brentwood.gov.uk

I'm writing in relation to the Brentwood Borough Council's Local Development Plan, in specific section CP4 which identifies West Horndon for an increase of 1500 homes. West Horndon is small Village of no more than 500 homes in the Village itself and the Ward has no more than 701 homes altogether. 1500 homes would more than treble the size of the village and change the character of West Horndon, which the LDP promises not to do in its vision; 'to minimise the negative impacts of development on people, the environment'. 1500 homes even if it is mixed development will most certainly have a serious impact on West Horndon's residents and the surrounding environment and this cannot be ignored.

I have to ask why West Horndon has been singled out for 'significant and future growth'? The plan indicates that West Horndon aligns with the Local Development Plan objectives as a Transport Led Development. Yes we have a station and a platform which has been extended however C2C our current providers have made it very clear that they have no plans now or in the future to develop the station or run more frequent trains, which means no investment will be made to improve services or cope with increase use.

We cannot get a train into Brentwood directly and the A128 is already over loaded with traffic. With no possibility to widen the A128 and any traffic travelling into Brentwood will only increase the already heavy traffic through Ingrave. We have an extremely poor bus service, which means residents often don't leave the village or have to wait hours for the next bus to return to the village. It is far easier and speedier to reach Thurrock, Grays and Romford shopping areas, which is why as a Village it is difficult to see how we are connected to Brentwood.

It currently takes 3 working days to get a doctor's appointment within the village and Ingrave do not have a Health Centre, the only other option is to go to a doctors in Brentwood. Now the 'Infrastructure plan is forthcoming', what does that mean? We haven't seen anything to indicate what will happen to our current health service and the consultation process is nearly over. Will the doctors be improved? Will the surgery be allocated more doctors? The doctor's surgery has made it clear it could not cope with the increased number of homes suggested for West Horndon. With many elderly members in the village who rely upon these services there are serious concerns that many people's health will be put at risk. Many of our residents have to travel out of the village to get their prescriptions as the doctors surgery does not stock all medicines and many elderly patients have to waits days for medication to be delivered into the village as they cannot travel out, which is unacceptable.

The impact on local roads, the A127 is at a standstill most mornings into London and then again heading towards Southend in the evenings. The traffic into Brentwood on the A128 is already at breaking point and it would be impractical to widen it. The current access to the A127 from Thorndon Avenue is extremely dangerous and requires a 90 degree angle turn into Thorndon Avenue from the A127. Trying to join the A127 from Thorndon Avenue require dangerous increases of speed and a very small slip road. Many people take the corner too fast and don't anticipate other drivers approaching up from Thorndon Avenue. With 1500 homes being built in the village there will most certainly be an increase in accidents.

Living on the west side of Thorndon Avenue I am very concerned about the loss of fields above the Industrial Estates. These fields area act as a soak for waters which drain off Thorndon Park and over the A127, which floods when we have heavy rain. Without this area the waters will flood local houses and will travel quickly down towards to railway lines and through the culverts there and onto other areas such as Bulphan, which already is a serious flood risk area. The National Planning Policy Framework makes it very clear that no development should in anyway have a negative impact upon any neighbouring areas. Any further flood alleviation scheme would increase the risk of flooding areas to the south of the railway line. We learned when surveys were completed on our house that the Village has already suffered serious flooding in 1958, 1981 and more recently in 2012 on Christmas Day. The allocation in the LDP to strategically develop land west of our property in excess of 25 hectares will seriously affect the potential flood risk for existing residents. Having recently moved to this area in August 2013 we found our previous Buildings Insurance provider could not cover us because of the risk of flooding and have found it very difficult to get buildings insurance. We would be very concerned about the risk of more flooding in this area with the suggested 1000 homes west of Thorndon Avenue. I'm sure many of those new builds will find it difficult to get buildings and contents insurance because of the villages previous flood history. There is no evidence that Brentwood Borough Council have carried out any assessment of drainage in the area and the Environment Agency's website identifies West Horndon and Bulphan as being at risk of flooding.

The loss of Greenbelt in the village will be very significant and it does seem extremely unfair to be taking Greenbelt from this area and apparently no other! We have to ask why Ingateston has not received a fairer portion of the proposed build as they have a station much like that of West Horndon. Why is it that Ingateston have only received 130 homes and that's it! If we are going to have to lose Greenbelt it seems only fair that this lose be shared equally across the borough and not simply from one area; West of Thorndon Avenue. The NPPF makes it clear that only under exceptional circumstances will it be acceptable to justify building on Greenbelt land and recent clarifications from Government have made it clear that housing demand is an unlikely justifiable reason to build on Greenbelt.

I have not found a single resident who was in anyway fully aware of the possibility of developing the Greenbelt sites, which negates the LPD statements that this consultation period was as a response to residential feedback. What guarantees do we have that this 'master planning' will happen and that developers will not simply do as they wish and build lots and lots of houses to make money? Who will be responsible for conducting this change and who can we as residents call out to ensure that promises are being met?