Representation by Richard Ian Booker
- Date submitted
- 3 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The developers (Tritax) are using the railway as a reason to get this development approved, the line in question is two lines, isn’t electrified and I am told has no spare capacity to accommodate up to 16 extra trains that the developers think they can take. I actually think the railway is a non-starter and thus the development fails are the first hurdle. Additionally, on this point, to get permission for planning the rail terminal needs to be for the local area (which I have read is 15km) and therefore not very far at all, we already have DIRFT and East Midlands Airport rail freight and also to the west the Hams Hall one, surely there isn’t space or a local need for another one so close. There are many, many warehouses in this area already, so where will all the potential employees come from? The developers told me (when I went to their presentation) that around 8,000 employees would be needed, so if they don’t come from the local labour market presumably they will all be travelling in by vehicle, conservatively that will be 7,000 car journeys from mostly out of the immediate area, multiplied by 2 for in and out of work, so 14,000 extra vehicle journeys on already congested roads in the Hinckley area, particularly the A5 between M69 and The Longshoot or further even to the Higham on the Hill roundabout. Add to this the 4,000 trucks (this was the number given by Tritax) and this assumes that a large portion of the freight will arrive by rail, which I have already mentioned isn’t possible / likely. I also asked about the environmental impact of all these additional vehicles and Sinead of Tritax informed me that there would me minimal environmental impact of all these thousands of additional vehicles every day, I commented to her, that no one actually would believe that statement. Add to this the impact on one of the few green spaces in the area (Burbage Common), I really don't think that the whole project will have any local benefit, the only people who will benefit will be the developers who are profit driven rather than driven by the need to improve things for local residents.