Fairfield Parish Council has responded as follows to the CBC Draft Local Plan:
Fairfield Parish Council is disappointed with the CBC draft Local Plan in many respects not least
the proposed relief road for Arlesey passes approximately 100 meters from the FPC boundary.
Not only will this bring unwanted traffic noise to the western end of Fairfield, it also means that the
buffer zone between the two conurbations is very narrow and hardly matches the grandiose title of
“Country Park” which it is afforded in the plan.
of the Countries leading house builders that company is hardly likely to release the land for
recreation when the road will give them the access that has prevented them moving forward todate.
If such a development was permitted either by CBC or on appeal to a planning inspector
would cause major problems to the infrastructure of Fairfield.
The nearest lower school would be Fairfield, while access to shopping would be to Fairfield’s one
and only shop that already causes traffic mayhem at key times of the day.
FPC received little comfort on this point when it was raised at a meeting with the developers,
Axiom, who are putting forward the plan for East of Fairfield when they said that this area of land
was not included in their proposals.
In our view, omitting it from their proposals of inadequate leisure proposals, leaves the door wide
open for the land owner to submit an application.
The Fairfield Neighbourhood and Parish Plan underline the urgent need for recreation facilities for
older children and families for the village. This was totally neglected in the Fairfield Master Plan
and nearing 20 years since the development started and is now urgent.
However, the Local Plan deals with recreation facilities elsewhere within Central Bedfordshire but
does not raise any hope for Fairfield, nor does the community plan being worked on by CBC.
In our view, the traffic management plan being proposed does not work. The addition of 900
houses on Arlesey Cross and 2,000 in the East of Arlesey proposals will cause intolerable
pressure on the road into Ickleford and Letchworth. Ickleford already has a narrow bridge that
causes traffic issues at peak times.
With the many developments proposed in the North Herts Local Plan and now the CBC local plan,
Fairfield is in grave danger of becoming urbanised by default.
Our final point is that it is not clear whether the proposed 2,000 homes are all houses or a mix of
houses and apartments.
In summary:
a) The proposed route of the Arlesey relief road passes too close to the borders of Fairfield.
b) The so-called buffer zone is in fact a very thin strip of some 100 metres depth which is not
sufficient.
c) CBC has once again ignored the urgent need for facilities for a village extremely short in its
infrastructure.
d) The traffic management proposals fall short and will create bottlenecks in and around Fairfield
where the Hitchin/Stotfold Road leading from the A507 to Letchworth is already overcrowded.
Last modified: September 6, 2017