Representation by Adrian Baker
- Date submitted
- 22 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
My main concerns are: Damage to wildlife and the countryside in general. Some farmland bird species, such as Grey Partridge, Yellow Wagtail, Linnet, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting seem to cling on here whereas they have disappeared from many areas. Changing the rural aspect of the whole area. Causing considerable increase in traffic in the immediate area with knock-on effects over a wider area. Could easily lead to urbanising the whole area to the detriment of those who chose to live in the area as it is now. There are many concerns that there will not be anything like the number of trains quoted as there just isn't the capacity at Felixstowe and indeed the Leicester to Birmingham line itself which has a level crossing at a busy road in Narborough plus limited lines south of Leicester to 'hold' trains at busy times, etc., - it's basically using the pretext of an 'evironmentally friendly' rail hub to get just another (speculative) road distribution centre into an area that has many such sites already. Any extra train capacity on the line should, first and foremost, be directed at providing a much better passenger service to the line - unlike years ago, when there was a good service, Hinckley is only served by one train per hour throughout much of the day. The proximity of the development to the SSSI site of Burbage Common and Woods is of great concern. The wildlife such as birds that live in the woodlands also need the surrounding farmland to feed throughout the winter months, for instance. People visit the site to get away from the noise of modern life; the last thing they need is to have 'modern life' ruining those precious moments. Junction 2 on the M69 was always required to be 'limited access' - i.e. to and from the Leicester direction only because providing a connection to and from Coventry would have caused major traffic problems in the village of Sapcote. With even more traffic on the roads nowadays, these concerns are still very much there, only more so. The idea of putting in another road to take traffic around, instead of through Sapcote may seem good in theory but it will, inevitably, lead to so-called 'development' around it, thus urbanising an even larger area and destroying the village character of Sapcote, Stoney Stanton and probably Sharnford and Aston Flamville as well. The roads into Hinckley are already over-crowded at peak times so this development would only make matters worse.