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Representation by Beacon Hill Land Limited (Beacon Hill Land Limited)

Date submitted
9 January 2019
Submitted by
Members of the public/businesses

This registration as an interested party is made by Archie Read MRICS, a qualified chartered surveyor, acting for and on behalf of Beacon Hill Land Limited, a Tier One landowner that has received a s.56 notice under The Planning Act 2008. Beacon Hill Land Limited (‘The Company’) is a local farming business that owns and occupies land and property within the Scheme red line. The Company cultivates arable crops, such as wheat, barley, oilseed rape and beans.

  1. Compulsory Acquisition

1.1. The proposed Scheme intends to stop up a section of the existing Byway Amesbury 1 and convert its status to a footpath. The Company owns the freehold of this section of the byway. The proposed footpath status will be referred to below. The Company objects to the proposed compulsory acquisition of this freehold as it does not believe that it is necessary to achieve the Scheme’s objectives. There appears to be no justifiable cause to compulsorily acquire freehold where the sole intent is to remove, amend or create rights upon that freehold.

1.2. The proposed Scheme intends to create an adopted highway linking the Allington Track with Equinox Drive along the route of an existing private track. The freehold of this track is owned by the Company. There appears to be no justifiable cause to compulsorily acquire freehold where the sole intent is to create an adopted highway upon that freehold. A highway is a legal right over land. It does not require freehold ownership of the land. The majority of the freehold upon which there is highway, maintainable at public expense, is not owned by the highway authorities.

  1. Rights of Way

2.1. The proposed Scheme intends to stop up a section of the existing Byway Amesbury 1 and convert its status to a footpath. The Company objects in the strongest possible terms to the proposed new footpath along the section of the byway being stopped up. There is no apparent, nor conceivable, reason to create such a right of way which would only serve to locate pedestrians in close proximity with a fast moving section of the A303 trunk road which may be upgraded to expressway status in the future.

2.2. The Company is dismayed that no specific reference was made in any consultation documentation to the creation of this footpath other than annotation on plan 4 of 4 within the Supplementary Booklet. As a consequence, the Company feels that insufficient opportunity was provided for appropriate consultation on the creation of this ill-conceived footpath and the proposal should be removed from the Scheme.

2.3. It should also be noted that Historic England actively discourages pedestrian access to the environs of tumuli as this can increase incidents of unlawful access leading to surface erosion, disturbance and damage.

2.4. The environs of the tumulus to which the proposed footpath is intended to convey the public has an active badger sett – a statutorily protected species. Thereby creating an unnecessary conflict between humans and these creatures, likely to result in undesirable disturbance.

2.5. If the new proposed footpath is intended to provide foot access to the adjacent tumulus then the proposed new link between Allington Track and the Amesbury Road achieves exactly this with a far greater concentration of tumuli available to interested parties. It is therefore respectfully suggested that the money saved from installing pedestrian access through the stopping up barriers could be more usefully deployed on interpretation boards/display material for the group of tumuli adjacent to the new link thereby achieving a better outcome from the Scheme, for the public at large and specifically those of limited mobility.

  1. Treatment of the Stopped up Allington Track and Future Ownership

3.1. The Scheme proposes to stop up a section of the existing Allington Track immediately adjacent to the existing junction of the unclassified road with the A303. It is unclear at present whether the Scheme proposes to remove the existing metalled surface. The Company respectfully suggests in the strongest possible terms that this should be done and the area returned to a natural state. Not to do so would be failing in a duty of care, effectively discarding an area of brown field built environment once it has become surplus to requirement. Furthermore, leaving the current surface to degrade once routine maintenance ceases would risk leaching and contamination in the future. Other decommissioned metalled surfaces within the Scheme are to be broken out. The Allington Track should not be dealt with any less sensitively if the Scheme requires a section to be stopped up.

3.2. Both landowners adjoining the proposed section to be stopped up are Tier One landowners who will be subject to compulsory purchase under the current proposals. It is their wish and respectfully suggested as the most appropriate course of action that the freehold of the stopped up section, that will by that very action become surplus to highway requirement, be transferred to the adjoining landowners in equal proportions from the centre line of the existing carriageway.

  1. Soils

4.1. In common with all farming business, the Company’s existing soils are an immensely valuable resource. The appropriate, diligent and timely management of this resource is key to its business endeavours. Significant concerns exist generally regarding the areas to be occupied during the construction phase of the Scheme. The Company seeks binding assurances in respect of the following: 4.1.1. Pre-commencement soil survey; to include topsoil type, site variance and subsoil structure 4.1.2. Adherence to an agreed and detailed Soil Management Plan devised in accordance with best industry practice; to include methods of working, extent of topsoil removal, site specific topsoil storage methods, weed control, reinstatement methods, aftercare and post-scheme monitoring 4.1.3. No soil to be exported from nor imported to the Company’s freehold 4.1.4. Protection measures for subsoil structure; to include the laying of a geotextile membrane with stone above

  1. Flooding

5.1. The Scheme proposes to create an adopted highway linking the Allington Track with Equinox Drive along the route of an existing private track. The new adopted highway will be a metalled road whereas the current track has a permeable surface. The route has a significant fall. Insufficient detail has been provided regarding how surface water will be dealt with. Consequently, the Company has concerns regarding potential flooding during extreme weather events.

  1. Re-instatement / Accommodation Works

6.1. Detailed designs and specifications relating to reinstatement and accommodation works such as boundary treatment/accesses, barriers/gate arrangements, future boundary maintenance, internal farm access etc is not currently available. If matters relating to re-instatement and accommodation works remain unresolved or outstanding then the Company may seek to address these further within the Examination process.

  1. Binding Undertaking in Respect of Position Statement

7.1. The Company has been engaged in consultation with Highways England and its advisers in respect of the proposed Scheme with the mutual objective of producing a ‘Positions Statement’ detailing agreed matters. The completion of that document with the Company and similar documents with other Tier One landowners should reduce the necessary scope of the Public Examination and therefore be considered a priority. In order to achieve that objective there are two pressing requirements. Firstly, an increased commitment of resource by Highways England to address outstanding matters and supply necessary information in a timely fashion. Secondly, a written undertaking from the appropriate authority that all matters agreed in Position Statements are fully legally binding and irrevocable in nature. The early provision of such an undertaking would greatly assist this progress.

  1. National Farmers’ Union (NFU) Representation

8.1. The NFU will be registering as an interested party on behalf of affected members and the Company wishes to further rely upon appropriate representations made by the NFU.

  1. Additional Matters

9.1. This registration is intended to raise awareness of the scope of issues within the Scheme that are of concern to the Company. It is understood that further consultation will take place and provision for a more detailed written representation will arise. The Company wishes to reserve the right to include within that written representation and the subsequent Examination process any further areas of concern that may have been omitted in error, that may arise when additional detail is provided or become apparent through the consultation process.