Archive for category: News

Minutes

Meeting – Hilton Parish Council and A14 Delivery Team 06.04.18

Hilton Village Hall 2.00pm

Present:–

A14 Delivery Team- Pam Hobson (Stakeholder Director), Dave Forbes (Construction Manager),  Jason Robinson (Senior General Foreman).

Parish Council – Graham Baradell (Councillor) & Jo Perez (Clerk)

1. A14 traffic through the village.

The A14 delivery team explained the reasons why Hilton has been experiencing heavy volumes of A14 construction traffic and what they are setting into place to stop this issue continuing.

Bad Weather has meant that the haul road has been impassable for some time and therefore vehicles are using main roads. The route A14 construction vehicles should be using is the current A14 and vehicles should not be using the Village unless the A14 is closed.

The wording that had been given to all employees has been ambiguous and not entirely clear. This will change. New wording with warnings will be given to all employees and this will include all suppliers/contractors working on the A14 project.  All A14 workers will have in their vehicles details of the route they should be taking when the haul road is impassable. The new wording will clearly state that there is NO vehicle access through the Village unless the A14 is CLOSED. This means that even if the A14 traffic is slow or a lane blocked they will still have to use the current A14. If the PC has reports of vehicles through the village, and the vehicle registration can be provided so the driver identified, then employees will be removed from the project.

If a vehicle is stopped they must produce the new wording that all employees will be required to carry in their vehicles and we can insist that this is adhered to.

All managers and supplier managers are to be briefed on the new wording. Monitoring will take place over the next two weeks and then as and when required. Current monitoring is being carried out in different areas of the village in order to make sure everyone is abiding to the rules.

The PC Clerk will be informed when the A14 is closed and the Village is likely to see an increase in A14 construction traffic.

It is hoped that by September 2018 that the section of the new A14 between Godmanchester and St Ives will be sufficiently progressed that all construction traffic can then use the new alignment

2. Verges and road edges.

The Parish Council advised the A14 delivery team that there has be significant damage caused to our roads and verges. In places it is clear that the large A14 construction vehicles have mounted verges and caused damage. There has also been an increase in pot holes and exposed pavement/road at the road edges. The A14 delivery team expressed that as a gesture of goodwill that they will make repairs to the verges where necessary. This will hopefully happen early autumn once there is uninterrupted access through the works and there is no longer a possibility of A14 construction traffic using the Village.

3. NMU Path on the B1040 Bridge.

The Parish Council has requested that the NMU Path on the B1040 Bridge be to the east side. This would hopefully make the possibility of the Parish Council securing a Footpath/cyclepath out of the Village a lot easier.

Unfortunately the NMU has already been planned for the west side of the B1040 and utility companies have already laid cables to the west. Therefore it is too late to make any changes as this would be too costly and delay the opening of the bridge and potentially the new A14.

This is very disappointing news as the PC has been asking for this information since at least November of last year and even recently the clerk was advised that this “ could be discussed at this meeting and we can go from there”,  this implied that nothing was set in stone.  At the meeting it was advised that it would not have been possible to change the bridge design back in November, but this was not made known to us.

The PC has asked for further information on the NMU planned on the Hilton Road.

4. 2m bund between the road and Village.

Bunds will be in place 1-2years ahead of the opening of the new A14. Some bunds have already been formed and planting will take place between September 2018- March 2019. The plants will be smaller plants to give them a better chance of establishing themselves and surviving.

5. General progress

It is hoped that the Bridge on the B1040 will be open sometime in June 2018. Hilton Road Bridge should not be too far behind. There are no lights on either of the Bridges.

HPC-Response to Local Plan to 2036-03

HPC-Response to Local Plan to 2036-Proposed Submission-04

Hilton Parish Council (HPC) – 12^th January 2018

Ref: Huntingdonshire’s Local Plan to 2036 – Proposed Submission

This representation was discussed in a public meeting held on 16^th January 2018 and was voted unanimously in favour of its submission to Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC) by Hilton Parish Council.

Representation:

Hilton Parish Council (HPC) submitted a detailed response to the Consultation Draft of this document, Huntingdonshire’s Local Plan to 2036, on the 21^st August 2017. Since then we have received a revised version of the Local Plan to 2036, referred to as the Proposed Submission, which Huntingdonshire District Council (HDC) will seek to adopt.

