Representation by Anthony Allan Coslett
- Date submitted
- 10 May 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Industrial development around Hinckley and neighbouring villages and communities is growing exponentially alongside housing construction on greenfield and brownfield sites. The environmental impact will be negative affecting the health and well being of children and the most vulnerable as road traffic emissions pollute the air breathed and road safety is reduced. Increased heavy traffic will affect the sleeping patterns of residents because of greater road and rail traffic. We have lost much of the rural and agricultural land around Hinckley which has also impacted upon the natural habitat of wild life and the further impact upon Burbage Common will threaten wildlife even more. Concreting over yet more land simply makes no sense when the need to rewild in order to preserve and renew our dwindling wildlife. This is not ‘nimbiism’ but a plea to recognise that such massive a development in an area of Leicestershire already grown beyond recognition by recent industrial and often massive warehouse and industrial construction is an inappropriate move when other possibilities exist elsewhere. The proposed development will increase traffic through and around Hinckley. This will have an impact upon air quality and the ecology of the whole area. Hinckley and its environs have already been subject to considerable green field commercial developments which, if this application is approved, will surround the town. There has to come a point where enough really is enough. The Borough Council is a leader in using existing brown field sites for housing developments but there is also extensive use of green field sites for housing. Housing is an essential nationwide. This proposed commercial development is not. As well as the increased traffic flow, heavier traffic will begin to undermine the roads and buildings subjected to the impact of their weight and, indeed, noise vibrations adding to the cost and frequency of road and building repairs. A much valued green space is Burbage Common. This beautiful area hosts many activities: children play, people walk their dogs, families picnic, youth groups meet, football groups train, the elderly stroll or exercise individually, as couples or in groups. People jog,eat cake and drink coffee at the cafe etc etc. this is a peaceful area that offers a rest for the mind and is essential to those who suffer from mental health issue as a place where the mind can be quietened. The risk of polluting fumes from a greater road use will inevitably waft over the area which is also a haven for wild life of all kinds. The developers talk about ensuring the greening of their development. Great but as an ecological move it will do nothing in the short nor long term as it will not offer the kind of habitat wild life requires if it is to flourish. We are losing farms around here for yet another industrial complex to be built upon land that has been productive. The incumbent government following its predecessor’s has emphasised the need to support our farmers in food production of all kinds whilst also assisting them financially in rewinding farm land, protecting and establishing new hedging and generally taking an ecological approach to their farming.This project is going to destroy good farmland, wildlife habitat after having initially destroyed the lives of the farmers losing their livelihoods to ‘progress’. This is not about ‘nimbiism’ it’s simply remarking that surely Hinckley and the villages both sides of the railway line deserve to be protected from further development of this kind when, in the six years I have lived here, so much has already been built. Is this a sacrifice and pain that should be shared? Surely a project of this kind could be located within a redundant brownfield site once used for industrial purposes? And away from a large residential area. Boundaries between towns and villages are already blurred. Hinckley in Leicestershire is virtually tied in to Nuneaton in Warwickshire. The villages of Stoney Stanton and Sapcote are virtually joined at the hip: and all through essential housing developments created in the few years since I moved here after retirement. Hinckley and it’s people are playing their part in taking upon their shoulders some of the necessary pain that comes with an increased population requiring homes and greater need for modernisation and new plant for commercial and industrial development and economic growth. My submission is simply that this is a sacrifice too far!