Local Development Framework Consultation

BOWSTON

R664#

Oppose

Bowston is a peaceful English hamlet in balance and at ease with is itself.

Bowston has no employment, no shops, no bus service, no railway station, no broadband and no schools! The location is entirely rural. The development would lead to the destruction of a green field. Further, an open toxic dump (of soft bogey constituency) lies immediately to the south of the proposed development. It is clearly reckless to place housing development juxtaposition to an open toxic dump. The proposed site also “backs-up” in heavy rain and floods.

The argument for the development is for local people to fill local jobs does not match the facts: Bowston has few jobs and no un-employment! A good percentage of the development built would quickly be in the hands of second home owners.

The idea that the development is for people working within the National Park is unacceptable. Housing should be built in the vicinity of people’s work. If the National Park does not want its workforce to live within its boundary, then the Park has reached the limit of its natural development! Otherwise, we have an ideology which leads to a “gated” Park where one type of person lives in the Park and those that “service-it” live outside. Not acceptable.

In the 2008 LDF, the Bowston/Burneside area was identified as having socio-economic imbalances and yet more “affordable” housing is proposed. Anyway “affordable” is undefined, and without doubt second homes will be acquired in the development. Second homes are the root cause of the housing shortage across what was Westmorland.

Any residential development will entail hundreds of additional work related journeys through Bowston, its adjacent lanes and Burneside village out to work places away from Bowston with many headed to south of Kendal, including Lancashire since Bowston has no local employment. For others, the “back-road” from Burneside-to-Kendal was re-modelled (artificially narrowed, high curbs introduced, etc) by the Council to discourage use, so traffic will favour the route through Burneside village and to Kendal to further worsen the bottle next where the Burneside road joins the Windermere road in Kendal, near St Thomas’s church. To the north, the Plantation Bridge Windermere Road/Winter Lane junction is a death trap, as evidenced recently.

Empty brownfield sites at Kirkland, Burneside Road, Gilling Grove and Highgate should be utilised, and empty houses in Kendal. Also, some developments in the area are not selling. The proposed Bowston site is on the edge of the village on an existing boundary, on virgin agricultural land and the socio-economic case does not exist for the sites development. Any development would increases Bowston’s housing stock by near 100% - this is not acceptable.

Oppose

Bowston

R664#

Oppose