August 2022 Minutes EOM (23rd)
Witham St Hughs Parish Council
Minutes of Witham St Hughs Parish Council Extra-ordinary meeting held on Tuesday 23rd August 2022 at 6.30pm at the village hall.
https://witham-st-hughs.parish.lincolnshire.gov.uk/
Present Cllr Danny Bell – Vice Chair, Cllr Winser & Cllr Spencer Hall.
Agenda Items
1. Welcome & Apologies
In the absence of the Chairman, Cllr Bell – Vice Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Apologies were received from Cllr Harrison. After discussions it was Resolved to accept the reason for absence and the apology – all agreed, show of hands
2. TO RECEIVE DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LOCALISM ACT 2011 AND OUTLINED IN THE COUNCILS CODE OF CONDUCT – being any pecuniary interest in agenda items not previously recorded on Members’ Register of Interest and any written requests for dispensations.
None received
3. To consider the following planning applications -
a. Erection of a new bungalow
Land adjacent to 20 Nettleton Drive, Witham St Hughs Lincoln.
Ref 22/1084/FUL.
The parish council submitted the following comments for the application.
“Tree survey must be conducted out & regular inspections to be carried whilst the bungalow is being built. Damage to the tree roots must be avoided at all costs”
b. Application to discharge conditions 15 (Site Access and Off-Site Highway Works), 18 (Sheepwalks Farm access closure and reinstatement of verge) and 21 (public transport infrastructure scheme) attached to planning permission 15/1347/OUT - Erection of up to 1,100 dwellings and 150 care/retirement units (C2/C3), the formation of a roundabout to Camp Road, A46 junction improvement works, public open spaces and associated service infrastructure (outline with means of access).
Witham St Hughs Phase III East of Camp Road and North Of Hannah Crescent Witham St Hugh's Lincolnshire LN6 9GD.
Ref 22/1008/DISCON.
After discussions it was Resolved to OBJECT to the application, with the following comments. All agreed – show if hands.
Witham St Hughs Parish Council wishes to object to this planning application and do not wish to accept a higher trigger point of 700 dwellings prior to the enhancements of the A46 roundabout.
Reasons outlined as below:
We cannot see how it can be mutually beneficial to allow a greater time between the implementation of the Camp Road access roundabout and the subsequent A46 Halfway House roundabout improvements, for the Camp Road access to ‘bed-in’ for a reasonable period before the A46 improvements are commenced.
At no time during the planning stages where we led to believe, nor was it discussed, that the A46 roundabout enhancements would not be carried out in conjunction with the implementation of the Camp Road roundabout. The added traffic volumes were discussed at length, and the 106 Agreement drawn up with no mention of time to “bed in”.
We refer to previous applications concerning Condition 15.
As laid out in the 2017 106 planning documents:
Development work has already commenced, therefore the requirements of Clause 15 as laid out in the 2017 106 document have not been met.
Highways England issued a conditioned response (dated January 2017), requiring highway improvement works to the A46 Halfway House roundabout shown in drawing no. NTH/088/008-Rev P3 to be implemented prior to first occupation.
Planning Application - 19/1410/DISCON Highways England Comment Date: Tue 17 Dec 2019 noted that they identified discrepancies with the calculations provided in the April 2019 survey and recommend that clarification is provided on how the observed and modelled average queues have been derived. At this time, they considered Condition 15 could not be discharged at the time.
Comments were then made on Thu 16 Jan 2020, these show that an independent assessment of the figures was undertaken, the findings show the proposed trigger point to be acceptable, prior to the occupation of the 201st dwellings on site – and considered then that the condition could be discharged.
The latest request 22/1008/DISCON shows the April 2019 modelling exercise again being submitted as evidence for this application. We cannot see any amendments to the survey and fail to see how decisions made by HE in the past can change now with recent modelling considered.
To indicate that the new trigger point for the mitigation of the proposed Halfway House Roundabout is when 700 dwellings have been built and are occupied by 2029 will have a severe impact for the residents of the village.
We refer you to page 8 of the Transport Technical Note, from the supporting documents.
7 years/ 700 homes as a point to allow the new roundabout “bed-in” will come with more than 1000 vehicles, not considering the growth of St Modwen Park and the added cars and lorries that this will bring.
Residents are not going to be able to easily leave the village in the mornings in an acceptable timeframe. This issue is not at evening peak times as outlined in the application.
Attached to the application is the covering letter from Aspbury Planning, they note that “at the evening peak the existing junction still operates within its capacity limits”.
Our issue is the build-up of traffic at the peak times in the morning which appears to be overlooked in the letter. We already have issues from 7.30 am up to 9 am with considerable queuing traffic on Camp Road. The survey times do not reflect what we as residents experience daily.
The survey was taken over “peak hour” times given as 8.15 – 9.15 and 16.00 – 17.00. We would argue that these times are not a true representation of our actual peak times.
Traffic build up commences at 7.30 am with substantial queues along Camp Road trying to get out of the village due to large volumes of traffic on the A46. These continue up to 8.45am. Evening peak times are typically 16.00 – 18.00.
The survey is out of date and not a true representation of the peak times for the village.
Due to the close proximity of the new roundabout to the A46 roundabout the enhancements will be required to prevent the new roundabout being at a standstill at peak morning times by vehicles leaving Phase 3 which will make it impossible for the traffic to move up Camp Road from the existing phases.
We represent the residents of Witham St Hughs and failing to make the agreed changes to the A46 roundabout in the timescales as set out in the original 106 document and then pushed to 700 homes is a great concern, we cannot accept the date being pushed out to 2029.