Advice to Peter Hill
Back to listEnquiry
- From
- Peter Hill
- Date advice given
- 26 September 2014
- Enquiry type
The following was forwarded from North West Leicestershire District Council and the Planning Inspectorate offered the following advice in response:
I have carefully studied the proposals presented by Roxhill in two public exhibitions and their published supporting documentation. I wish to register that this application should not be accepted as there has been insufficient consultation on the following issues outlined below;-
- The scale of the proposed development dwarfs all surrounding villages. It is larger than Kegworth, as big as Castle Donington and almost as large as the East Midlands Airport. This scale of development will irreversibly change the character and social structure of the surrounding villages and form one large industrial complex co-joining all of the surrounding the villages.
AT NO STAGE IN THE PRESENTATIONS TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY WAS THE TRUE IMPACT OF THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT ILLUSTRATED FROM STRATEGIC LOCATIONS AGREED AND DISCUSSED WITH THE LOCAL COMMUNITY AND COUNCILS
- The proposed alterations to the A50 and M1 roads will transform and restrict still further access into the surrounding villages . The very serious congestion existing at Junction 24 M1 will be increased with the predicted additional 18,000 vehicles per day using this proposed site. The Roxhill proposal also includes for the construction of a 1.9 mile long part elevated freight rail line link connecting the proposed site to an existing freight line. This elevated line, which will circum-navigate Lockington village, will operate 24 hours a day 7 days a week with 16 freight trains a day.
AT NO STAGE IN THE PRESENTATIONS TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY HAS THE TRUE IMPACT OF PREDICTED NOISE LEVELS AND AIR POLLUTION LEVELS BEEN DISCUSSED AT AGREED LOCATIONS AND UNDER DIFFERING WIND DIRECTIONS, IN DIFFERENT SEASONS OF THE YEAR, AND AGREED WITH THE LOCAL COMMUNITY AND COUNCILS.
The elevated re- construction of the A6 to the A50 was permitted to be built without any acoustic or visual protection to the local villages, despite appeals to the Highway Agency. With this experience there is little faith in this Planning Process protecting the Environment of the local villages affected by this proposed development.
- The Roxhill proposal to build warehouses on this 300Ha ?Green Field? site appears to be a very poor commercial decision. As the site has a cross fall of nearly 30 metres. This would necessitate ?cut and fill? profiling of the site of extraordinary dimensions. To achieve the terraced profiles suggested would necessitate over 24 million cubic metres of excavation. This quantity of excavation and removal from site would further increase the transport problems in this location along with the noise and associated air pollution. As a Chartered Architect and Structural Engineer with nearly 40 years of experience of building large industrial buildings I have never recommended or built large floor-plan warehousing on a sloping site as proposed in this development. Then to propose that this site could then accommodate the later construction of the HS2 elevated rail line and tunnel under the East Midlands Airport and still manage to continue to operate securely and efficiently is extremely questionable.
THIS IS NOT A GOOD SITE LOCATION FOR LARGE SCALE WAREHOUSING. IT IS ON A SLOPING SITE AND WILL BE DISSECTED BY THE PROPOSED HS2 RAIL LINE AND TUNNEL. THE CONSTRUCTION AND SECURITY ISSUES INVOLVED IN THIS CLASH OF INTERESTS NEEDS TO BE PRESENTED AND AGREED BEFORE SUCH A SITE IS CONSIDERED SUITABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT
- The impact of this large scale civil engineering project on the natural geology of the area would cause serious surface water problems. Hemington and Lockington have a long history of flash flooding caused by surface water run-off from this proposed site into the surface water brooks in Hemington and Lockington.This development will create 1.6 million square metres of hard standing and roofing. The balancing ponds indicated on the developers plans will overflow into these brooks. No further provisions for surface water removal are proposed and there has been no technical survey data presented to satisfy the residents of Hemington and Lockington that this development has been sufficiently designed to protect the local villages from flooding.
AT NO STAGE HAVE THE DEVELOPERS PRESENTED A CLEAR AND CONFIDENT DESIGN BASED UPON SITE MEASUREMENTS OF THE BROOKS CAPACITY AGREED AND WITNESSED BY THE RESIDENTS AND THE COUNCILS. AND SHOWN THAT THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT WILL NOT FLOOD HEMINGTON AND LOCKINGTON.
