Following on from recent publications for the Local Development Plan 2015 to 2030, I would like the following considered: -

1. The East Ham Estate that is currently owned by Newham Council taken into local ownership by Brentwood Borough Council so as to help alleviate to local housing needs, and to have more local representation politically and financially in maintaining the estate.

2. Pondfield Lane/Hanging Hill Lane road drainage improved on the inside corner, so as to improve safety and cornering on this dangerous accident prone bend.

3. Speed ramps installed along Pondfield Lane and Hanging Hill Lane to reduce traffic speed going into the Pondfield Lane/Hanging Hill Lane corner to improve road safety.

4. The footpath bridge that goes over the Greater Anglia railway line at Princes Way to Priests Lane requires replacing. It is a bad state of repair, and requires urgent attention.

5. The following road bridges going over the Greater Anglia railway line require regular improved maintenance: -
a. Woodway
b. A128 Ingrave Road.
c. Warley Hill.

6. Increased cycle lane development using the private roads in the Hutton Mount Estate, which would give access of creating cycles from North to South and East to West in Brentwood, Shenfield and the surrounding area.

7. Pedestrian footpaths along the A128 improved in regular maintenance through Herongate, Brentwood, and to the North of Brentwood. Essex Highways do not allocate enough resources to this important public amenity.

8. Responsibility of all roads in the Brentwood Borough Council area taken into local ownership to improve maintenance, safety and appearance.

Following on from recent publications for the Local Development Plan 2015 to 2030, I would like the following considered: -

1. The East Ham Estate that is currently owned by Newham Council taken into local ownership by Brentwood Borough Council so as to help alleviate to local housing needs, and to have more local representation politically and financially in maintaining the estate.

2. Pondfield Lane/Hanging Hill Lane road drainage improved on the inside corner, so as to improve safety and cornering on this dangerous accident prone bend.

3. Speed ramps installed along Pondfield Lane and Hanging Hill Lane to reduce traffic speed going into the Pondfield Lane/Hanging Hill Lane corner to improve road safety.

4. The footpath bridge that goes over the Greater Anglia railway line at Princes Way to Priests Lane requires replacing. It is a bad state of repair, and requires urgent attention.

5. The following road bridges going over the Greater Anglia railway line require regular improved maintenance: -
a. Woodway
b. A128 Ingrave Road.
c. Warley Hill.

6. Increased cycle lane development using the private roads in the Hutton Mount Estate, which would give access of creating cycles from North to South and East to West in Brentwood, Shenfield and the surrounding area.

7. Pedestrian footpaths along the A128 improved in regular maintenance through Herongate, Brentwood, and to the North of Brentwood. Essex Highways do not allocate enough resources to this important public amenity.

8. Responsibility of all roads in the Brentwood Borough Council area taken into local ownership to improve maintenance, safety and appearance.

Following on from recent publications for the Local Development Plan 2015 to 2030, I would like the following considered: -

1. The East Ham Estate that is currently owned by Newham Council taken into local ownership by Brentwood Borough Council so as to help alleviate to local housing needs, and to have more local representation politically and financially in maintaining the estate.

2. Pondfield Lane/Hanging Hill Lane road drainage improved on the inside corner, so as to improve safety and cornering on this dangerous accident prone bend.

3. Speed ramps installed along Pondfield Lane and Hanging Hill Lane to reduce traffic speed going into the Pondfield Lane/Hanging Hill Lane corner to improve road safety.

4. The footpath bridge that goes over the Greater Anglia railway line at Princes Way to Priests Lane requires replacing. It is a bad state of repair, and requires urgent attention.

5. The following road bridges going over the Greater Anglia railway line require regular improved maintenance: -
a. Woodway
b. A128 Ingrave Road.
c. Warley Hill.

6. Increased cycle lane development using the private roads in the Hutton Mount Estate, which would give access of creating cycles from North to South and East to West in Brentwood, Shenfield and the surrounding area.

7. Pedestrian footpaths along the A128 improved in regular maintenance through Herongate, Brentwood, and to the North of Brentwood. Essex Highways do not allocate enough resources to this important public amenity.

