Representation by William David Moore
- Date submitted
- 23 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Tritax are attempting to turn our quiet and distinctive rural village of Elmesthorpe into an adjunct to a vast industrial and transport site. Not content with that, Tritax propose the construction of a significant road between us and what would be a despoiled Burbage Common. Bridle Path Road is a private road owned by the people who live here. It’s an enclave of seclusion and as a result it’s a highly desirable place to live. Tritax’s proposals would bring that to a cruel end, forever blighting the village and what little countryside would remain. It’s truly extreme to try to impose such an enormous mutation. If Tritax were to succeed, our village would cease to be what it is. As my home would be just a few hundred metres away, I would feel the consequences of Tritax's depredations particularly acutely and there would be no respite, day or night. An incessant twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week cacophony of clanging, beeping, crunching, revving, slamming, scraping and so on, involving vehicles, equipment and construction. There must be intense scrutiny and interrogation of the two consecutive noise and vibration reports which have been released by Tritax. Particular areas of concern are: the claimed existing night-time noise levels at our homes, the changes in levels that would be caused by their proposals, the claimed reductions due to their proposed 'mitigation' and the impact that the above changes would have on our enjoyment of our homes and gardens. Given the heights of the buildings, the heights of the gantry cranes, the heights of the multi-coloured and ever-shifting piles of containers, the height and intensity of the artificial lighting on what are currently calm and pleasant fields, the scale of these proposals could scarcely be greater. They are entirely inappropriate for a rural village. The same is true of the lorry, car, rail, roving crane and container movements which these proposals would bring about. Tritax boast of two new areas of ‘public open space’. This is not impressive. These areas are currently calm, pleasant fields on the way into Burbage Common and Woods. One of those pieces of land would be right against a major new road and the other would be near the ‘railport returns area’ where containers would be actively stacked up and then deposited on vehicles. People surely wouldn’t want to spend time in these areas; they would want to leave immediately to get to those areas of Burbage Common and Woods furthest away from Tritax’s unceasing operations. The same is true of the claimed footpaths, bridleways and ‘cycle connections’. People wouldn’t want to do those things in or around Tritax’s monstrosity. They want to walk, cycle, and ride in those areas as they are now. It beggars belief that Tritax are attempting to promote these as benefits. I can't see any quality of life improvements or financial benefits for me or the people I know in the village. I can see serious, permanent deterioration of quality of life and significant financial harm. I have seen no attempt by Tritax to quantify the wealth destruction these proposals would cause for villagers, nor any proposal for compensation to be paid. It would be profoundly wrong to allow these proposals to cause an external company to be hugely enriched at the expense of people who have spent decades building their lives here. I intend to participate in greater depth as and when appropriate.