Back to list Hinckley National Rail Freight Interchange

Representation by Save Burbage Common (Save Burbage Common)

Date submitted
19 June 2023
Submitted by
Members of the public/businesses
  1. The area in which this development is proposed is already served by a large number of existing or agreed distribution centres, including rail freight interchanges. This includes: • Northampton Gateway RFI • West Midlands RFI • Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) • Prologis Park RFI • Hams Hall RFI • East Midlands RFI • Magna Park (including extension) (Not directly rail linked, but uses DIRFT facilities and could conceivably be rail linked in the future). • Birch Coppice RFI We understand the at least one of these (the DIRFT) is currently operating significantly under-capacity. 2. Burbage Common and Woods (the Common) comprises Burbage Common, Sheepy and Burbage Woods, Elmesthorpe Plantation and Smenell Field. It is the district’s prime countryside site and is located on the western side of the proposed development. The site is public access land and is a rich mix of semi-natural woodland and unspoilt grassland covering over 80 hectares and provides a wildlife corridor and habitat. Burbage Wood and Aston Firs is a 126 acre biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. The woodlands are some of the only remaining fragments of Hinckley Forest, which dates back to mediaeval times and they are still managed by traditional methods. There is currently a rich variety of flora and fauna at the common including 20 species of butterflies, many species of flowering plants, 100 species of fungi and over 30 species of mammals and birds including lapwings, skylarks, hedge sparrows, buzzards, sparrow-hawks, nuthatches, jays and great spotted woodpeckers. There are great crested newts using ponds close to the site, and a badger sett on the edge of the site. The site is used heavily by local and wider populations for several recreational activities including walking, horse riding, orienteering, wildlife study, environmental activities and education. It is a highly valued local and regional public asset. Hundreds of people visit the Common every day and thousands attend the annual open days there. 3. The site, which is part of the Aston Flamville Wooded Farmland landscape, will impose significantly on the setting of Elmesthorpe and the Fosse villages, which are historic quarrying villages, retaining much of their historical buildings. Blacksmith’s Cottage in Sapcote which is situated within the DCO area, is the original village blacksmith’s forge and still retains the mounting block. It is the main reason for the narrow footpath and ‘S’ bend in the centre of the village. Tritax have failed to explain how this will be impacted by footpath widening. Aston Flamville has conservation village status. 4. Noise and light pollution will be considerable from a site operating 24 hours a day. Given the nature of noise emitted by freight trains and engines whilst travelling, the nature of the noise generated by shunting etc, the geography of the area and the railway being largely on an embankment, train noise travels long distances, and even further under some common meteorological conditions. 5. The proposed site lies on higher ground in an area already subject to flooding and slopes down towards the Fosse villages. The site is currently farmland. Concreting over such a large area is likely to lead to excessive run off into the villages below the site, which will inevitably result in flooding of residential properties and possibly M69 motorway. 6. The proposed site is adjacent to at least one environmentally sensitive area (the Common) and either adjacent to, or within sight and sound of, large residential areas and settlements (Hinckley, Burbage, Stoney Stanton, Sapcote, Aston Flamville, Earl Shilton, Elmesthorpe, Barwell and the traveller site and mobile home site at Aston Firs.) 7. There will be a significant increase in emissions of pollutants both during construction and then in the operation of the SRFI. The site is in an area that is renowned for the distinctiveness of its local weather - particularly fog and mist - which will exacerbate air quality issues. 8. Unemployment levels are low in the area. The workforce will have to commute from the areas that Tritax suggest will supply the staff for the site such as Birmingham and Coventry (places which already have large logistics parks / SRFI’s ). The cycle routes will also have limited benefit since the employees are likely to commute from a large distance away. 9. There are several rail issues that do not appear to have been considered such as: • The junction of the line with the Midland Main Line just south of Leicester (at Wigston) is already heavily congested. • The impact of long slow freight trains crossing the East Coast Main Line (near Peterborough), or the Midland Main Line (Leicester) or West Coast Main Line (Nuneaton) • The impact of long slow trains on the level crossing in the village of Narborough. • The time taken for freight trains to slow and stand before entering the site. • The impact of the gradient of the line at the site where the development is proposed on the time taken to enter and leave the site. • Existing plans to enhance both freight and passenger traffic on the line to incorporate for example the use of quarries at Croft to provide aggregate and ‘waste' disposal for HS2 and the re-introduction of direct frequent services between Leicester and Coventry. 10. There will be a major impact on transport networks: • Tritax have said at their presentations that they expect that most of the traffic accessing and leaving the site will be via the M69 at junction 2. Because they do not know who their customers will be, this is an unrealistic assumption. Tritax would not be able to control which routes drivers take. Drivers are known to take the shortest route and this is likely to have a major impact on Hinckley and the surrounding villages. At busy times, most of the major and some minor roads are heavily congested with stationary traffic. Adding massive additional HGV volume to this will make the situation intolerable. • The M69 is exited at the Leicester end by a large roundabout which feeds onto the South M1 and the City ring road. It is a notorious traffic blackspot. Traffic regularly builds up and queues as far back as junction 2 of the M69 are not unknown. Coming from the M1 onto the M69, the situation is even worse as traffic backs up on the slip road daily resulting in stationary traffic sitting on the M1, despite the M1 being a four-lane motorway at this point. There is no direct access south from the M69 to the M6 at Coventry. There are currently queues along the B4669 into Hinckley from the M69 roundabout for most of the day. The worker movements from the hub together with the additional exit from the M69 will increase this already severe congestion. • Between February 2021 and January 2022, there were 74 crashes on the M69. Bridge smashes occur at the low bridge over the A5 outside Hinckley 26 times each year on average. • There is also no resilience in the local area to closure of the M69 as there are few alternative routes. Any emergency closure currently brings Hinckley and the surrounding villages to a complete standstill. The likely 9,000 HGVs per day which the hub will add to the M69 motorway will magnify the impact of any motorway closure enormously. Extensive growth in the area is already committed along the A5 corridor, which will put an additional burden on the neighbouring road network, especially since improvements to the A5 have now been shelved due to funding issues. • The villages of Sapcote and Stoney Stanton will be particularly badly affected by the traffic impacts due to the opening of the extra slips on the M69, the additional worker movements and the likelihood of HGV’s using the roads through the villages as shortcuts. The Tritax consultation completely failed to explain the proposed highway improvements in Sapcote and Stoney Stanton in any detail and it was impossible to work out the effect on the character and layout of the villages. The question of Eastern bypasses has been discussed in earlier consultations, but no satisfactory route has ever been proposed. • The additional freight movements proposed will significantly increase downtime at Narborough level crossing which will have a significant adverse impact on local traffic through the villages. 11. Narrow geographical spread of potential alternative sites. No ‘brownfield’ sites such as those west of Hinckley and Nuneaton were looked at. The possibility of a new rail link between Magna Park and the nearby West Coast Mainline was not investigated.