8. Responsibility of all roads in the Brentwood Borough Council area taken into local ownership to improve maintenance, safety and appearance.

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1. Large scale development.
West Horndon currently has approximately 750 homes, this proposal will effectively treble the size of the village. It would therefore no longer be a village and its character and ethos will be lost and changed totally. We have chosen to live in West Horndon because of the type of village it is and this large scale development will completely ruin that and possibly reduce the value of the existing properties in the process.

The proposal to build a large estate behind existing properties will block views residents currently have and their outlook will just be over houses. There will consequently be a loss of large expanse of countryside and also we will lose the wide variety of wildlife that are currently seen in and around the village. We feel that no consideration has been given to wildlife issues.

We are being asked to comment on these proposals when there are no details for us to comment on, only boundaries and location of the proposed site and the number of homes it might contain.

2. Distribution of new homes throughout the Borough.
Looking at the distribution of the new homes for the Brentwood area it is obvious that the distribution is extremely unfair. Why are there so many new homes proposed for the south of the borough? There is no justification for such a large proportion of the allocation to be built at West Horndon. There must be other suitable areas e.g homes could be built on the Hutton industrial estate if that was moved as it is proposed to move the West Horndon industrial site. The Hutton site is near many facilities that are far better than the existing facilities in West Horndon e.g.shops, bus links and, Shenfield station with far more frequent trains.

3. Traffic problems.
The proposal is for 1500 new homes. Given that in general there are 1 or 2 vehicles per home this will mean an extra 2,000 vehicles going into and out of West Horndon. This will result in a higher volume of traffic going along Station Road and Thorndon Avenue. This will result in more traffic noise and pollution along both roads. It will also lead to queues of traffic trying to get onto the A127 and the A128 especially during the rush hour. The queues on the A128 may also cause problems on the flyover over the A127 causing further congestion. There is already a problem with speeding along Station Road and Thorndon Avenue and this will undoubtedly increase with all the extra vehicles. The council have not shown any evidence of plans to improve the roads to cope with the extra traffic.

4. Property values.
New properties that have been built in West Horndon in the last few years have taken a long time to be sold why do the council think that this will change? Especially as it is also proposed to have a 14 Traveller sites in or near to West Horndon. The reality is that if prospective buyers are considering a new property in West Horndon then as soon as they hear of the traveller proposal they will buy elsewhere. It is a fact that a Traveller site will reduce the value of properties in that area - as evidenced in Crays Hill where Basildon council has put properties in Crays Hill in a lower council tax band.

5.Medical facilities.
We cannot always get a doctors appointment on the same day now with 750 homes, how long will we have to wait if the planned development goes ahead? The Health Authority have no plans to increase our medical facilities if this development goes ahead.

6. Public transport.
Extra people will mean more commuters on the trains. c2c currently have no plans to increase the frequency of the trains or to increase the number of coaches during rush hour. The trains are already very crowded at rush hour so extra people will make the situation intolerable. Rail travel from West Horndon does not cater for journeys within the borough the stations either side of West Horndon are in different boroughs.

The bus service is very infrequent and does not run in the evenings. The lack of public transport to other parts of the borough mean that residents of West Horndon will have to rely on their own transport - thus creating extra traffic day and night. There are not many people that would be able to cycle all the way to Brentwood - even if a "Green route" is developed.

The Brentwood Local Plan justification for siting so many new homes at West Horndon is that it has "good road and rail access". This only applies for the current size of the village. If it is tripled in size then the road and rail access is inadequate and major investment would be need in both to bring them up to the standard required to provide an adequate service.

7. Loss of Green Belt.
The planned development is mainly on metropolitan green belt. This was originally set up by the government to expressly stop urban sprawl and keep land permanently open. As per the National Planning Policy Framework that states "exceptional circumstances must exist to justify loss of green belt" the government have recently stated that housing demand is unlikely to constitute exceptional circumstances.

8. Risk of flooding.
The planned development is on a flood plain - how can homes be built on such an area? Some residents have already been turned down by insurance companies because of the flooding only as recent as last Christmas. The village has been flooded in 1958, 1981 and 2012. There is no evidence that the council have carried out any assessment of drainage in the area. Even the Environment Agency's website shows West Horndon and Bulphan as being at risk if flooding. There are already problems with drainage, sewage how can extra homes be built without major improvements?

