brentwood.gov.uk

I am writing to protest about the inclusion of land in Honeypot Lane on the Proposed Local Development Plan. This plot is classed as Metropolitan Green Belt and we feel very strongly about the loss of such sites as once it is built on it will set a precedent for other developments of such land in Brentwood, and we will end up living in a totally built up area with no green space. I am sure most people who live in these areas on the edge of Brentwood backing Green Belt land will have chosen to do so and will have paid a premium price for their property. A development of this kind would totally ruin the rural character of the area. If we wanted to live in a house in the middle of a built up area we would have done so and bought a house at a much lower cost. The land attracts much wildlife, such as deer, badgers, bats, squirrels and many species of birds. The hedgerows near the site are also very old and I believe that the reason the pedestrian pathway goes into behind the road into the BT land was to prevent disturbance of historical hedgerow. The main objection, however, is the traffic that a development of around 200 houses plus a care home will cause in such a small lane which is not even wide enough for two cars to pass in some parts. It is already used as a cut through from London Road to the Ongar Road and there are regularly queues of traffic at the junction of Honeypot Lane and London Road. I am sure that many of the people living in these houses of this planned development will need to drive to work or drive children to school in the busy morning and evening periods which will cause chaos on already congested roads such as London Road, Ongar Road and Weald Road, and will force traffic down the smaller back roads. An average household doing a school run and a work run will amount to six extra journeys a day, and realistically this could amount to over 1000 journeys a day even if only a proportion of the residents make the daily runs. Additionally there would also be the normal mail and household deliveries. Honeypot Lane is a lane, not a major road, and the traffic speeds along it, even though it has been changed to a 20 mile an hour speed limit, and this has been reported to the police. We live on the bend near Hill Road and since we have lived there, a number of cars have lost control and ended up in our hedge damaging the trees and fence, and previous to that cars have actually skidded down the grass verge onto the drive of the houses below. Extra traffic along this road would increase the chances of such incidents happening again. In icy weather the road is treacherous and with more traffic would be even more dangerous. The excessive parking in Honeypot Lane from commuters and people working in Brentwood made the road difficult to drive along safely and this was the reason the parking restrictions were implemented. Extra housing would just exacerbate all the problems, wherever the entrance to the site is built. The proposed development site is at the bottom of the hill and is very wet as the water runs down Honeypot Lane and also off the road down our gardens and into the fields and Honeypot Lane itself floods regularly. Building on this land makes a mockery of the Council's planning rules. We explored the possibility of extending our driveway but were told we would need planning permission to cover the extra two metres of undeveloped land with impermeable material, but it seems that the Council are quite happy to consider building a whole housing estate on undeveloped land. Before any building could begin 18 months of drainage work will need to be carried out on the site. The traffic from this work alone will be intolerable and cause major problems. The schools in this area are all at capacity and although I believe plans have been discussed for another school to support this development it would not be in the immediate vicinity which would mean longer car journeys to travel further afield to get children to school. The local doctors' surgeries are full and even now many people have to wait weeks to see their doctor. An increased population in the area would have a further impact on this. This land has been considered in the past, but it was deemed unsuitable as it did not meet the Council's Spatial Strategy and was taken off the Proposed Plan back in 2012. Nothing has changed and therefore I cannot understand why it has been included again. I do realise that more houses need to be built in the country, but I do expect some common sense to be given as to where they should be built. I am sure there must still be Brownfield sites that could be put forward for development before using the Green Belt land that should be protected. Extra development should be made in an area where the infrastructure can be put in place to support it and this is not in Honeypot Lane. Why can't more houses be built on the Dunton Garden Village site, where infrastructure is already being planned. I would be grateful if these objections could be considered before the inclusion of the site on the Local Development Plan.