Parish Council Response to the North Falls Consultation

Response to North Falls Statutory Consultation

Little Bromley Parish Council (LBPC) strongly oppose North Falls proposal for development of onshore infrastructure in the parish of Little Bromley. We do support your Option 3 for the projects National Grid connection point, an Offshore electrical connection supplied by a third party electricity distribution network provider. An onshore development would industrialise our precious rural landscape with a large substation and large swathes of farmland permanently affected by underground cabling. Such a development would be a permanent disfigurement of the parish, remove valuable arable land necessary for food security from production, generate significant construction and ongoing noise, and affect residents and community amenities. There is concern that the development will negatively affect sale potential and sale value of properties in the area. LBPC understand that North Falls is working in Tendring District and Little Bromley as you have been offered a connection into the proposed National Grid East Anglia Connection substation. The National Grid project is very contentious with over 23,000 people having signed a petition calling for an offshore grid. Across East Anglia residents, parish councils, district councils, county councils and members of parliament (OFFSET group of MP’s) have united in voicing their opposition to the current National Grid plans. With an offshore connection there would be no need for your development onshore. LBPC ask that North Falls support and participate in the DESNZ OTNR supporting the offshore option. The cumulative effect of the currently planned North Falls onshore development together with those planned by Five Estuaries and National Grid is devastating for Little Bromley and is causing many residents anxiety and stress. Specific concerns we have with the North Falls onshore plans as detailed in this Consultation are as follows: • Visual Impact - The potential visual impact for the entire parish from the North Falls substation is major. The scale of the substation within its 60Ha search area is large (267m x 300m - 8Ha), with the height of the substation buildings being up to 15m. LBPC believe any proposed screening cannot be entirely effective. We note that you have chosen not to define your plans for screening and visual mitigation at this time which is disappointing. LBPC would like to understand these plans, what visual mitigations will be in place and how these will improve over time. • Operational Noise - LBPC note that you have not provided any estimates for actual noise from the substation as equipment is not yet selected. However you suggest an upper limit of 35dBA (as measured at the nearest receptor). LBPC believes that this is too high. LBPC believe that it is essential that residents have a clear understanding of noise levels and mitigation measures in place. As can be seen from background noise measurements, Little Bromley is a very quiet area, and LBPC believe that any noise increase with consequent reduction in quality of life for residents is unacceptable. Written Correspondence to: The Clerk, Dakas House, Shop Road, Little Bromley, Manningtree CO11 2PX LITTLE BROMLEY PARISH COUNCIL Clerk: Mrs Dawn Sauka Chairman: Mr Jon Buxton Tel: 07977 498297 Tel: 07484 617583 Email: li lebromleypc [at] gmail.com • Construction Noise - The construction period of 12-hours per day, 6 days a week for many years will be hugely disruptive to the village and surrounding area. LBPC believes that construction noise will be intrusive to the village and surrounding areas. You have identified a number of NVSR’s in the Parish who will be affected even after designed mitigation. LBPC also believe that different noise types can be particularly penetrating - for example a back-up alarm or vehicle motion alarm can be clearly heard over a long distance. It would be helpful to understand what additional mitigation measures could be included to reduce construction noise. • Construction Traffic - The predicted HGV traffic during the construction period is exceptionally high with, for North Falls traffic alone, a growth of 1,457% growth from today on Bentley Road (257 HGV’s per day at peak). With a 12 hour work day this would indicate an average of 21 HGV movements per hour, or one every 3 minutes. If you include traffic flows for Five Estuaries as well the HGV traffic growth on Bentley Road is 2,959% with peak traffic of 503 HGV’s per day. This equates to a 42 HGV movements every hour, or one every 1.5 minutes. Bentley Road and all roads in the parish of Little Bromley are not designed for such traffic volumes and size. It is not possible for two HGV’s to pass on most roads without one of the vehicles mounting the road verge, with subsequent verge damage. The roads themselves are in poor repair, and with this volume of HGV’s will deteriorate further and faster. LBPC would like to understand how North Falls will mitigate these highway problems. • Construction Dust and Mud - North Falls are planning a 5-year construction project which will create significant dust, dirt and mud on roads. Residents properties and gardens will be affected, and our roads will be