brentwood.gov.uk

The recently conducted Green Belt Review shows the area of Dunton Hills to be serving the purposes of the green belt. It is partricularly important as a buffer bewteen London and Basildon. It is the least developed stretch of land in this area and the purpose of the green belt to stop coalescence will be severely harmed by this development.

The A127, A128 and Lower Dunton Road are grossly inadequate in capacity for the use that will be a consequence of this development. There is no central funding for improvements and infrastructure levies from developers will not be adequate to provide sufficient funding. Furthermore, even if road improvements were funded now they could not be implemented in time to support this development. the council should instead be developing sites further North where road infrastructure is already being upgraded.

The C2C rail line has a limit to capacity determined by being only two tracks in this area, and the fact that Fenchurch Street Station cannot easily be enlarged. Other developments in South Essex further East will already take up the possible improvement in capacity on this line making it impossible for new customers of West Horndon Station to be able to use the service into London.

Surface water runnoff from roads and roofs in the new development will all be directed into the Mardyke river. This is already prone to flooding due to the fact that its height is already only 4m above mean sea level around Bulphan. It will be very hard to prevent flooding of the river when the sluice gates at Purfleet are closed at the same time as heavy rain. Any flood defence proposed by the developer will have a finite capacity and will overflow at times of persistent rain. Furthermore the cost of SUDS will use up much of the infrastructure budget from any developer levy leaving little money for road, rail, schools, health centres and affordable housing.

Essex Wildlife Trust have described Dunton Hills as an important wildlife corridor between Thorndon Country Park and Langdon Hills Country Park. It includes ancient woodlands and a Local Wildlife Site. The biodiversity will be harmed by development and no opitons for mitigation can avoid that. the council's obligations to protect wildlife habitats and biodiversity will be breached.

Brentwood Council proposes a traveler and Gypsy site of 30 pitches in Dunton Hills Garden Village. Government guidelines state that 15 ptiches is the maximum manageable size. This oversized proposal will be problematical for both new residents and the traveller community.

Brentwood Council has had no memorandum of understanding with Thurrock Council regarding this development and its MoU with Basildon was shortlived and inconclusive. This is unsatidfactiry given the impact of such a large development on the borders of these boroughs. Brentwood has therefore failed in its Duty to Cooperate.

The area around the A127 has already recorded excesses of NO2 pollution from cars. Other air quality factors such as particles are not monitored here but are known to be excessive in nearby Stanford-Le-Hope. The Thames crossing route will also increase air pollution that will be blown across this area. Further sources of pollution from the garden village could be damaging to health in the area.