brentwood.gov.uk

The plan provides no details to support the allocation, other than outlines of the 3 target areas - sites 020, 021, and 037 plus an unidentified Travellers' Site.

There is no infrastructure delivery plan.
For these reasons and the reasons below I am objecting to Policies CP4 and DM28 of the proposed Brentwood Borough Local Plan 2015 - 2030.

Flooding
The village has been flooded several times and further development would make this worse.

The core village of West Horndon is in a dip. The Environment Agency web site shows much of it as liable to flood from the south. To the north of the village the ground goes upwards, allowing water to naturally flow downhill towards the village from that direction too. The fields between the A127 and the village act as a soakaway for that downhill flow of water and rainwater collected from the A127. Building on these fields will greatly increase the flood risk by allowing the natural water to flow onwards towards the existing core village.

The land the core village sits in is flat. There is no natural outward flow for incoming water. Its natural flow is to the lowest point - which is the village.
The village has been flooded 3 times since I have lived here. Twice, in 1957 and 1981, when the number of dwellings was smaller than at present. Every time significant extra housing was added to the village, no action was taken to improve the drainage and sewerage. Only after each flood did any action get taken to make improvements. The village was again flooded in 2012.

The Brentwood Borough Local Plan has ignored this glaringly important issue of West Horndon's liability to flood.

Transport Links
Paragraph 3.7 in the "Justification" section of the Brentwood Borough Local Plan 2015 - 2013 Preferred Options document states "having good road and rail access, local shops, and community facilities West Horndon offers potential for sustainable development..."

The "rail access" refers to a rail link in the form of a station and "road access" is the links in the form of the A127 and A128.

But the rail link is already at full capacity. Extra coaches cannot be added to the trains as the station platform cannot accommodate any more than the 12 coaches used at present. The number of trains already on the line during the peak travel times leaves little room for the addition of any extra trains. The London bound trains are already full when they pull into the station.

The station car park is full as it is, and during weekdays commuters park wherever they can in the adjacent roads.

West Horndon is on the Fenchurch Street line which, unlike the Liverpool Street line, ends on the periphery of the centre of London with no onward rail links from there and has limited interconnections along the route.

Therefore the fact that West Horndon has a station cannot be viewed in the same way as Brentwood and Shenfield stations, which are on the Liverpool Street line making many destinations easily reachable and will have plenty of extra capacity nearby in the form of Crossrail.

The A127 is already clogged with traffic. It is almost impossible to join it during the peak travel times now due to the heavy traffic. The London direction is nearly always at a standstill. The Southend direction is only marginally better. The addition of a few further hundred homes near the Dunton junction of the A127, for which planning permission has already been obtained, will bring the road to even more of a standstill than at present.

The addition of 1500 homes at West Horndon would simply cause gridlock unless extra lanes were added along the route and realistically this isn't going to happen due to the prohibitive cost.

The A128 is not a lot better. The current levels of traffic are already close to breaking point. Driving to Brentwood and beyond is a stop-start process nearly all the way and trying to turn right from West Horndon to go the other way is impossible due to the volume of traffic even at today's rush hour levels. It is impossible to see how this road could be widened or supplemented by a new road in either direction. On the A128 towards Brentwood the current levels of traffic are already close to breaking point. The addition of 1500 homes at West Horndon would simply cause the traffic to back up across the Halfway House flyover roundabout and down the A128 creating more issues for vehicles wishing to join the A127.

The bus service is almost non-existent for whatever the chosen destination.
Therefore none of the transport options can be considered sustainable.
Other Facilities

Paragraph 3.7 in the "Justification" section of the Brentwood Borough Local Plan 2015 - 2013 Preferred Options document states "having good road and rail access, local shops, and community facilities West Horndon offers potential for sustainable development..."

West Horndon needs better medical facilities even at present. The West Horndon surgery only provides the most basic of facilities during the limited weekday hours the surgery is open. For example, there is no GP at the surgery on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Trying to get a GP's appointment on the same day is not always possible even when ringing the moment the surgery opens. Sometimes there is a wait of 3 days or more.

West Horndon has very few shops that are open in the form of a cafe, two small convenience shops, and hairdressers. The other few shops in the area have been closed for many years.

A significant amount of trade for the small convenience shops and the cafe is associated with the Horndon Industrial Park (site 021) in the form of workers from the site and drivers of vehicles heading to and from the site. The proposal to relocate most of the industrial units from this site could severely impact these shops and lead to one or more of their closures.

West Horndon has a primary school, which is at full capacity now. It has no secondary school. Even if children were fortunate enough to get into the local primary school, they have to travel to a secondary school outside the area.

Traffic Through the Village
Due to the lack of any specific plans I assume the exit point for vehicles from the proposed development areas into the village will be the existing entrance to the site 021, labelled the Horndon Industrial Estate, Station Road on the plan.
This is already a dangerous junction as the road to West Horndon station is opposite which makes it effectively a crossroad junction. It is particularly dangerous for drivers of vehicles trying to turn right out of West Horndon station. This is because traffic coming down the bridge to the left and traffic from the right is obscured from view due to the location of the junction and the driver therefore has to quickly move his or her head to the extreme left and right and also take into account traffic from directly opposite before pulling out.

The extra vehicles that would be coming from directly opposite if the proposed development went ahead would greatly increase the risk of accidents.

Leading on from the above, assuming a conservative average of 2 cars per home, then 1500 extra homes would mean an extra 3,000 cars pulling out of the aforementioned junction and mostly travelling through the village to join the A128 and A127. There is no way these routes can support the extra traffic.