Silver Street Development Seeking Outline Planning Permission at HDC DMC on 20th September

UPDATE: 22nd September 2021:

The DMC approved the Outline Planning Permission for the Silver Street Development with one vote against and one abstention on the 20th September.

In summary, the Parish Council hopes that the many conditions on the site are upheld and in this regard, along with the section 106 allocations and the 25% CIL achieved, following the approval of the Neighbourhood Plan, we have been successful. That said, the Parish Council is disappointed in the outcome because the site goes ahead with a lot of unknowns, particularly around  local traffic, flooding and Climate Change, which we believe should have been given far greater consideration in the planning process.

At a debrief with members of the Large Scale Planning Committee any next steps that can taken to ensure the safety of residents from the impact of the above concerns will be discussed.

I sincerely thank all residents who have assisted the Committee, provided their opinions to the planning authorities and kept an eye on the Lucks Lane development during this application.  

Many thanks for your support,

Martin Hassall

Buckden Parish Councillor

Chair Large-Scale Planning Committee

 

 

The proposed Silver Street Development goes to HDC Planning Development Management Committee on Monday 20th September with the aim of receiving Outline Planning Permission. BPC has submitted the attached report and made a number of objections as described in the following note sent to DMC members:

Dear DMC Member,

 

I am writing to you, as Chair of the Buckden Parish Council’s (BPC) Large-Scale Planning Committee, to highlight the complexity of the Silver Street, Buckden – Planning Application No 18/02753/OUT. Amongst the many issues with the site, there are 3 critical areas that I wish to draw your attention to. This is because the negative implications of the application are wider than the site and will impact both the village and the wider Huntingdonshire A1 localities. These are:

 

• Highways England (HE) have independently reviewed the A1 proposal and the associated HE decision making – outcome not due to report that until 7th October (AFTER DMC MEETING) – BPC wishes to defer any planning decision until senior Executives from HE meet with senior HDC planning officers as requested by HE. A DMC agenda deferral has been requested but no response has been received from HDC Planning.
  • No account has been taken of the development’s Traffic Light Proposal on the A428 development traffic on the A1 or vise versa –  both of which will be relevant to the impact of proposed development on traffic volumes.
  • An independent report commissioned by BPC using Highways England approved engineers indicated that the Buckden Roundabout is too small for traffic lights and will have a negative impact on road safety.
  • No data has been made available nor analysis undertaken to demonstrate how the impact of additional traffic, on the roads and junctions identified, in the newly made Neighbourhood Plan Transport policies, will be satisfactorily resolved.

• Flooding risks not fully addressed
  • Buckden sits on top of a series of ancient river channels. Rain water, that can be from many miles away, travels along these channels preventing surface water infiltration and causing groundwater flooding. Solutions such as Attenuation Basins and porous soils do not work because they actually encourage the ‘under pressure’ groundwater to come to the surface. Silver Street will disrupt and block the channels under the site, potentially causing flooding to the Heritage Centre of the village to the West. The experience of flooding on the Lucks Lane development, connected to the same groundwater channel system, illustrates the current failure to manage groundwater flooding via planning conditions. To date measures have failed to prevent flood events. Please see picture below of an overrun Lucks Lane Attenuation Basin, which had to be emptied by bowser earlier in the year:

• Climate Change ignored
  • A primary area where the application is not compliant with the newly made Neighbourhood Plan and NPPF. All mention of climate change has been omitted from the Officers’ Report. It may be convenient to ignore, but the past is no longer the key to the future due to climate change.  Groundwater and wet weather patterns can no longer be forecast with existing 100-year event type predictions. The Local Flood Authority’s Silver Street report has expressed concern over additional surface water contributing to an already compromised system. Groundwater channel disruption as described above has not been mentioned in the submission document.

In summary, on behalf of BPC, I conclude that granting Outline Planning Permission at this time would be premature. Non-compliance with the newly made Neighbourhood Plan and NPPF 2021 are failures in process that could be upheld on Judicial Review. BPC recommends that the DMC decision be refusal or the decision deferred until these matters have been addressed and the HE meeting with senior planning officers has taken place.  I attach a PDF of the BPC report to the DMC meeting that provides more detail.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

Martin Hassall

Buckden Parish Councillor

Chair Large-Scale Planning Committee

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