Due to issues I have made clear I believe it is the Council's duty to remove sites R25 and R26 from the LDP such that they do not overwhelm local amenities and services; such that they do not cause further flooding by removing crucial green spaces and such that they are not driving forward with plans that would adversely affect live in the surrounding areas. Blackmore if not an affordable area for young people trying to get on the 'property-ladder': so any attempt to provide affordable housing within that area is counter-intuitive.

I consider the plan to be unsound and fails to comply with the Duty to Cooperate for the following reasons: 1. LDP Fig 2.3 Settlement Hierarchy. The population of Blackmore is listed as 829, but this doesn't make provision for the residents of Nine Ashes road nor does it cover the Travellers living illegally within the village bounds which Brentwood Council still refuse to take action on - nor the residents living on the Chelmsford road, wo all use local amenities. The total of the separate population figures do not add up to the totaI population figure either- by a margin of around 600 people. Assumptions have been made based on these figures, calling into question the validity of the proposals. 2. Duty to Cooperate. I would say that the development of the 30 huge houses by Epping District council very close to the boundary of Blackmore Parish means that the village amenities are already under pressure- and this has not been accounted for within any of the plans. 3. The single track road named "red Rose Lane" is not suitable for extra traffic without marked improvements to the road - including fixing pot holes and filling ditches on either side. It is also continually used by the public - on foot and on horseback - and is part of at least one major cycle route. There are no walkways so the extra traffic will increase the danger to road users. 4. Flood Risk. The village centre of Blackmore irrigation is almost non-existent- and actually in recent years the continual flooding has actually washed away pavements and seeped into low-lying houses on Church Street. Some of these pavements have yet to be repaired and propose considerable risk to the ageing population in the area. I also know of occasions where freshly dug graves in the churchyard have had to have water pumped out of them. Creating new houses on the proposed sites will dramatically reduce the amount of open land and large plant life able to soak up this water. Blackmore is at continual risk of flooding which makes the proposal unfit for purpose as it will create more of an issue. The council - if it wanted to build further homes in these parishes - would have to invest heavily the irrigation of the entire village to make these plans plausible. 5. Infrastructure The plan makes no provisions for the development of local amenities and infrastructure - and the local school and doctor's surgery are already at capacity­ and wait times are far too long for an increasingly ageing population. The internet connection is appalling, the sewage system is at tipping point, there are frequent power-cuts in the area already (so the board is unlikely to be able to cope with the addition of new properties), Public Transport is almost non-existent in the village (and the 61 bus, which I used for 2 years to get to work in Brentwood, was and continues to be under threat) and parking anywhere is a nightmare - especially on Sundays (church services) and during the yearly firework displays which are organised by the Parish Council. 6. A survey should have been carried out to demonstrate the need for housing - and in particular the need for 'type of housing'. I have already expressed my distaste for Epping Council's development of what I would call 'mansions'. Being 21 years of age, mortgaging a house anywhere in this area seems like a dream to me -one I hope to realise but one I have come to understand will be nearly impossible in my lifetime. 7. There are more suitable locations with better access to larger towns in the area: extensions to Brentwood or possibly increasing the size of the proposal for Dunton Hills would all have better transport links for commuters, on better kept roads. 8. Some of the proposed sites in Blackmore are incredibly vital to the survival of certain types of wildlife in the English countryside -we have seen a huge decline in the hedgehog population countrywide in the last few years and the green sites around Blackmore provide a safe haven for these creatures. 9. I have a particular problem with the regularisation of the Traveller site on Chelmsford Road as detailed in policy HP08. I served on the Parish Council for a year before I moved to Brentwood so I have experienced first-hand the failure of Brentwood Borough Council to exercise its duty to attempt to remove the Travellers from the site. I have sympathy obviously that the Travellers have had children who now attend the local school - but the very fact that they have been able to settle for that long just provides proof that they are no longer 'travelling'. Further prof has been sent to the Council in recent years of the fact that many 'Travellers' at that site actually own property elsewhere, which invalidates their 'Traveller' status. If this site is regularised, Brentwood is opening its doors to further illegal settlements. And on a personal note I feel this is an affront to honest people who are desperately trying to save to purchase a place to call their own legally - especially in an area of such high house/land prices. 10. Policy SP02 states that new development will be directed towards highly accessible locations along transit/growth corridors. Blackmore is neither of these things.

