Lewdown Holdings have submitted a planning application for the Sipson Garden Centre site, the land where a large portion of the community project Grow Heathrow is located. Hillingdon Council’s planning department will be accepting comments on the application from the public until August 6th (TOMORROW!).
The link to the application on the council’s website is here:
http://planning.hillingdon.gov.uk/OcellaWeb/planningDetails?reference=67666/APP/2015/2413&from=planningSearch
Please write to the council why you think this over-development of Green Belt land is a bad idea: Click on the link above and then click on the ‘enter comment’ button
Quick! Only 24 hours to make a comment. Below are some suggested reasons you could use in your statement:
Habitat and health
· The area is designated Green belt land
Green belt land is intended to prevent sprawl of up built areas, to prevent neighbouring towns from merging into each other, to safeguard countryside form encroachment, preserve the special character of historic towns, to assist regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict land).
· The planning application shows no intention of maintaining the land for agricultural use.
· The 52 housing units will be too close to the motorway. Pollution in this area is already twice the EU limit for contaminated air leading to an increase occurrence of respiratory diseases.
· More housing will lead to increased emissions such as traffic congestions in this pollution saturated area.
· The land proposed for development is home to a variety of habitat, providing homes for an array of flora and fauna. The Ecology Report presented by Lewdown Holdings emits any inclusion of the most densely biodiverse areas of the land, with almost a third of the land survey simply labelled ‘no service access’ (Ecology Report 2015: 8, Figure 2.1: Reptile refugia locations). The proposed green area and allotments in in the current plan will not compensate for the loss of habitat and species, especially in the areas that have not been surveyed.
· Biodiversity offsets carbon and local air pollution, and saves species from losing their natural habitat.
There is no indication that the housing would be built from sustainable materials.
Mental well-being has been shown to be adversely affected by an erosion of green spaces and community facilities (Guite, Clark, Ackrill, 2006). The reports provided by Lewdown Holdings do not compensate for the huge loss of local green space which the land is currently used for.
Community ·
Local community groups, a combined effort by Neighbourhood Plan Forum and HASRA aim to purchase the land as an Asset of Community Value in order to offset the aforementioned health and habitat damages that would be caused by developing this green belt land.
· Sipson already has a multitude of unused or short hold lease houses, areas with too many empty homes lead to poor social cohesion and related issues. An aim of Green Belt land is to protect historic character of towns; Sipson and the surrounding villages work towards preserving this character, which would be undermined by new houses being built upon traditional orchard land.
The project using this land has not only dramatically improved this derelict site but it has lifted the morale of the whole local community in the campaign against the third runway; it is integral in planning a sustainable future for our area. This development would undo what’s been achieved to help reverse the trend of blight in the Heathrow villages. “Grow Heathrow is about a living, sustainable, community based future. We should be enabling projects like this not closing them down. Growing food, cooking it and eating together is the glue that has held societies together – we need a lot more of it, not less.” John McDonnell, MP
· Considering the airport expansion plans, it would be completely unethical to put new homes so close to the runway (air pollution, noise pollution, lack of access, road congestion)
Infrastructure and economics
· In the event of airport expansion, local schools such as Heathrow Primary will be wiped off the map and other schools will be over-subscribed by displaced local children. The possibility of families moving into these new 52 housing units and their needs not being met has not been considered.
The planning application hasn’t taken into account the higher numbers of driver produced by 52 housing units. Roads in the surrounding area are already congested with taxi drivers, airport workers as well as local residents.The planned affordable housing and the adjacent open market housing especially do not provide adequate parking. This has not been adequately addressed in the Travel Planning Report (Bacon, Coleman and Blacker, 2015)
· Planning for pedestrian access is unrealistic with only three access points.
· The proposed housing is not sustainable; relying on imported materials and fossil fuels.
· Airport expansion might lead to this new housing being destroyed or becoming uninhabitable due to noise and pollution. This would be a waste of time and resources.
Bibliography
Bacon, Coleman and Blacker, 2015. Sipson Garden Centre Travel Plan WSP UK Limited, Mountbatten House
Guite, H.F., Clark, C, Ackrill, G. 2006. The impact of the physical and urban environment on mental well-being. Public Health, 120, 1117-1126.
Phase 2 Ecology Report:2015 “http://planning.hillingdon.gov.uk/OcellaWeb/showDocuments?reference=67666/APP/2015/2413&module=pl
