Representation by Stephen Reay (Stephen Reay )
- Date submitted
- 4 September 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
DCO A66 Trans-Pennine September 2022 Objection – Stephen Ian Reay, (REDACTED) Land Held Under Title Number: CU148142 plus Unregistered Land. Please see below objection points to the above land being included within the DCO. • 1 – Communication There has been little/no communication over the inclusion in this area of land within the DCO and Mr. Reay would like to have an on-site meeting to discuss the impact of the inclusion of this land immediately. There was communication at the commencement of the project but nothing further since this time. • Access: The area of land is the only access to the Woodland on the banks of the River Eden, Mr. Reay has plans to slowly extract timber from this wood in due course for his firewood business. The unregistered area of land was to be used as his extraction route, if the DCO is approved there will be no legal route to gain entry to the woodland. Therefore this will significantly depreciate the value of the wood and also lead to the woodland not being able to be managed correctly. If a site meeting had been had during the consultation period this would have been picked up. • Footpath Although not confirmed it would appear from the plans that there is a proposal to install a footpath along this area, this raises various concerns over littering of the adjoining land holding. • Extra Land Take The majority of the land appears to have been included within the DCO is sown as grassland, this land is already grassland and therefore we are unsure as to why this area has been included at all. This land does not need to be included in order to facilitate the construction of the project. • Inappropriate use of Compulsory Purchase Powers As the full detailed design has not been carried out yet and the design keeps changing, the DCO includes large areas of additional land required which may be temporary and may be permanent, some of which it is clear that it is not required for the scheme. We ask that this is looked into. This point is also linked to the above comment. • Use of Compulsory Purchase Powers for Environmental Mitigation National Highways has included large areas of farmland for use as environmental mitigation. There is no reason why the landowners should not be able to retain ownership of such land in such circumstances if the farmer is content to take on the burden of maintenance, subject to reasonable terms being agreed to ensure the mitigation is maintained. • Maintenance of Farmland – Weed Control Measures On other schemes where large areas of land has been taken, via compulsory purchase land has then been left to lie unused for long period of time. What then happens is then weeds are allowed to grow and the condition of the land deteriorates. National Highways should be made to ensure that all land is maintained correctly.