Letter to Editor: The Stort River Crossing: Harlow gets nothing except all of the damage.
News / Wed 23rd Feb 2022 at 02:03pm
Forward
THE planning application for a crossing across the River Stort was approved by East Herts Council last night (Tuesday).
The major part of the crossing is in Harlow, therefore, the application will also be heard in front of the HARLOW Council planning committee on Wednesday night.
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AN open letter to our councillors for Church Langley and Newhall and other concerned individuals.
Naisha Polaine publically told the Harlow Civic Society that the vision for Harlow and Gilston Garden Town (HGGT) was that residents would ” pop in their cars down to the tube station “.
That will be an 11 mile journey to Epping through Harlow. Adding to congestion and pollution.
So much for a green development.
The demographic of the target market for HGGT indicates they will not wish to be associated with Harlow.
This is clearly stated in their Neighbourhood Plan. Harlow is simply seen as literally the waste disposal, sewage and flood water and construction traffic routes for East Herts/Gilston.
Harlow gets nothing except all of the damage.
The proposed Eastern Crossing, a highly damaging raised road (not a bridge) passed by East Herts Council last night only benefits East Herts Council at the expense of Harlow and the destruction of the tranquil and valuable natural nature reserve that is the Stort Valley.
The Central Crossing will destroy flood plain and contribute to a highly flawed transport plan for Harlow that will increase congestion and pollution.
HGGT’s own consultants have warned that the Eastern Crossing will increase flooding in the Valley and in Harlow homes. This increased flooding will much increase the release of raw sewage into the environment.
The Thames trunk sewer is assumed to be of sufficient capacity to cope but as seen by the increased frequency of sewage discharges it is already frequently overloaded.
Cllrs need to question the HGGT representatives, who at the East Herts Council meeting last night dismissed the damage to Harlow as inevitable collateral damage for the greater good of East Herts.
Harlow will only get the congestion and pollution and flooding and no benefits from the executive homes being built up on the hill.
There are other greener and actually lower cost options than building the Eastern crossing but HGGT are not concerned because the vast majority of the funding is coming from our pockets, the taxpayers.
Even civil engineers working on the design of the raised road crossing have expressed severe concerns especially about pollution, the consequences of the disturbance of 75 year old waste dumps along the proposed Eastern crossing raised road routes.
These plans need to be blocked. Legal challenges blocked the previous planning meetings because the irregularities in these plans that will expose the council to being sued and open the door to a judicial review.
No new plans have been submitted so this has not changed.
Harlow Council can’t afford this and needs to stand up for Harlow and block these plans.
Consultation was inadequate and hidden and even now detrimental design changes to cut costs are being made.
Overall the crossings decrease biodiversity metrics and fail to meet the most basic requirements of the new Environment Bill which requires a 10 percent increase biodiversity.
At Herts planning last night HGGT lawyers and the council admitted this increase could not be achieved yet the East Herts Planning committee decided to vote through by a majority decision.
Friends of Latton Island and the 6000 residents from Harlow who petitioned against the crossings are not opposing HHGT by demand that the development is done better and the better greener and less costly transport plans and options are developed in consultation with the community.
Robert Halfon, our MP has in Parliament and locally strongly urged HHGT, of which Harlow Council is a party, to go back to the drawing board.
If Harlow Council Conservatives cannot recognise the wisdom of their own party MP then as things fall apart over the town as construction progresses then confidence in you all, already as indicated by turn out in elections, will disappear entirely.
Send these plans back to the drawing board tonight.
Kind regards
Edward Vine
Angela Kurton
2022-02-23 15:00:40
Edward, thank you for your articulate and truthful letter, and may I applaud you for speaking your truth under your own name. I am increasingly wary of contributors on this website who conceal their identities, although I no longer attach any value to contributions made by such people. Their content has no value in my eyes.
Yasmin Gregory
2022-02-23 15:03:16
This is an ideal opportunity for Harlow Council to look to the future. Last nights meeting was full of “It is thought/believed …” but I asked “ but what if the plans to build don’t happen” and was told that the plans will go ahead. The council officer and legal officer stressed to the councillors that the approval of the road widening and flyover were not premature or predetermined though. If you move into a house that needs building work, you use the current entrance and then when all the work is finished, then you complete the driveway. Cart before the horse was used more than once last night. You are correct in saying that East Herts will be collecting their revenue from the council taxes and hitting their emissions target because Harlow are taking all the sewage and pollution caused by the building of the flyover.
Nostradamus
2022-02-23 15:04:28
Looks like the rape of Harlow by East Herts and property developers ! Harlow Council has the opportunity to send them packing back to the drawing board and proper consultation with green engineers, campaigners and experts.
