Village Housing Options and Settlement Boundaries

The Parish Council stands by its previous statements of objection to the proposed development within Hampton Magna and its responses to earlier stages of the Local Plan consultation, namely:

* It is inappropriate development in the Green Belt, causing the loss of high grade agricultural land
* No significant local demand for development has been identified
* Air, light & noise pollution will increase, especially in the construction phase
* It will cause significant traffic and transport problems both within the village and on surrounding roads
* The capacity of the infrastructure: roads, sewers and electricity supply, is insufficient

The Parish Council is not assured that the problems identified in its previous objections will be resolved. The WDC response that the issues raised will be addressed and resolved by experts has done nothing to allay our concerns as we have seen little or no detail of how this will be achieved.

For example, the local road and traffic issues were to be resolved (we were advised) by making adjustments to the A4177 traffic light timings, a response that ignores the impact of local plan proposals to adjacent parishes. An expert with local knowledge would have dismissed this as incapable of dealing with the proposed developments as it is already a significant unresolved problem.

The consultation document states that "no local housing needs information is available" for Hampton Magna, but this is incorrect as a Housing Needs Survey of the Parish was produced in 2010. This survey found that only five new homes were needed. We also believe that the statistics quoted under Demographic and Household Headlines are distorted by the inclusion of Norton Lindsey and Hatton in the data making it impossible to draw out specific Hampton Magna data.