9. Local school.
The school is at full capacity. There will be no spaces at the local school for all the extra children.

10. Hospital facilities.
With so many new homes proposed in West Horndon and locally in Thurrock, Basildon hospital will not be able to cope with all the extra demands that will be placed on it. This will mean that people will have to travel further afield for treatment and other hospitals such as Queen's are struggling to cope with existing numbers of people that require treatment.


11. Crime.
Obviously with an increase in population, comes with it an increase in the crime rate, something which at the moment is low as per many VILLAGES. Also with the current economic climate it would be most unlikely that police resources could cope.

12. The Borough Council is expecting people to comment on a sketchy, poorly researched plan. It should therefore carry out a study of West Horndon focusing on infrastructure, services, amenities and public transport. Only after this has been done can it be said that the plan is responding to the needs of the local community. The local community has had little input into the plan. This is against the government guidelines of " Early and meaningful engagement and collaboration with neighbourhoods, local organisations and business is essential".

West Horndon has limited roads and cannot support the proposed development of 1500 houses. The A127 in the morning is one traffic jam up to the Upminster and beyond with the route to Southend also being severely congested, then in the evening the situation is reversed. The village is already used as a cut through to Upminster and when the A127 is blocked it is impossible to get out of the village. It is difficult to see how the roads can be improved without as there is only one route out of the village to A128, and access to the A127 is only towards Upminster. Both the A127 and A128 junction are accident hotspots. There currently are very limited buses and the station car park is nearly always full as this services the surrounding areas. In addition C2C have no intention of stopping trains more frequently and it is difficult to see how longer trains could be accommodated at West Horndon or Fenchurch Street as this only houses 4 platforms. The existing shops are enough to support a village, but the proposed plan to triple the size of the village will mean that the village will cease to exist and the characteristics that it has will be lost. I personally chose to live in a village not a town and this plan is going to ruin the quality of our lives and my children who also have just moved here.

please see atttached documents

1. My primary objection is use of green belt land which I feel is inappropriate, given the limited amount of open spaces around the village. I moved to West Horndon because of the feel of open spaces, having lived in very built up areas before. I also understand that it is Government policy that exceptional circumstances must exist to justify the loss of green belt land and I believe they recently expanded on this by saying that demand for housing is unlikely to be good reason enough to use green belt land.

2. I do not feel that West Horndon can cope with an influx of such a huge amount of dwellings. There is already considerable traffic going through the village both during the day and in the evenings. Our doctor's surgery is an off-shoot of the surgery in South Ockenden and as such has very limited opening hours - eg it is now closed on Tuesday afternoons to allow the doctors to spend more time at Ockenden. It is hard enough as it is to get an appointment - and I cannot see how it would cope with extra people living in the village. We are not very well served by public transport in the village. There is an infrequent bus service which does not run on a Sunday and you really need a car here, thus adding to the amount of traffic. The railway station only serves routes to London or to Southend etc, and does not cover getting around the Borough, eg to Brentwood.

3. Reverting back to my point about traffic in the village, the surrounding roads would be hard pressed to cope with additional cars. The A127 is always very busy, particularly during peak hours, with frequent traffic queues and hold-ups and with additional cars, this will impact also onto the A128.

4. West Horndon, according to the Environment Agency website is shown to be at risk of flooding and indeed as recently as 2012 there was flooding in the village. Has the Council carried out any assessment of the flood risk?

5. The scale of the proposed development by almost trebling the size of the village would have the effect of creating a new area which could no longer be classed as a village. I do not feel the Council has properly explained why West Horndon should accept such a large amount of new dwellings and why the Council deem it a suitable site for such a large development. From what I have read and heard, the Council haven't assessed whether West Horndon has the necessary infrastructure for such an increase in its size, eg utilities, telecoms (we have the slowest broadband here), waste etc etc.

6. There is also no clear indication in the outline proposals of where the travellers sites will be and this is also a concern.