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Advice to Lesley Coleman

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Enquiry

From
Lesley Coleman
Date advice given
13 June 2014
Enquiry type
Post

A141mprovement Scheme Protest

I am writing to protest about the impact of the design of the new A 14 and inadequate mitigation measures on the village of Hilton in Cambridgeshire.

I have many concerns over the design itself, which include the proximity , scale and height of the carriageway and bridges.The bridges will be 9 metres above ground only 800 metres from the village, which will have horrendous visual, sound, pollution and traffic impacts.

The plans used for consultat ion lack detail and do not answer questions about why the current design is even closer to the village than the original design and why the construction needs to be so much higher than the existing A14 (other than 'for drainage reasons').

In addition to the massively negative impact of the road itself, the construction phase will cause huge problems to the village including construct ion traffic and compound sites as well as extraction of gravel from local Borrow Pits.

The mitigation measures must include low noise road surfaces and ensure that the height of the carriageway and bridges is as low as possible, with natural banking of adequate height (certainly more than the 1metre currently suggested), and including trees as mature as possible as well as sound barriers for the length of the village.

During construction no construction traffic should be allowed through the village and there should be assurances that the borrow pits will be closed after completion.

Footprint data should be established prior to commencement of the scheme and adequate contractual mitigation measures should be included as a required part of the tender process

  • not an optionalextra.

Please take my concerns for my village seriously. Whilst I accept that improvement to the A 14 is important for the County it is unfair for the scheme to negatively impact even more dramatically on residents of Hilton than is absolutely necessary ,

Advice given

Dear Ms Coleman Thank you for your letter addressed to Sir Michael Pitt regarding the proposed Cambridge to Huntingdon A14 improvement scheme. It has been passed to me, as the case manager, to respond. This proposal is currently at the pre-application stage. As you are aware, the Highways Agency is currently consulting with local communities and prescribed consultees on their proposal in accordance with the duties which the Planning Act 2008 (as amended) places upon them. I am unsure as to whether you have responded directly to the Highways Agency with your comments, as the Highways Agency will be under a duty to take account of relevant responses. The closing date for this consultation period is 15 June 2014. It is at the developer?s discretion whether to accept any representations after that date. As your letter raises concerns with the consultation being carried out you may also wish to send a copy of your correspondence to the relevant local authority for this area. When the application is submitted to The Planning Inspectorate, local authority consultees will be invited to provide their comments on the adequacy of the developer?s consultation detailing whether the developer complied with their consultation duties in accordance with the Planning Act 2008. Following the submission of the application, a decision will be made within 28 days as to whether the application can be accepted for examination. In deciding whether or not to accept an application the Planning Inspectorate must, amongst other matters, have regard to any adequacy of consultation representation received by it from a local authority consultee. If the developer is deemed to have adequately carried out their pre-application duties and the application is accepted for examination, there will be the opportunity to register your views with The Planning Inspectorate and participate in the examination by completing a relevant representation form. Details about how and when to register will be publicised by the developer. Please note that you are unable to register as an interested party during the current (pre-application) stage of the process for this proposal. Further information about how to participate in the application process can be found in our advice notes. I have enclosed two advice notes which may be of particular interest. If you have any further queries, please don?t hesitate to contact us.