The houses should be built on an alternative site

This is a greenfield site that is outside the development boundary.
The access to the site is narrow and has poor visibility. Visibility improvement at the junction with Church Road would be required due to traffic coming from the A143 road, including buses and lorries from the Ellingham Grain Store. Parents park along the road to take and collect children from the school. It is dangerous now having up to 50 additional cars from proposed 25 houses would compound this problem.
There would be implications of further flood risk to carriageway due to extensive concrete bases of the houses.

At best this site not to be used for development at all or to be amended to the original allocation of 12 dwellings which would have less impact.

The visibility at the adjacent bends and the junction with Church Road is dangerous at present. The possibility of 50 + additional cars using this access to the site would only make this worse. There is flooding on the bends and up to and including the site entrance which has had numerable attempts to resolve this with no success.

Significant improvements need to be be made to the whole of the road system (not just close to the site(s)) through the village in the interests of the safety of all road users, but particularly children and families on their way to the nearly local village school.

At its meeting on 20th February, Kirby Cane & Ellingham Parish Council (KCEPC) councillors took the view that the plan was unsound because it did not fulfil the objective “to protect village communities and support rural services and facilities” because there was no indication that the whole of Mill Road, the village’s arterial highway, which is already considered by residents not to be fit for purpose, especially around the junction with Mill Lane, would be improved. Furthermore, in the 2023 site assessment document, in spite of the fact that the NCC Highways score is Red, the site score for this section is given as Amber, presumably because it is the only viable site possible and a Red classification may rule it out for development.
Regardless of improvements to the immediate site access, Mill Lane was too narrow, and the western end towards the school plagued with hazards, leading to the dangerous junction with Church Road. Concerns were also raised about the junction onto the A143, where joining vehicles have to deal with poor visibility while trying to turn into 50-mile-an-hour plus traffic.

Improve existing drainage network substantially.
Exit proposed onto Mill Rd from new development potentially dangerous as close to blind corner so widen road and provide passing places.
Suggest Church Rd considered for such an exit.
Extend and provide continuity of pedestrian pavement all along Mill Rd
Cut off blind bit of play area.
Make Mill Rd One way system or widen the road substantially.

Mill Road itself from 62 to the exit onto Church Road is a very narrow road with a very sharp dangerous blind bend and high traffic usage especially during term time.

There is much footfall along this section to the school by small children, a potential danger to them on the sharp bend when vehicles mount the pavement with warning. The excellent adjacent village play area is well used both during term time and holidays so the danger continues all year round.

It is not possible for a large vehicle such as a lorry white van or bus for example to pass a car and certainly not another large commercial vehicle or even domestic SUV etc. Church Rd is often difficult to access from Mill Rd especially for large vehicles because of school parking issues during term time.

Any vehicle wider than a normally small family car also has to stop opposite my property and wait for the other vehicle to pass.

When we hook up our caravan outside 69 Mill Road cars have to mount the pavement to pass. Buses and lorries cause real anxiety.

The blind bend at the playing field entrance is very narrow and extremely dangerous as vehicles come round on the in the middle or on the opposite side of the road. The high hedge in the playing field makes visibility even more of an issue especially when in full leaf during summer. With your proposal of 49 properties to be built that will use Mill Rd there may well will be an extra 100 vehicles which will use this road. Mill Road is really not suitable in its present form for this amount of traffic.

If you visit the driveway to the properties for 65, 65a, 67 you will see it has major potholes in it caused by vehicles ducking into their drive ways to allow oncoming traffic though. If the owner of this drive places a gate at the end of this drive (which he is strongly considering) then this unauthorised passing place will be removed.

The other major cause for concern is that when large vehicles such as buses , white vans etc (home deliveries increase have amplified this problem greatly) meet on this corner one mounts the pavement opposite to enable passing. This pavement frequently carries children mothers with prams etc on the way to the school. As cars do not adhere to the speed limit here on frequent occasion it is a matter of time before someone may be killed or injured. This is a duty of care issue and needs to be addressed before an accident takes place. Risk assessment is paramount in this situation.



Flooding:

Ironically when heavy rain occurs and causes excess pooling of water it usually accumulates on the section of Mill Road where the new exit for the housing development is proposed. to join Mill Rd. This flooding it still happens today, again a symptom of inadequate drainage, ask the local community at large. This area is opposite the proposed new exit from the new development which is also close to a dangerous blind corner

Pavements:

There is still no pavement opposite the junction at Mill Lane and it is potentially very dangerous when pedestrians walk into Mill Road or vice versa to Mill Lane.

To put a pavement into Mill Lane may well be problematic as some of the verges are privately owned and as you stated in previous planning developments you must have a path in Mill Lane.

There is no continuation of the pavement on the south side of Mill Rd opposite number 69 as was apparently agreed as part of a recent housing development.

This is not about Nimbyism its pointing out the flaws in this proposal as it is. A reality check needs to be done on this proposal and infrastructure improvements put in place for this to meet both the legal and social needs of the community.


Consultation need to be seen to work and not just rubber stamped because of housing needs and target achievements. Planning is usually done and decisions made as to suitability several years before actioned.

This is giving local common sense perceptions to the consultation process which I am sure will be welcomed

A different exit, or preferably, for the villagers safety, a different area.

The access from Mill Road is totally unsuitable. It's the main road through the vilage, it's near a sharp blind bend and has regular flooding. There are buses, and cars, especially ones carrying young children to the local school that are using this bit of road every day. There are cars turning round on the Church Road/Mill Road junction and cars that are parked on the blind bend itself, for the play area. The road turns into a river with reasonable rainfall, and cars have to drive through the village instead.