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Barkway Golf Course Planning Application |
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22nd September 2009 Barkway Parish Council is somewhat relieved that this morning Herts County Council Central Planning Committee voted unanimously to reject the recent application by Barkway Golf Park to develop a 3 hole golf academy on land adjacent to the current golf course, by the import of 100,000 metric tonnes of inert building debris. Whilst we fully support Barkway Golf park, in this instance we were compelled to object due to the method that they wished to use to create the new holes. It would have meant an unprecedented amount of heavy goods vehicle movements and an extremely long period of works of up to 2 years, the permanent irreversible loss of prime agricultural land, and would have created a massive disturbance to the community and roads. At the hearing, the agents representative mentioned that the Golf Club may appeal against refusal, however we are of the firm belief as are our technical advisors, that there are too many obstacles for the Club to overcome with their current proposal, to enable an appeal to have any chance of success. We are of the firm belief that the proposed Academy can be created in a far shorter period with minimum disruption by reshaping the existing land and the import of smaller quantities of local indigenous material and would welcome discussion with the Golf Club owner if such an application using this methodology were to be submitted. Update - 30th June 2009 It now transpires that in the case of the recent Anstey Quarry application, the Planning Committee dismissed the Buckland Road route as unsuitable for HGVs. This leaves the situation where, as part of the application process, the Planning Committee, could reject the applicants route proposal and re-route the vehicles via the B1368 (the only other alternative)
19th June 2009
The application was withdrawn on the advice of the planning officers who
felt that the amount of material to be used, namely imported building
rubble and subsoil, was far too excessive at over 300,000 tonnes.
We have learned today that a new application has been made, which to all
intents and purposes is exactly the same as the earlier application,
except that the amount of material has been reduced to 100,000 tonnes.
All other details remain the same.
The application will involve
Import of up to 100,000 cubic metres of subsoil and building waste.
A period of 2 years
Up to 50 lorries per day going into and out of the site
The proposed route involves the A10, Buckland Road, London Road and
Nuthampsted Road.
Barkway Parish Council raised several objections to the original
application, which we will resubmit for the new application.
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The proposed route is completely unsuitable. The road with does not
permit 2 cars to pass let alone 1 lorry and a car. It is a well logged
experience therefore in these circumstances that lorry drivers begin to
use alternative routes to gain access to the site, and in this case this
may well involve lorries passing up and down the High Street in each
direction. In recent weeks, we have experienced what quarry lorries can
feel like on a frequent basis due to the works to create the new cricket
pitch at Cokenach. These works are only for a few weeks and are fairly
limited. The Golf Course works will be 15-20 times worse and for up to 2
years.
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The unsighted junction of Buckland Road onto London Road is too
hazardous to support 100 vehicles using it; to do so the vehicles must
use both lanes of London Road. Whilst site manager and developer are
supposed to ensure vehicles use the accepted route, it is known that
this does not happen, and lorry drivers regularly overlook this, meaning
they could in fact come from all directions along the B1368
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The Golf Course claims this will improve their facilities, but appear to
fail to acknowledge that the soil will be processed on the corner of the
site next to the clubhouse and first tee. This will create a major
distraction to golfers and will be detrimental to their business,
perhaps even causing a reduction in membership. Considering the project
is to take up to 2 years to complete.
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The Golf Course appears to have no actual business plan for their Golf
Academy, at least none that is known.
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Whilst dust reduction is required on the site, its is well acknowledged
that dust management is for the most part ineffectual, therefore , based
on prevailing winds, we can expect dust to hit either Barkway, or
Nuthampstead on a regular basis.
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The design of the new 3 holes is completely out of character with the
surrounding geography and will stand out a mile
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The land to be used is 70% top grade (excellent) and 30% B grade (very
good) agricultural land. This land will be lost for agriculture for
perpetuity as a result of the changes proposed.
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The works will force the closure and alteration to a very popular bridle
path, and when it is re-opened it will be altered with rises and falls,
and will cross a fairway, to the risk of rider and horse.
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Nuthampstead Road, again not truly full width will become a hazard to
drive upon particularly with the blind summit, and the narrow bridge.
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The Noise of the works will be substantial, and carried easily on the
wind into Barkway and Nuthampstead.
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Bridge over the river on Nuthampstead Road - Highways had some concerns
over its ability to take heavy goods during the first application, it is
not clear what they decided upon. Iain Leech will forward me a contact
at Herts Highways to try and glean this information
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The
nuisance factor of the traffic may seriously affect business at the
Tally Ho Inn at a time when village pubs are struggling to remain in
business. The noise and dust from 100 lorries passing its doorstep and
roadside garden will drive away customers and as a result, could force
its closure. The thought of the loss of the village pub is unbearable.
It is a selling feature for the village, and to lose it would be a
disaster. - At a similar exercise in North Weald. The agent for this development, was less than honest about his intentions. Click here for newspaper article about the developer and North Weald
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Note at North Weald he only needed 3 months to complete the works with
100,000 tonnes of material, but at Barkway he needs 2 years.
Whilst Barkway Parish Council fully supports Barkway Golf Park, we are
again faced with the situation that this development is wholly
unsuitable, due to the length of the works, the method used to create
the 3 new holes and the fact that the roads around Barkway cannot
possibly support further increased heavy traffic, whilst they are in
such a poor state of repair and continue to receive minimal policing.
The proposed works will create nuisance traffic, noise and dust for both
Barkway and Nuthampstead, plus create far too many opportunities for
accidents on our roads, or damage to parked cars.
We therefore recommend to oppose this application and, just as in
previous events of this nature, urge concerned residents to write
letters of objection to the Planning Officers as below. You may write as
many letters of objection as you wish, as long as each letter obtains a
separate point of objection; and you may write more than one letter per
household. Each letter counts as one objection and it is the belief of
the developer, that there will be very little objection to his
application, and like in North Weald, and several other sites he has
“developed”, he will get his way and make a lot of money in yet another
landfill exercise disguised as a golf course development. He will
benefit, whilst our quality of life will suffer.
The Full application can be read at: http://www.hertsdirect.org/ePlanningOPS/loadFullDetails.do?aplId=19887
Letters and emails of objection should be sent to :
Mr Iain Leech
THE CLOSING DATE FOR LETTERS OF OBJECTION IS 23 JULY 2009
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