Representation by Helen Cassidy
- Date submitted
- 23 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I wish to register my objections to the proposed Hinckley National Rail Freight Interchange. The proposed development does not seem necessary or of strategic national importance, given a number of factors. The site lies very close to a number of other rail freight interchanges and similar developments, such as DIRFT, Prologis Park, Magna Park, and Birch Coppice RFI, which are not yet at capacity. Within the area large companies such as DPD, Amazon and other logistics groups already have a number of hubs up and running. As such I cannot see what strategic need it fulfils. The developers claim to be creating more than 8000 jobs, but these will not be the “High Skilled High Wage” jobs that this government claims it wants. Indeed, it would seem that many of these jobs would by nature be entry level, low wage jobs which do not help an economy grow. It seems short sighted rather than strategic to be building warehousing which is surplus to requirements, when a high skilled high wage economy requires the nation to become more productive. The surrounding population is lucky to be one with low unemployment. This means that these jobs are not going to be for local people - indeed I would argue these are not the sort of jobs that I as a father would want my children to be pursuing. The development would see a massive increase in the use of the roads in the area by HGV’s, and their fumes. The planned changes to infrastructure in the area do not take into account what happens to HGV’s that cannot park in the planned respite area, or when HGV’s take the shortest route to the site along unsuitable roads,such as Station Road Elmesthorpe. There is also the likelihood that HGV drivers reaching the end of their hours, or unable to reach the development at the correct time for their pick-up/drop-off slot will use the local roads to park up, blocking the small residential roads in the village. The plans do not take into account when there is congestion or hold-ups on the motorway - this would have a massive effect on the M69, M1 and M6 motorways as well as local roads. This does not include the added traffic from the staff coming and going to the site itself. These HGV’s will also increase the danger to other road users on these narrow village roads, such as cyclists, horse riders, and pedestrians. There will be an increase of traffic through the village, increasing the likelihood of more accidents on the bridge over the railway, which has already seen accidents in recent years. Station Road is not a wide road, and has a number of bends. We have lots of horse owners using this road and the new rules for the Highway Code regarding passing horses require that passing traffic allow them space, which will be difficult and lead to congestion, again leading to pollution problems. Tritax have proposed that a drop kerb crossing point be placed at the end of Bostock Close, near the bottom of the rail bridge near a bend at the bottom of a hill. This is not a safe place for a crossing and may in itself lead to more accidents. . We live very close to the rail line. We do sometimes get bad vibrations from passing trains in the house. When we raised this at the exhibition at the parish Hall with a representative from Tritax - who we were told was a specialist in sound mitigation - we were told that not only would there be no extra noise or vibration, but that we shouldn’t be getting any right now. This just shows that they have not done the necessary work into the impact of the trains on the line and surrounding areas. The proposed mitigation is not sufficient for noise and light pollution. The acoustic fencing will only go around the development site, not the train line leading into / out of the site, which Tritax feel is not their problem, despite the fact that they are creating the problem. As of yet, there is no date for electrification of the railtrack through Elmesthorpe. There will thus be pollution from the additional diesel trains. These trains take two and a half minutes to go through a crossing in Narborough, but will be going much slower as they arrive at Elmesthorpe, as they will be slowing to enter the terminal or speeding up when leaving - so more pollution as a direct result of that alone . Trains will be running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with up to 2 an hour. These trains will not be able to run at peak times due to the Narborough crossing, and so are more likely to be during the night as passenger trains are fewer, leaving more ‘slots’ for the freight trains. Just from a local point of view the development will lead to ? Destruction of the natural habitat for a huge numbers of different species – decimating valuable farm and woodland forever ? Increasing light, noise and environmental pollution from trains and lorries ? The increased chance of flooding for the local area.