Edward Vine
2022-02-23 15:17:39
Yasmin thanks for supporting: just to clarify points: the Eastern Crossing is 90 % a raised road the very worst option: worse than a flyover, worse than a bridge. Plus other greener routes have been dismissed out of hand by hggt. The Central Crossing is going to decrease biodiversity and the flood plain. Both are part of a flawed sustainable Transport plan from Essex CC. Grant Shapps hatched the plan to unlock green sites by recklessly building roads with no thought to alternatives. Other authorities have woken up and rejected plans like these for Harlow. There's far better options, we simply ask they are developed for example: Park and ride near Eastwick, north end of 5th Avenue , (with powered walkway and shuttle to Harlow Town Station) and J7 and J7a and Harlow Mill. No Eastern Crossing but upgrade Redricks Lane A1184 avoiding homes. New Roads from Redricks junction with A1184 cross country to J7a Narrow central crossing so bus, walking, e and hydrogen bikes , scooters and weatherproof buggies/ bubble cars are used. The East Anglian rail line is doubling from 2 to 4 track , free public or low cost public transport to the park and ride from hggt villages to Eastwick. Use rail spur freight yard at Harlow Mill and a new one in River Way to transport all materials and waste associated with hggt and eliminate 90 % of hgv road traffic that would have been used. Make the entire Edinburgh Way from Water Lane to Gates roundabout a 4 lane route linked A1184 North and A414 South. Create inner ring road to restrict traffic into the centre of town and the area within an ultra green zone. Make the town centre Arts and entertainment and sports centre and put main retail at park and rides and the shopping parks around the perimeter of the town. This strategy builds on established trends and has been shown to work well, hence 10 min. 15 min zone ideas.
novoman
2022-02-23 15:35:05
The sustainable corridors ideas for Harlow are about 20 years out of date: proven to fail. See other solutions in uk, usa and in Europe. Edward and Robert are right to ask that these plans are sent back to the drawing board especially in the light of new information since hggt made these proposals in 2013 : see Climate change Committee reports 2021.
Pauline S
2022-02-23 16:06:32
Robert & Edward make a lot of sense, but a bit too complicated for many of us! Perhaps too complicated for Councillors too?
Mo Jefferys
2022-02-23 16:48:42
I agree totally with Edwards letter and comment above. These proposals are out of date and will be disastrous for the area, both in terms of environmental destruction and the traffic and pollution that will be foisted on Harlow. Edwards alternative suggestions sound feasible and better for the environment, better for Harlow and it’s inhabitants. Please, these reckless plans really do need to be taken back to the drawing board.
Arthur Christmas
2022-02-23 18:10:25
Mr Vine is quoting Ms Polaine incorrectly as that quote features on the website of Harlow & Gilston Garden Town thus: “And part of our good growth thinking is ensuring we build places where people have opportunities locally. We don’t want to just provide houses where people hop in their cars and drive down to the tube.”
Edward Vine
2022-02-23 22:09:54
Apologies, the quote came from someone who was actually at the meeting, however "We don't want to just provide houses where people hop in their cars and drive down to the tube" says they ARE fully planning a transport system where people hop in their cars. If the project wasn't just greenwashing she would say "We want to provide houses, walking routes, a low cost or free frequent quality public transport services, tracks for e and hydrogen bikes, scooters and buggies so that people will not feel or find the need to hop in their cars to drive down to the tube". Hggt started around 2013 simply aren't up to date and seem to be totally blind to the Climate Change Committee Report 2021 and have not recognised the reports by The Rivers Trust or the EU Water Directives DEFRA said they would implement. Talking with the most senior Cllrs this evening my conclusion is that the Council is over a barrel because of other grants attached to hggt crossings, the irony is that we agreed there's other transport options but the grants might be lost. It also became clear to me that future major even greater grants will be need to sort out the consequences of these current transport plans and the construction of the Eastern Crossing.
iain
2022-02-24 10:52:51
The people who are going to be living in this new Garden Town are likely to be affluent and will have no interest in using a public transport system. Even less affluent people living in Harlow can afford a car and so will not use public transport, even it stopped outside their front door. Articles in national newspapers have proven that these GardenTowns just create isolated conurbations where no one has access to local amenities and so get in their cars to go everywhere. All this development will do if it goes ahead, is create an indelible stain on the Harlow countryside, while increasing traffic flow and resultant pollution. Nothing green about it.
Kerry Masters
2022-02-24 10:55:17
Whatever anyone’s opinion on this, I could believe Cllr Danvers last night when challenged that his Labour Administration had started and supported this project since 2017 and had voted supporting many times and included it in their Harlow Local Plan. His objections are less than credible and it was clear that both he and Cllr Clarke had not even read the application papers. Shameful. Harlow residents deserve better.
Mark Lavender
2022-02-24 11:33:04
After seeing how local planning applications work for at least the past year for Harlow now they have East Herts' pawprint on it, why doesn't someone point out the elephant in the room that Harlow is becoming an anomaly (or an irrelevance). Maybe if it ceded to East Herts then Harlow would have to be treated fairer. East Herts can get away with unspoiling other parts of their district by developing tight to its borders. Both central and local government are blind or lazy to reason to appeals to leave Green Belt alone as they say the recovery of the economy trumps all. A number of years ago it seems planners decided that a road bridge over Canons Brook Golf Course which appeared as a line on a map was a folly: maybe they could see sense with this plan too. There are less environmentally damaging ways to bridge the river around that point w/o an earth embankment. It will be similar to the blight on the landscape along the new A14 bypass.
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