Object

Draft Local Plan-Part 2 Site Allocations

Representation ID: 19942

Received: 15/02/2020

Respondent: Mr Richard Snowball

Representation Summary:

Parts of Reedham smell like a third world country in the summer. Reedham infrastructure is not up to the task. The additional houses proposed in your plan will break the infrastructure of the village. Drains, roads, electrical supply, bus service, are all not up to the task. You can't turn a housing estate into a village but you can turn a village into a housing estate. A more organic solution will grow the village at just the same rate but I suspect make less money for any developer. Small is beautiful. Time the planning department took that on board.

Full text:

GNLP1001 Reedham.
If you stand in Station Road at the junction with Barn owl close in any weather at any time of year you can smell the main drain. Parts of Reedham smell like a third world country in the summer or I imagine London before the Victorians built the drainage infrastructure which is still in use to some extent today. The additional houses proposed in your plan will break the infrastructure of the village. Drains, roads, electrical supply, bus service, are all not up to the task. The local primary school has a limited capacity which would be stretched under this plan. Grid lock occurs outside the Primary school at start and end of the day as parents drop of their children and despite the short distances involved this will get worse. Travel times to secondary schools are problematic given the poor train service and distance for bus travel. An extra 30 homes will mean an extra 60 to 80 cars at a conservative estimate on inadequate roads. Then there will be delivery vans and lorries, service vehicles etc. Making the village more dangerous for children, pedestrians and cyclists.
Surface water run off from the proposed site will cause flooding to properties on station road given the propensity for brick weave paving and other solid surface solutions. The views from the Broads of the village has already been degraded by the complete lack of architectural merit in the new builds and the lack of planting and landscaping. This will be more of the same. Where is the tree planting in your proposal. The existing hedges and trees near the new builds have already starting to go despite any "best intention" .
There are many empty houses in Reedham and infill sites waiting to be developed which would probably exceed the number of proposed houses and would provide a more organic growth solution fo the village.
There is no need for the allocation of houses in your plan to be this large for our village. You can't turn a housing estate into a village but you can turn a village into a housing estate. A more organic solution will grow the village at just the same but I suspect make less money for any one mega developer. Small is beautiful. Time the planning department took that on board.