Village Voice Oct/Nov Issue 188

GOMM VALLEY
DEVELOPMENT
UPDATE...
The Inspector's Hearing...
The WDC Local Plan Inspector held a Hearing
on 4 September to consider objections to the
proposals for developing Gomm Valley and
Ashwells. P&TGRS had submitted detailed
comments back in November 2017 and
supplementary comments this August to take
account of the subsequent planning application
for the Ashwells site and the takeover of the
main Gomm Valley development by
Human+Nature (H+N).
Both we and the Parish Council concentrated
mainly on the need to avoid the potentially vast
increase in traffic through our village as a
consequence of the County Highway
Authority's repeated view that the Spine Road
effectively provides an additional and more
desirable route down to the A40 London
corridor on to which significant additional
traffic on the network would divert. Their view
is that the new development should be
connected to a widened Cock Lane in order to
cater for this extra traffic.
In contrast, we strongly supported the Local
Plan (Policy HW6, para 4b), which requires 'a
link/spine road designed to minimise and
distribute the impact of additional traffic on the
existing local road network'. We also support
para 5.1.46 of the Local Plan which states that
the Spine Road is 'not intended to act as an
unofficial bypass as this would be detrimental to
P&TG due to the increase in through traffic'.
There is unresolved conflict of policy between
the County and District Council on this issue.
Statements made by WDC on increased
traffic numbers and safety were challenged and
we did not agree that traffic calming measures
on a widened two lane Cock Lane would be
anything like as effective, or as safe, as its
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Village Voice October/November 2018
present single track with passing places. We are
advised that traffic calming measures will slow
traffic down but are unlikely to significantly
reduce traffic volume.
We gave strong support to H+N 's revised
plan for a sinuous route through the proposed
new development and for their proposed
revised connection with an unwidened Cock
Lane. Understandably, they neither want to
encourage commuter traffic through their new
village, nor do they wish to see the loss of the
northern section of Cock Lane as a traditional
Buckinghamshire narrow lane arched over by
trees, which they and we see as a valuable and
effective natural asset.
H+N’s representative notified the Inspector
that a ‘Statement of Common Ground’ had been
agreed with WDC, recognising the justification
for increasing housing numbers. It was claimed
that the original numbers could not support the
infrastructure costs, and it had been accepted by
WDC that the Development Brief would need
to be modified to avoid any cap on housing
numbers. The Inspector requested more detailed
information on this in the form of a viability
statement to be supplied by WDC. It was also
argued that the original proposal of 420 houses
could not realistically support any affordable
homes, but that the H+N scheme would include
up to 40% affordable.
The Inspector gave no indication of her view
and it will be some months before we see her
recommendations. Meanwhile H+N will have
submitted their application to WDC and we will
then need to comment on it. Miles Green
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