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Objection lodged to Wainhomes planning application

Bob Egerton, Cornwall Councillor for Probus, Tregony and Grampound:

I object to the Wainhomes planning application. The objection is based primarily on two grounds: adverse impact on the highways and insufficient measures taken to mitigate the impact; adverse impact on the primary school in the village which is currently at capacity and insufficient measures are proposed to mitigate this impact.

At this stage, the detail of the objection will be confined to the highways issue. A further submission will be made once further information becomes available in respect of the potential measures that may be proposed for the school; and further information will be submitted in respect of highways once a fuller traffic census has been completed (to be carried out by myself in conjunction with local residents).

Highways: Tregony Road in Probus is a road with access problems at both ends of it.

At the southern end, there is a T junction on to the 60 mph A390, Probus by-pass. The main road at this point has a long concave bend that means that the visibility distances for vehicles exiting Tregony Road are low and are barely sufficient to be able to judge whether or not it is safe to exit. It is a junction that many local drivers will try to avoid because of the danger involved in using it. It features in the Cornwall Council monitored list of top 300 accident blackspots because of its history of personal injury accidents. In 2012, Cornwall Council made some modifications to the junction to improve it. However, it is generally accepted that the measures taken would only slightly improve the junction and would not completely eliminate the dangers there. As far as I am aware, a full evaluation of the junction since the works were done has not yet been carried out. It continues to be a junction that many local residents are fearful of using.

At the northern end of Tregony Road, towards the village at The Square, the road is narrow, without pavements for much of its length, has cars parked at various places and is of insufficient width for cars to pass safely particularly when pedestrians such as children going to and from school can be in the road. Traffic flows on this section are sufficient to cause problems at the moment; any increase in traffic flows would have a serious adverse impact on users.

The Transport Assessment submitted by the applicant contains numerous errors such as: labelling a road with a name that does not exist; information about buses with incorrect route and timetable details; a likely transposition of data relating to traffic counts on the A390; no attempt to address the safety issues at the junction with the A390 – instead, providing an irrelevant assessment of the capacity of the junction; proposals for the north end of Tregony Road that would exacerbate the congestion rather than mitigate it; no attempt to evaluate whether or not an alternative road access to the site could be achieved.

On balance, the detriment caused by the proposed development would outweigh the benefits of it.

I have submitted a more detailed critique of the planning application documents to the planning officer and to the applicant and this can be viewed at Wainhomes application critique

 

November 2013

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