- North West Leicestershire District Council have drawn-up over 25 years a conservation area policy for Hemington and Lockington Villages and have gone to great lengths to administer strict development control over these villages. This proposal will destroy this policy at a stroke and lose the historic quality of these villages for ever. It is essential that the natural wooded barriers that exist along the Daleacre Ridge need to be protected and reinforced. This development threatens the natural survival for these woods by the scale o the ?cut and fill? proposal and the affects upon the drainage and general construction close to these woods. In addition if the rail connection is built as indicated by the developers at an elevated level it will destroy the woodlands along the A50 edge of Lockington. Conservation areas like Hemington and Lockington are not just about buildings but about the balance of natural space and boundaries surrounding them.
ROXHILL?S PROPOSALS PRESENTED ON ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION TO THE CONSERVATION OF THE VILLAGES HAS BEEN SCANT. THESE ISSUES INCLUDE INAPPROPRIATE TREE SCREEN PLANTING AND INADEQUATE VISUAL AND ACOUSTIC PROTECTION FROM THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT
In conclusion, I most strongly request that this application is withdrawn until the issues outlined above are genuinely and honestly answered. NWLDC have a ?duty of care? to protect the historic and natural assets of their District . The East Midlands has areas of ?Brown Field? sites of old industrial development and within a few miles of this site. These sites were identified in the AECOM report 2010 and ranked higher than this site. The site at Egginton Common, Derby is also within easy reach of major road and motorway links and offers far stronger strategic potential for development and job opportunities for the unemployed. The East Midland Gateway site has been identified by private land asset searching and not by intelligent analysis of where a Strategic Rail and Freight Distribution Centre would best serve the East Midlands and reuse redundant industrial land with high populations of unemployed.
Advice given
Pre-application consultation is a statutory duty for applicants, and the Planning Act 2008 (PA2008) requires for it to be carried out in a certain manner and to a certain standard. Where any person feels that an applicant?s pre-application consultation was inadequately carried out, they should seek resolution by approaching the applicant in the first instance. Where dissatisfaction remains, the appropriate mechanism is to make a complaint to the relevant local authority (who can consider this complaint as part of their representation to the Secretary of State on the adequacy of consultation), or to the Secretary of State (via the Inspectorate). Any complaint should be made promptly following the close of pre-application consultation to ensure that it was received no later than the point at which an application is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate. In all cases, the final decision as to whether pre-application consultation was adequately carried out rests with the Secretary of State.
As you are likely aware, on 19 September 2014 the Planning Inspectorate (on behalf of the Secretary of State) made its decision that the application by Roxhill (Kegworth) Ltd was of a satisfactory standard to proceed to be examined. The period within which complaints about pre-application consultation could be made and considered by the Inspectorate as part of its acceptance decision has therefore elapsed. Local authorities were invited to make representations to the Inspectorate concerning the adequacy of the applicant?s pre-application consultation, and any complaints made to them should have been taken into account. Those representations are available to view by clicking the following link:
On submission of the application the Inspectorate applied the associated legal tests (under s55 PA2008) to the application documentation, including the consultation evidence provided by the applicant. The Inspectorate decided that the applicant?s pre-application consultation had been of a satisfactory standard, and its commentary and conclusions are available to be read in the ?Acceptance of Applications Checklist?:
Importantly, the Inspectorate?s decision to accept the application to be examined did not comprise any consideration of the merits of the application. These issues will be tested in detail by an appointed Examining Authority at the appropriate time.
The examination of the application cannot commence until a ?relevant representations? period has elapsed; a minimum period of 28 days within which anybody can register to become and ?interested party?, enabling them to make written and oral representations about the application throughout the six month examination period.
The applicant advertised the acceptance of the application today (26 September 2014), and the relevant representations period for the application period opened concurrently. In order for the comments comprised within your email to be considered by an Examining Authority, once appointed, I must request that you register as an interested party as described above. The comments comprised within your email concerning the merits of the application should be repeated on the appropriate prescribed form. The form is available by clicking the following link:
Please be aware that the deadline for making a relevant representation is 3 November 2014. For more information on how to register as an interested party please read the Inspectorate?s associated advice note (Advice note 8.3: How to register and become an interested part in an examination), available here:
http://infrastructure.planningportal.gov.uk/legislation-and-advice/advice-notes/
The Inspectorate has also produced a short film explaining the process from end-to-end, available here:
http://infrastructure.planningportal.gov.uk/application-process/the-process/