Representation by Ian Vincent Pritchard
- Date submitted
- 19 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
My concerns are environmental and increased traffic volumes with its impact on surrounding villages and air and particulate pollution. My environmental concerns are that a huge area of farmland will be lost and concreted over to the detriment of all wildlife. The losses of trees and hedgerows will be a loss for all bird and wildlife and to the air quality in the area. This will also impact the important fields and woodlands of neighbouring Burbage Common, a marvellous leisure area. The idea that all traffic will come and go by the M69 is nonsense. Northbound on the M69 as it approaches the M1 is regularly congested, badly so at peak times. The huge increase in disel lorries will further to delay all traffic on this and other routes causing a massive increase in air pollution. Similarly the A46 to Leicester and Hinckley is all single carriageway and already badly congested at all times as aresult of the massive amount of housebuilding in the area. Any workers travelling to the site from the East of the county will approach via either the villages of Stoney Stanton or Sapcote both of which have very narrow roads and tight corners in the centre, those and the Broughton Astley junction on the B4114 will become even more conjested. Any HGVs travelling these routes will cause damage and chaos let alone the added pollution. This has not even touched the chaos that will be caused at the level crossing in Narborough village. We were told that the level crossing gates would only be down for two minutes per train. This again is absolute nonsense as the gates will be down for much longer waiting for more than one train passing and the suggested speed of 75 mph of trains through the station would be dangerous for passengers. Further as anyone knows when the crossing gates go up the traffic doesn't magically disappear. It's like a concertina slowly streching as each car picks up speed and the space between each car grows. A short distance away there are difficult junctions on both approaches where traffic has to wait. At the Narborough side the road narrows where two lorries cannot pass to a conjested mini-roundabout with queues of traffic at all times. The other approach has a right turn across oncoming traffic into Littlethorpe village. If the traffic does not allow the right turners to cross the the traffic comes to a strandstill blocking the level crossing, This is a totally ill thought out proposal that takes no account of the population in a wide area of South Leicesteshire and brings nothing to the area. Surely if a railhub is needed then Toton and the Radcliffe Power Station area could be used where there is a huge brownfield site now free as the proposed staion there for the cancelled HS2 project will not be built.