Comment
Preferred Site Allocations 2018
Representation ID: 18056
Received: 06/03/2018
Respondent: D Westfall
Comment, but mainly against.
Your plan for Dunton is too open ended with no real plan for extra schools, local transport, traffic control and associated congestion and pollution, and of course NHS facilities. It all seems to be "under discussion with" type statements rather than "Dunton will have its own Doctors surgery and community hospital" type facts.
All these should be agreed and in place ( esp the NHS facilities ) before any houses are built at Dunton new town.
I am basically opposed to the idea of a new town of this size at Dunton (Lets not call it a Garden Village, its a new town),
However I see it could work IF it is fully supported and not just another housing estate with a few shops here and there.
In your plan, when referring to Dunton for things like school places and Hospital/Doctor facilities, you use terms like "we are working
with partners to finalise the right mix" AND "The Council are working
with the County Council and other
stakeholders to define the exact
minimum scale of the secondary school
infrastructure provision for Dunton" AND "Opportunities
are being explored to deliver new
integrated health facilities at Dunton
Hills to support the sustainability of the
settlement" and this is where the problem lies. Its all too vague and open ended and they could end in lack of agreement with your 'Partners', and then what?
Nothing should be built at Dunton until it is a proven self-sustaining new town with sufficient hospital/Doctor/School/transport etc places ALL agreed beforehand. Only then is something on the scale of Dunton even remotely acceptable. All the time its up in the air with "we are working with" and "we are exploring" type statements then nothing is agreed and therefore nothing should be built.
However, added to this is the transport infrastructure. Does anyone writing this plan actually use the A127? You speak as though its a fine smoothly running road, where as its reality its an already very busy road and in rush hour virtually 'nose to tail' traffic. An extra 9,000 odd Dunton residents will make this significantly worse. Has this large increase in traffic been factored in? Also, the new planned Thames crossing will bring many more cars and lorries to the close by area, has this traffic been factored into the plan as it grinds its way north past Dunton and up the A128 and through Brentwood? Its a massive amount of traffic, congestion and pollution, right on your 'New village'.
The hospital facilities in the Brentwood, Shenfield and now Dunton new town area, seem to frequently feature on local radio and national TV for all the wrong reasons. Lack of Beds, unable to take patients in, slow response to 999 emergencies etc. Without a large increase to the main Hospital facilities in the area, a new town the size of the Duntan proposal can only make this worse. Is this hospital expansion being considered along with this new town? If not, it should be,