Representation by A Chapman
- Date submitted
- 10 July 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am writing to make clear my objection to the proposed creation of a new Sewage Works at the Honey Hill beauty spot between Horningsea and Fen Ditton. A sewage works should not be built at Honey Hill because: It takes good land out of the food supply chain – with an ever increasing population in the area it is vital to keep food production local/in this country to reduce food miles. With International unrest reliable food supplies from the remainder of the world cannot be guaranteed. The Honey Hill site is a Principal Chalk Aquifer and this is going to be seriously damaged by the building of a sewage works. Already the local water company is struggling to provide evidence of ability to maintain water supplies if further homes, etc are built in the area with the Environment Agency threatening to cancel some of it’s licences. The Chalk Aquifer needs to be protected not built upon. By building the works at Honey Hill it will cause a huge loss of Green Belt countryside/farmland which will damage wildlife, the public and be a blight on the setting of our historic City of Cambridge. Also building on the Green Belt is at odds with national and local planning policies. The Water Company have stated there is no operational need to move (their present works at Milton were upgraded in recent years) so why are taxpayers paying £227 million at a time of chronic financial crisis and the country has a huge debt. The huge carbon cost of building the new site and dismantling the old sewage works will cause great harm to the environment and contribute to Climate Change. Already UK is struggling to achieve it’s Climate Change targets, this work will just ensure we don’t meet them. Proper consideration should be given to keeping the sewage works on it’s present site at Milton, this site is 40-44 hectares and there is room to expand whereas the Honey Hill site is only 22 hectares. The construction of a sewage works at Honey Hill will undoubtedly have an impact on Quy Fen which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and it will also affect Wicken Fen and the Cambridgeshire Dykes resulting in damage to wildlife and biodiversity in the area, so much of which is struggling already. I wish to register my concerns regarding the construction and later the daily operational traffic between Honey Hill and Fen Ditton, the roads either side of the proposed sewage works entrance are narrow and have a weight restriction on them which means traffic leaving the site will have to turn left out the site then queue on the bridge over the A14 to turn right onto the dual carriageway and travel towards Milton even if they do not want to go that way. If they want to go in the direction of Quy the lorries will have to loop round the Milton interchange and come back under the A14 bridge on Horningsea Road. Lots of extra mileage and emissions, how can this be viable and climate friendly? There will also be a lot of construction traffic associated with creating the Waterbeach pipeline along narrow roads causing air pollution and misery for residents. Waterbeach Village has it’s own water treatment plant at the back of the old barracks, why can’t this be expanded to cope with Waterbeach and Waterbeach Village? Honey Hill is a beauty spot, creating a new sewage works on the site will impact of public rights of ways and permissive ways. Cambridgeshire is known for it’s flat fenland areas by building the bund and excessively tall digesters it will change the landscape forever and will no longer be recognizable as our county.