Representation by David John Verrall
- Date submitted
- 21 May 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
During the informal consultations, residents and Triax Symmetry themselves raised concerns over increased pollution from road vehicles and diesel trains using the rail freight interchange site, and from increased through-traffic in Stoney Stanton and Sapcote accessing the new southbound access to junction 2 of the M69. The formal proposal is pursuing carbon offsetting and providing no attempt to reduce localised pollution. The health of the local community is clearly of little concern, and this should be addressed before the plans are approved. The concern over increased traffic through Stoney Stanton and Sapcote was explicitly confirmed by Triax Symmetry in their informal consultation notices and supporting documentation such as their "Off Site Highways Mitigation Background Paper". Within which they clearly state that increased traffic is anticipated, and therefore they proposed a choice of two Eastern Village Link options to cope with the increased traffic movements. In the formal proposal, neither of those Eastern Village Link options is provided, instead referring to modifications to the existing road network inside Stoney Stanton and Sapcote, but without giving sufficient details of those changes. These are narrow village roads with high levels of on-street parking, that barely cope with the existing traffic that uses them. Additional traffic will be a physical danger to village residents, plus the additional air pollution that more vehicles will emit. I accuse the developer of back-tracking on their recommendations for the proposed Eastern Link options, and are now expecting residents to suffer with more traffic, more air pollution, and more noise. Without sufficient traffic modelling or evidence of effective mitigation strategies. These plans should not be allowed to progress until the matter of local traffic movements has been properly investigated, evidenced, and a suitable solution described in sufficient detail for consultees to give a proper response.