will be fenced off. If not, will this become an official recreational space: in effect a small village park or walking trail? If so, this could be a welcome addition to the village but I would be concerned that it might increase traffic on Church Lane, which is unadopted and does not appear on the council's definitive list of public rights of way, although I suspect it might be a public right of way because of its ongoing use by the public and the fact that there is a former Church of England Church on the lane, not otherwise accessible, which I understand was in use for worship in the later half of the 20th Century. I think it would not be acceptable to the community to disallow public access to the buffer area, so I think the developers should be required to make it available to the public and to pay for Church Lane to be adopted by the local authority so that any increased maintenance costs do not fall on the adjoining houses. Because the only motor traffic on the road is for access to 4 dwellings, one of which also has another access by a private driveway, and because high motor speeds are not possible on such a short, narrow lane , I do not think it would be necessary to provide a separate footpath if the surface of the road were improved. 2) Although other access isnshown on the plans, for the avoidance of doubt I would want a condition to be imposed forbidding the use of Church Lane for site traffic (except in as far as necessary for the making of any improvements to Church Lane itself). Church Lane is not suitably engineered for any construction traffic and the possibility of any such traffic is a concern to me since, unless explicitly forbidden by law, construction and landscaping workers could find it more convenient to use it than to go around through the rest of the development, and this would cause disruption and probably expensive damage, the costs of which would, as things stand, fall on householders.