This representation addresses the material differences between the Consultation Draft and this latest Proposed Submission version of the Local plan to 2036 and determines the new draft is no longer sound. Specifically policies which directly affect the village parish of Hilton, both in terms of the scope for future development within the village or development which would directly affect the village such as surrounding infrastructure, large developments nearby, traffic policy etc.

LP1 Amount of development

The policy states: “In Huntingdonshire in the period 2011-2036 provision will be made for at least 20,100 new homes (both market and affordable), and approximately 14,400 additional jobs”.

To put this into context there are approximately 70,000 households in Huntingdonshire, (CCCRG Estimate2009). St Neots has approximately 12,000 households. Residents are already experiencing the effects of development and the pressure this applies to local infrastructure and services.

HPC acknowledge that the number of new houses required is a result of national pressures; however we do look to Huntingdon District Council (HDC) to ensure the development in services and infrastructure will keep pace, especially in regards to the increase in traffic.

LP2 Strategy for Development

The policy states “Approximately a quarter of the objectively assessed need for housing, together with a limited amount of employment growth, will be permitted on sites dispersed across the key service centres, local service centres and small settlements to support the vitality of these communities and provide flexibility and diversity in the housing supply”.

Including Small Settlements in this group is new and indicates a change in thinking by HDC. It appears for the first time that HDC are making provision in new planning policy to expand Small Settlements despite making clear in previous drafts that this would not be supported.

Previous drafts have stressed the importance of concentrating new sustainable development in Spatial Planning Areas and Key Service Centres, where there is the potential to provide, the most comprehensive range of services and facilities and not expand small settlements which would result in more journeys. This seemed eminently sensible and had the support of HPC.

LP8 Key Service Centres

Fenstanton has been identified as a key service centre and as such housing development would be supported.  The policy states “A proposal for development on land well-related to the built-up area may be supported where it accords with the specific opportunities allowed for through other policies of this plan”. There is no definition in the Local Plan as what well-related means. As Hilton is close by to Fenstanton could Hilton be considered well-related?

LP10 Small Settlements

The new version of this policy indicates a change in tone and appears to acknowledge housing development in small settlements may be beneficial. Gone is the line from the policy “small settlements have a limited role in delivering sustainable development” replaced by a number of paragraphs in the reasoning section outlining “the potential benefits of promoting some growth within Small Settlements”.

There are now only three criteria limiting the level of development:

1. level of service and infrastructure provision within the settlement;
2. opportunities for users of the proposed development to access everyday services and facilities by sustainable modes of travel including walking, cycling and public transport;
3. effect on the character of the immediate locality and the settlement as a whole

In the ‘reasoning’ section the statement does not give a specific definition as to what level of service, facilities or infrastructure would be required for development to be acceptable.  There is no specific guidance for planning other than to say each site application will be judged on its merit, vis-a-vis the above criteria. This guidance is now subjective and open to interpretation and could have adverse effect on all small settlements in Huntingdonshire.

LP11 The Countryside

The policy undertakes to “protect the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside” but then goes on to say “avoiding the irreversible loss of the best and most versatile agricultural land(Grade1to3a) where possible”.  The expression where possible is vague and open to differing interpretations of when is possible or not. If the objective was to truly protect the countryside and the rural economy the expectation would be that all productive agricultural land would be protected from development.

Conclusion

The original principle of concentrating housing development in locations which provide the greatest potential for a comprehensive range of services is valid and the latest draft still supports this. However there is a softening in the guidance in respect to Small Settlements which indicates HDC are prepared to support development under certain, much more subjective, conditions. Considering this change of tone together with the recent Housing & Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA), it is hard not to come to the conclusion that in order for CCC/HDC to meet its national housing targets it is casting the net wider for suitable sites which now includes Small Settlements. This would be a mistake and we urge HDC to adhere to its original principles in the allocation of sustainable development sites.

For these reasons Hilton Parish Council does not support this latest version of the Local Plan to 2036 as it is no longer sound. We formally object to these changes and ask for this representation to be presented to the inspector.

END

Hilton Parish Council would like to thank all those who participated in the recent bus survey. The survey was conducted so the council could fully understand the effect the loss of a service through the village would have.

You can find the conclusion to the survey below and also the timetable for the new Dews service, although please bear in mind, this service is only temporary.

Bus Survey Conclusions Nov 2017

Dews 9 timetable