Comment

Greater Cambridge Local Plan Preferred Options

Representation ID: 58124

Received: 12/12/2021

Respondent: Mrs claire hilliard

Representation Summary:

S/RSC/HW Land between Hinton Way/Mingle Lane, Great Shelford

1) There are no valid 'exceptional circumstances' to build between Hinton Way and Stapleford. The two villages would become merged and rural landscape would be destroyed.
2) Building here would significantly increase congestion and air pollution at an already extremely busy railway crossing.
3) The village school and GP have no capacity.
4) There is insufficient water supply to the site.
5) It is non-sensical to build 100 houses here, thus destroying the village character, increasing pollution levels and destroying natural habitats, when these houses could easily be added on to existing larger sites.

Full text:

S/RSC/HW Land between Hinton Way and Mingle Lane, Great Shelford

There are no valid exceptional circumstances for release of this Green Belt land and it would be highly irresponsible to build here. It would cause the merging of Great Shelford and Stapleford villages, (the prevention of such merging is one of the main purposes of Green Belt land) and would destroy "landscape that retains a strong rural character", (the preserving of such landscape being another of the purposes of Green Belt land). It would appear that the planning officers need to be further educated in their understanding of Green Belt land and it's purposes.
There is already a significant build-up of traffic at the railway level crossing, with cars sitting with engines switched on for a minimum of four minutes every time a train passes through the village (often longer). The volume of traffic queuing will increase significantly. Cars will not get across on time before the barriers go down again. The air pollution caused will be detrimental to the environment. Children queue at the level crossing and breathe in these fumes, which can be extremely damaging for their health.
Mingle Lane is a very small road with a 20mph limit; it would become very congested should this be an access point for 100 houses, in addition to the traffic which already travels down there.
There is insufficient water supply to the site to supply these houses.
It seems non-sensical to build only 100 houses here, ruining the beautiful views and the rural feel that this village has, when this number of houses could easily be added on to any number of alternative and far larger developments elsewhere. Economy of scale?
The village school does not have the capacity to cope with additional children - it is already oversubscribed. The village does not have sufficient GP or other services.
The natural habitats of plants and animals would be destroyed completely unnecessarily.