Representation by Patricia Harrison
- Date submitted
- 23 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I object to the Hinckley National Rail Freight interchange due to air pollution, noise pollution and traffic delays. After fighting for cleaner air by planting many trees in this area, this hub will in one swoop cancel out all the efforts of local Parish Councils and the Forestry Commission. The disruption of the development of road works to get to the site, would be enormous and cause noise and dust to the surrounding residents for many years. The idea that more freight carried on rail will be more clean air friendly is just diverting some of the problems, lorries have to travel to the hub polluting the air with diesel fumes and also the freight trains are run on dirty diesel. Does this mean to make the area environmentally friendly trains and lorries are to be electric, and the line to be electrified in order to comply with the Government's own aims for cleaner air. More houses, schools and doctor surgery's would need to be built to accommodate the extra jobs created (not all would be local people) so more traffic causing more carbon dioxide around the local area. The extra trains would have an effect on residents residing close to the line, especially if the trains ran at night causing sleep disruption. One of the biggest problems is the level crossing at Narborough. The crossing would be closed for about 45 minutes in the hour, creating traffic to back up to the B4114 (this happens now if the crossing has to accommodate two trains before the barriers are raised. This also affects traffic in Littlethorpe, Cosby and Whetstone and back to the B4114 at the Fox Hunter Roundabout. Extra trains will affect school children getting to school on time, disabled people and passengers with luggage getting to the other platform with the barrier being down. To alleviate this, the station would need lifts to help pedestrians crossing the line when the barriers are down. The capacity of the line is not enough. There was a freight train failure a few weeks ago. The result of this was 5 hours of no trains through Narborough either way, This calamity made students at Hinckley and South Wigston Colleges to miss vital exams and Key Workers were unable to get to work. The provision of track sidings or loops would have avoided this. I hope that this is an urgent thing to sort out, if the hub goes through.