Response from Mr and Mrs Paul and Pamela Barker (Individual)
1. Mr and Mrs Paul and Pamela Barker (Individual) : 8 Mar 2011 14:31:00
Settlement
Burton in Kendal
Map Number
7 Burton in Kendal (with Clawthorpe)
Site reference number (e.g. R62) - If your comment is about a specific site you must indicate the correct site reference.
RN151/RN151M
Housing
Support
Employment
Oppose
Please explain your reasons
As owners since 1987 of the field designated as RN151 on the December 2010 “Sites under Consideration” map for Burton in Kendal, we noted with interest and surprise that it had been suggested as a site for Residential development. We were however astonished to then find, on Maps 7 and 27, that the northerly (and major) part of the field had subsequently been suggested for Employment development, under the designation RN151M.
We can understand and support the original suggestion for residential development of the field, as the need becomes apparent in due course. This would sit comfortably alongside the eight dwellings (including ours) which already form a “semi-hamlet” to the immediate south of the Holme Mills Industrial Estate. The development would increase the amount of traffic using the adjacent by-roads, but this would be mainly private domestic vehicles. However, a commercial/industrial complex located there would increase the number of larger vehicles using these roads, and mean that the eight dwellings would be hemmed in on either side by industrial complexes.
We and our neighbours are already seeing the growing problems caused as a result of the developments at Stoneleigh Park, and the situation will soon be further exacerbated when the Burtlands “warehouse” becomes operational, and we are dreading the further inevitable rise in commercial traffic as the warehouse facility slips into workshop mode. It is not merely the number of vehicles shuttling between Holme Mills, Stoneleigh Park, and soon Burtlands, but their size (including some very big “artics”). As they crowd into the verges to let each other through, or jostle their way past cowering cars, damage has already been done to the hydrants which control the water supply to our house and its neighbours, and to the safety mirror which provides some security to our neighbours’ cars as they turn out on to Station Road from the other dwellings. It is only a matter of time before damage is done to the wall which separates our field from the road, or to that on the other side belonging to Jolly’s Farm – both fields which regularly contain grazing animals.
The essential problem though is that the existing industrial sites, and any added in future, lie in a zone bounded to the east by the canal and to the west by the railway. This zone can only be accessed by vehicles passing through the centre of the villages of Holme and Burton, or from the A6 by passing under the railway at Burtlands. The horrendous state of the road surface at that point is a testament to the effect that such traffic is having in a less concentrated but no less dangerous form at so many other places between there and Holme Mills.
The only sensible course, to anyone seeing and understanding the wider picture, is for any further industrial/commercial development to take place west of the railway line, where the associated traffic can have direct, and preferably dedicated, access to and from the A6, the only road in the vicinity which is suitable for it.
We therefore urge that the site RN151/RN151M be considered for Residential development, as originally proposed in the Decenber 2010 "Sites under Consideration" document.