affected. LBPC would like to understand how North Falls plan to mitigate this. • Construction Traffic Management - LBPC understand that the current traffic management plan is essentially for traffic to be removed from the public highways onto haul roads. It has not been made clear how access of North Falls traffic into and out of haul roads will be achieved - will this be by traffic light control for example - as this could cause delays in the local road network. With predicted traffic volumes for Bentley Road if access is poorly implemented then significant traffic delays and problems could be created. LBPC would also like to understand how North Falls will ensure and police that HGV’s and other development traffic does not route through the village of Little Bromley and surrounding single track roads. • Route Disruption - LBPC believe the impact on the local road network around Little Bromley parish will be high. Bentley Road, Paynes Lane, Spratts Lane, Barlon Road, Ardleigh Road and Grange Road will all be crossed by the Export Cable Corridor and Haul Roads. LBPC understand that Bentley Road will be crossed using HDD and we have been advised that the other roads listed will be open trenched. With all these roads affected there will be major disruption to village, farm and business traffic flows, with the key access into the A120 severely restricted. LBPC believe that there is a real risk of Bentley Road effectively being unusable by local traffic, such that the village and surrounding towns main link to the A120 will be severed. • Loss of Village Amenity - The North Falls development and associated facilities such as haul roads, temporary construction compounds and haul road access points will be highly disruptive to day-today village life. Quiet country roads and Public Rights of Way will be affected impacting residents, walkers, cyclists and horse riders. There are many farms which need access to their properties and fields at all times of year, and especially during harvest. Annual events such as the Little Bromley 10k race and the Corbeau Seats Rally use many of the roads and areas of the parish that will be affected by the development. Both these events raise significant funds for local charities. An important village social gathering point is St Marys Church (Grade II* Listed by National Heritage), which will have the underground cabling and haul road passing close and have major development close by. St Marys is maintained by the Church’s Conservation Trust, with many events organised by the Friends of Little Bromley Church. Services are still carried out on an occasional basis at the Church. The village bus service runs down Bentley Road, and school buses run daily during term time to take local children to their schools. • Business Impact - With road diversions and closures and large parts of the parish under development our village businesses, many of which depend on local road access by customers , could be seriously affected. Written Correspondence to: The Clerk, Dakas House, Shop Road, Little Bromley, Manningtree CO11 2PX • Village Well Water - Many properties in Little Bromley have no mains water connection and are reliant on well water. There is concern on whether the North Falls development will affect the water sources in the village and affect these water supplies. Extension of the water main to these properties would seem to be the only way to guarantee continuity of supply. • Village Drainage - Little Bromley has a very high water table and during wet periods localised flooding and drainage problems can occur. There is concern on whether the North Falls development will affect the village drainage flows and increase the frequency or scale of these events. • Wildlife and Environmental Impact - Little Bromley parish has a rich and varied wildlife population as identified by wildlife surveys. This includes many species of waterbirds and non-waterbirds. We are very close to the Stour Estuary SSI and Ramsar site, and surveys indicate bird species present which are related to those sites. Badgers, hares, foxes, deer, bats and other mammals can be found in the parish. Grass snakes are regular seen in the summer. These all thrive in the parish, as we have woodland, extensive hedgerows and arable margins some of which will be affected by your planned development. The migratory bird route across East Anglia, the East Atlantic Flyway, has gained Government backing to bid to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Major developments such as planned by Five Estuaries, North Falls and National Grid will have serious impact. Potential exists for protected or notable species to be impacted by construction activities either physically via permanent or temporary habitat loss or by inadvertent injury or killing or from disturbance via light, noise and human presence. There is potential for permanent habitat fragmentation and species isolation as a result of the substation construction and also from construction of the cable route. The substation construction will bring a permanent loss of an estimated 8Ha of habitat together with the additional loss of the temporary construction compound areas and the cable route during construction.

Little Bromley Parish Council