Site R25 and R26 should be removed from the LDP. Blackmore Village Heritage Association in cooperation with the local Parish Councils will be producing a local needs plan that will look at the actual needs within the local area for what is already a sustainable community rather than producing a plan that just seeks to help the Borough Council meet its housing quota, and planners should instead refer to this and produce an updated plan in cooperation with the local community.

There is no clear strategy for Blackmore and other villages in the north of the borough. Brentwood Borough Council does not appear to have taken into consideration the proposals of neighbouring authorities e.g. Epping Forest District Council is proposing to construct 30 dwellings at the top of Fingrith Hall Lane - the residents of these houses will almost certainly use Blackmore as a local shopping place adding both to the traffic along Fingrith Hall Lane and the parking congestion in the centre of Blackmore village. Both policies R25 and R26 are based upon development off Red Rose Lane which according to the plan will be the main vehicular access. In total the plan as it currently stands s to add 70 homes across the two allocations - Red Rose Lane is a narrow lane most of which is not wide enough to allow two cars to pass one another, but given Blackmore's relatively poor public transport connections we can expect an average of at least two additional cars per household and assuming a minimum of two journeys each day (one in and one out) that is 280 extra cars per day along this narrow lane which has no pavements. In addition, Red Rose Lane signs at each end stating that it is unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles (see photos embedded below) and yet this will be the access route for all the construction traffic for the two sites. Red Rose Lane has drainage ditches running down either side of it which are important for local drainage and widening the road is not a viable option without further increasing the flood risk for the rest of the village. Please also see further comments below concerning the flood risk within the village. Both of these sites are green belt land. Section 2 in paragraph 2.8 of the plan classes Blackmore Settlement Category 3 Which to quote the table under paragraph 2.10 are "Villages in a spare rural setting that provide day to day needs for local residents. Brownfield redevelopment opportunities and limited urban extensions will be encouraged to meet local needs where appropriate. Development should be appropriate to the rural setting of the area. "Adding 70 homes on green belt land in a village with a population of 829 is neither appropriate to the rural setting nor is it brownfield redevelopment. This does not in any way seem to comply with Policy SP01: Sustainable Development which states in paragraph 4.9 "For a scheme to be acceptable, development will require to make satisfactory arrangements for vehicular, cycle and pedestrian access into the site and for parking and servicing within the site. Any traffic generated by the development should be capable of being satisfactorily accommodated by the transport network and not give rise to inaccessible highway conditions, safety and amenity concerns". The LDP proposes that 1% of the net homes should be on green belt land "large villages", a total of 123 homes, and yet 70 of these are proposed for one village - this appears to contradict paragraph 8.101. There is also no justification as to why Blackmore, amongst a number of other settlements should be "excluded from the Green Belt" (paragraph 8.90). In addition the village primary school is already fully subscribed and the local doctor's surgery (which is located in Doddinghurst) is very busy and it can take up to two weeks to obtain an appointment. There is nothing within the development plan to mitigate for this. There is very limited parking in the centre of the village both outside the village shop and the two public houses and tea shops with cars regularly parked along both sides of Fingrith Hall Lane and around Horse Fayre Green and it can be expected that this only will only spread further into the surrounding residential areas and along to the village green with the additional cars that the proposed developments will bring. There does not appear to have been any housing needs survey to demonstrate why Blackmore requires such extensive development. The proposed sites are liable to flooding and building on these and concreting them over will increase the flood risk to the rest of the village. Blackmore lies in a shallow bowl of land at the top of a gentle valley with the River Wid emerging from the south side of The Moat. So, surface water drains from the west, north and east into the village and then around The Moat to become the River Wid. This is ok in normal conditions but when rainfall is extreme the streams and drainage pipes are overwhelmed with flooding of roads which is common and sometimes with danger to homes. There was flooding of roads in the village in June 2016 after heavy rain and I am aware that the home of one of our neighbours was flooded by waters rising from the stream that runs underneath their house in Church Street. Having more hard impermeable surfaces such as roofs, dives, and roads which increase the speed of run-off of surface water will further increase the risk of overwhelming the drainage systems. This seems to totally contradict policy NE06. There is therefore no indication within the LDP as to how the proposed Policy R25 and R26 developments around Blackmore will be "repaired through significant benefits to the new and existing communities" (paragraph 8.114) - in fact due to the size of the proposals it would seem to be to the detriment of the existing community through the addition traffic, congestion and flood risk that would result from these policies.