Representation by Chris Merriman
- Date submitted
- 21 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
This proposal should be rejected completely. It is a blatant manipulation of the 2008 Planning Act to gain permission for a colossal industrial development in beautiful rural countryside, which would not normally be considered acceptable through the usual local planning process. It will have catastrophic implications for the local environment, wildlife and the living conditions for a large number of residents over a wide area of south Leicestershire and north Warwickshire. The A5 corridor has already been subjected to significant logistical developments with more in the pipeline. Magna Park is in the process of more than doubling in size and permission for a huge industrial, warehousing and distribution hub at MIRA, near Nuneaton has been granted. In the past few years, giant DPD distribution sheds have been built in Hinckley and Burbage, generating large numbers of HGV's onto the A5 and M69 plus surrounding roads, 24 hours a day. Currently there is another enormous proposal being considered adjacent to the south side of the A5 and the railway, less the 3miles from the NRFI site. If there is an overwhelming need for a rail freight terminal in this area, which is debateable, why couldn't it be part of this scheme and include long overdue improvements to the A5, such as a dual carriageway and a proper height railway bridge over the trunk road. Local residents feel completely under siege from these continuing warehousing developments and the proposal for yet another, ever larger, proposal, this time on a greenfield site adjacent to a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a popular and much loved area of public access land, is the last straw. Tritrax Symmetry are using a planning loophole to obtain permission for a giant distribution site on the back of a Rail Freight Interchange development of " National Interest", thereby bypassing the normal local planning principles and ignoring the weight of local opposition to this ill thought out scheme. The application is in outline to establish the principal and if successful will be sold to developers. Consequently, the 'lip-service' public consultation exercise undertaken by the company was poor, at best, and started from the premise that this was the only credible location for a rail freight interchange within the so called 'Inner Golden Triangle' and therefore concentrated on mitigation measures, which will never, ever be able to render such an enormous development acceptable in environmental terms (noise and light pollution, loss of habitat and local residents amenities) as well as highway congestion issues. Most people would agree that freight is better on the railways than the road system but Tritrax have not produced a convincing argument that this is the ideal site for a rail freight interface. They claim to have assessed and rejected 6 other sites but there are others which have not been considered, which would have a far less devastating impact on the lives of so many people. One such is the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station site, scheduled to close in 2025 and now dropped by the Government as a potential site for a Fusion Energy Plant. Using this site would conform with Govt. policy of regenerating brownfield land, is within the 'Wider Golden Triangle', has an existing rail link to the main rail network, is close to J24 of the M1 and the giant ongoing distribution centre at East Midlands Airport. The rail freight interchange element of the scheme is tiny in comparison with the speculative warehousing, claimed to be needed to fund the overall project, but there are no figures provided to justify this breakdown. The 226ha of greenfield land which would be gobbled up by this scheme will dwarf the surrounding residential areas and have catastrophic implications for wildlife, the natural environment and living conditions for the local population. Visually and in operation it will be overwhelming, destroying the rural aspects of Burbage Woods and Common, a significant environmental and leisure resource for Hinckley and the wider area. The public consultation exhibitions mounted by Tritrax were misleading in their visual represtentations of "before and after" views and did not include some of the more damaging impacts such as from Burbage Common and Woods, for obvious reasons. Cross sections of the site were misleading or absent or implied the site was flat, which it clearly isn't. Light pollution was not addressed at all and I doubt whether the Dark Sky Society have been consulted at all. The impact of this pollution is all too evident when looking south towards Magna Park whereas this proposal is next to a SSSI and very close to 1000's of residents. How can the applicants make unsubstantiated and in some cases, laughable, claims regarding the impact of the development when they have no idea of the final form of the scheme, as they are merely enabling speculators rather than the final developer? To assert that the project's environmental impact will be low is clearly ludicrous and no mitigation measures could diminish the huge detrimental harm on rural character and wildlife that would accrue from it. On the contrary, enormous, 30m high bay warehouses, equally high gantries and stacks of rail freight containers, together with colossal light pollution and 24hrs working regimes will have a devastating impact on the natural environment, wildlife, the enjoyment of a much loved recreational resource and the living conditions of 1000's of local people. There is no guarantee the rail terminal will take freight off the already overburdened local road system and if anything, the proposed transport mitigation measures may well add to the existing problems. J2 of the M69 was intentionally built with no vehicular access southbound to protect the settlements to the east from significant increases in traffic wishing to access the motorway. To claim that opening up the junction and building a 226ha industrial park, employing 8,500, will not have an impact on these settlements, or any others in the area, is plainly nonsense. Similarly, the link road through to the A47, which it is claimed will " resolve most of the traffic problems in the area", will, in fact, only exacerbate existing over capacity on the Hinckley Perimeter Road, feeding traffic down through already congested industrial roads down onto the A5 at Dodwells and The Longshoot, which already suffer from serious traffic congestion problems. In addition this link road will run along the edge of Burbage Common thereby destroying the tranquility and rural charm enjoyed by thousands who visit this wonderful public recreation space. I would strenuously urge the Planning Inspectorate to dismiss this application for what it is, a speculative proposal for industrial development on a greenfield site, which would not get approval through the normal planning system, but by using the notion of it being "Strategically Important", are trying to manipulate the planning process. If approved, this ill thought-out scheme will destroy a huge swathe of rural south Leicestershire, irretrievably damaging the environment and wildlife over a wide area and blight the lives of many thousands of people in the surrounding communities.