brentwood.gov.uk

I object to the proposal of building 1500 dwellings in West Horndon.

1. We are a small village of around 750 houses. I chose to move to W.Horndon 25 years ago because of its size and location away from heavy pollution and chaos of a town. The scale of the proposed development will completely obliterate the charm of the village.

2. Apart from the above reasons, I see from the plans that a large part of the allocation is within the Green Belt. This is contrary to the National Planning Policy Framework which declares that the fundamental aim of the Green Belt policy is to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open.

3. West Horndon is a small settlement surrounded by open countryside. A large variety of wildlife is seen in and around the village. A construction of 1500 houses on the edge of the village will destroy its open setting and rural character.

4. During the past 25 years of living in West Horndon, we have had to contend with the heavy traffic of lorries from the Industrial estate plus the speeding cars coming from St. Mary's Lane using the only main road of the village as a short cut to the A128. All requests to redress this problem have been in vain.

5. Road and junctions are inadequate to cope with the traffic that 1500 dwellings would cause. All cars requiring to use the A127 towards Southend can only do so by crossing the village and turning left at the A128 T-Junction. The A128 traffic is already heavy at present and a long queue of cars has to wait for an opportunity to turn either sides. This is exacerbated when the A127 roundabout is reached by the volume of cars.

6. Flood Risk. The village has flooded in 1958, 1981 and 2012. The Council has not been seen to have carried out any assessment of drainage in the area. It is incomprehensible that the Council would want to aggravate the situation by building 1500 houses without first dealing with the problem in the first place.

7. West Horndon is a small village with a very limited range of amenities and facilities. It has only a tiny shop selling main requisitions such as newspapers, milk, cigarettes and included the Post Office. The Doctors' surgery is barely coping with the present patients with a three-day wait for an appointment. The present Primary School is operating at full capacity now and there is no secondary school. There is an infrequent bus service. The railway station providing a commuter route into/out of London consist of only two platforms and has limited additional capacity. It does not support travel within the Borough. The residents of the new development will have no choice but to make most journeys by car (already dealt with in point 5 above).

Following the above points made against the proposed Draft Plan to erect 1500 dwellings in West Horndon, I accept that with the passing of time new houses need to be built in the Borough. However the 43% increase allocated to West Horndon is completely disproportionate and suggests that this is urgently reviewed. The acceptable number of new houses to be built would be at the very most 150 houses which will have to be in keeping with the present West Horndon character.