H1 clause 4a - Arnesby Rd Fleckney

Arnesby Road becomes part of Main Street. Have any planners visited Main Street to see how inappropriate it would be to direct extra traffic into the village centre in this direction? Large sections of Main Street have parked cars which makes it difficult to negotiate with poor visibility around corners and few passing places. Despite this road being marked as unsuitable for heavy goods lorries I have cycled into the village from Arnesby Road only to nearly be sucked under the wheels of a passing lorry hurtling towards the village. Despite his speed we caught him up as he struggled to get by the bottleneck of cars. This road is dangerous with a very slim footpath opposite the church which is impossible to use safely with a buggy. Any new buildings in this area will be isolated from the rest of the village, create further issues with traffic flow thanks to the volume of cars and once again detract from a beautiful section of countryside. The residents of Fleckney are being swamped with applications from builders to build poorly thought out, isolated developments. This is a very poor suggestion for development from our very own planners. Very disappointing.

Whilst the Parish Council is not opposed to the provision of a minimum of 295 new homes over the plan period to 2031 and the specific allocation of 130 homes on the site off Arnesby Road it nevertheless wishes to record that Fleckney Parish has been designated as a Neighbourhood Plan Area and that work has begun on the preparation of the Fleckney Neighbourhood Plan. The Neighbourhood Plan will allocate sites for housing development following the rigorous appraisal of individual sites against clearly defined criteria.

The Parish Council wish to work constructively with the District Council to ensure that the allocation of development sites is made through the neighbourhood planning process rather than the Local Plan.

Notwithstanding my clients support for the overall target of 295 dwellings for Fleckney, the allocation of land at Arnesby Road for 130 dwellings (a significant proportion of the overall quantum of development in the village) without reference to the emerging Neighbourhood Plan risks full consideration of the views of the Parish Council who are preparing the Plan not taking place. It is understood that my clients site at High Street is favoured for allocation in the NP - this would potentially cause confusion if different sites were allocated in different documents.