Representation by John Batte
- Date submitted
- 20 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The proposed rail terminal should be refused because: 1. Local roads cannot handle the large amount of extra traffic, both trucks and (commuter) cars. There has been a lot of warehouse development along the A5 near Hinckley (two DPD hubs, Amazon, and multiple others) and the roads around Hinckley simply cannot handle yet more traffic. Thus, the A5 past Hinckley is now heavily congested, and when a truck hits the local A5 railway bridge (a regular occurrence!) most of the traffic diverts through Hinckley causing gridlocked chaos. This will be even worse with more truck movements. Even now, much of Hinckley is very heavily congested from approx 14:30 (school run) until after 18:00. (We choose not to go out by car during these times whenever possible because it is just too much trouble). This would be even worse with more commuter traffic. Inevitably, there will not be enough car parking for people working at/from the terminal. They will then start parking in the Burbage Common visitor car park, preventing Common visitors from using it, and on local residential streets causing more problems. 2. Burbage Common is a pleasant and popular country park. I live within easy walking distance of it and I walk there regularly so I know it well. The area adjacent to the proposed freight terminal lies downhill from the terminal and is very wet and boggy in winter. Inevitably, despite the proposed attempts at drainage water containment ponds etc, the enormous amount of water run-off from the huge roofs and tarmac areas will make that area of Burbage Common too boggy to be passable/usable by visitors to the Common and it may even cause flooding in that area. 3. There are multiple public footpaths across the proposed freight terminal site. These form very pleasant country walks which I use regularly. These will lost or completely ruined if diverted into tarmac fenced paths between the 100-foot high warehouse buildings. 4. The freight terminal development is not far from residential areas. There will be significant noise disturbance and the floodlighting will be a nuisance and a visual disturbance. The tall buildings will be a visible eyesore from local houses. Exhaust fumes from the shunting trains, fork lift trucks, and the haulage trucks crawling in traffic jams etc, will worsen air quality in the local residential areas. 5. There are several other rail freight terminals in the area. Why can these not handle a bit more traffic each, saving the loss of local amenity farmland?