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Sidford Business Park > it’s all about the traffic

  • by JW

The hearing into the appeal to build an industrial estate on the edge of Sidford will be heard next month:

Sidford Business Park: public hearing: 16th July

 

The Say No campaign group has issued its latest statement:

Sidford Business Park > Campaign Update 28

With more here:

Say NO to Sidford Business Park

 

And now the District Council has sent out formal notice of the hearing – and its own take has been that the application should be rejected on the grounds of too much traffic:

Sidford employment site outline planning application refused on highway safety grounds

 

Daniel Craig reports in Devon Live on the latest arguments over traffic:

 

Objectors outline traffic chaos and safety concerns over Sidford business park plans

But the applicants say increase in traffic will be ‘insignificant’ and the highways refusal cannot be justified

Traffic chaos, pollution and increased dangers to pedestrians and cyclists forced to use a main road would only get worse if plans for a new business park were built, a planning inquiry will be told.

Plans to build industrial, storage and business units on agricultural land to the east of Two Bridges Road in Sidford were rejected by East Devon District Council last year on the grounds of harm to highway safety, relating to increased heavy goods vehicle usage of the area’s narrow roads.

The applicant Tim Ford has appealed the decision and a planning inquiry in front of an inspector will take place in July. They have said the proposals would only see an increase of around six per cent of the number of HGVs on the road, a number they call ‘insignificant’, and therefore the refusal on the ‘severe’ highway safety grounds cannot be supported.

But East Devon District Council in their appeal statement stand by the refusal grounds, saying there would be severe impacts in Sidford and Sidbury.

And the Say NO To Sidford Business Park Campaign, in their third party submissions to the inquiry detail concerns of parents already unable to walk safely along the A375, instances where lorries and buses in opposite directions have caused traffic jams, and HGVs constantly having to mount the pavements due to the narrow roads.

The plan, which would see a change of use of land from agricultural use at Two Bridges to employment use, aims to provide 8,445 sqm of new floorspace, had proved controversial in the village.

Objectors outline traffic chaos and safety concerns over Sidford business park plans