September 2011
The Government Inspector's Examination in public for Great Haddon is at 10am on 5th October 2011 at Stuart House, St. John's Street, Peterborough PE1 5DD.
Please show your support for our representatives by attending this meeting - details here

May 2011
On 24th May, Peterborough City Council approved the Employment part of the Great Haddon development.
See www.nxag.org.uk for details and comment.

May 2011
Great Haddon
From SCAN (.pdf, 2.9Mb)
Great Haddon Rejected - Norman Coss Action Group Success
On March 21, after hearing submissions from District and County Councillor Nick Guyatt, Yaxley Parish and District Councillor John Watts and Stilton Parish Councillor Olive Main, Huntingdonshire District Council rejected the latest planning application for the urban extension of Great Haddon.
The main points that were put to the Panel were:
1. Over high density urbanization of an area of productive farming land when brownfield sites are still plentiful and planned areas of Hampton are still undeveloped.
2. Encroachment of urban development to the very edge of Peterborough, particularly its effects on Yaxley, Norman Cross and the Great North Road.
3. Disruption of the existing transport network, particularly the A15, the Norman Cross interchange (Junction 16) and the plans to open up six(!) exits from the new development and from the proposed employment area onto the single-lane Great North Road.
4. New school provision would benefit only Peterborough residents but would prevent much-needed expansion of secondary school provision in the area served by Cambridgeshire County Council.
5. Inadequate protection for the scheduled historic monument at Norman Cross. (The Napoleonic PoW camp)
ABOUT NCAG
The Norman Cross Action Group brings together all the Parish Council and Meetings in N.W. Huntingdonshire under the leadership of County Councillors McGuire and Guyatt, and with the support of local District Councillors. The Group is in constant discussion with Peterborough City Council and is pleased that the City agreed to extend the period of consultation. Stilton Parish Council distributed a leaflet to help residents make their own objections to these plans.

April 2011
Great Haddon
From SCAN (.pdf, 2.3Mb)
Oh No You Don’t !
PARISH COUNCIL REJECTS THE HADDON PLAN
Resident will be all too well aware of the mad plan to concrete over a vast swathe of prime agricultural land just up the A1. Here is the text of the Parish Council’s formal objection to the proposal:

14 March 2011
In re Peterborough Site Allocations Document Para 3.11; Policy SA1;Site Reference SA1.4 and in re Outline planning Applications 09/01368/OUT and 09/1369/OUT Stilton Parish Council wishes to submit this formal objection to the Great Haddon Planning proposals and to make suggestions as appropriate.
Introduction
The City Council has a strategic ambition to build a high-class mixed development that will encourage industry to relocate to Peterborough. Unfortunately, this overdeveloped site will simply reinforce the
view that Peterborough provides relatively cheap housing. It will not attract highly qualified and skilled people to live in Peterborough City, who will continue to choose the villages and market towns of
Huntingdonshire, East Northamptonshire, Rutland and Lincolnshire. Even the choice of the name for this development echoes Huntingdonshire not Peterborough. For the last 10 years the City Council has
publicly expressed its intention to provide high-skilled and professional employment opportunities 'to match that of Cambridge'. These aspirations were espoused in the Council’s review of secondary schools, the establishment of the University for Peterborough, in investment strategy applications to EEDA and promotions with Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership. As presently presented this development does not fulfil Peterborough City Council’s key ambitions. The plans regarding both employment and residential development are unsound as given the rural location of the site, its dislocation from the centre of Peterborough and any major transport interchange. It therefore represents significant over-development of the site. The Parish Council is at a loss to understand why there is no master plan, given that this is a new town in both size and scope. What
we have is an ill-conceived and designed set of plans, which do not produce a coherent picture of either the development or the development’s relationship with Peterborough. The Parish Council objects to these outline plans and to the soundness of the Site Allocation Document Para. 3.11.
Residential Development
In terms of layout the Parish Council would expect the site to be developed from the 'village centres' outwards in accordance with best design practice. The housing density is too high. There needs to be proper segregation between the Development and Yaxley, the A15 and the Old Great North Road. In the words of the developer's consultant: 'We have worked hard on the plan so that Yaxley and other places aren't completely subsumed into greater Peterborough'. Good design would afford not only a natural tree and landscape extending in at least 75 meters from these roads (and at least the presently indicated green wedge around the village) but also very low density housing on the fringes becoming greater the nearer to the centre. This would preserve most of the existing bucolic appearance of the A15 and Old North Road, whilst preventing the coalescence of what is essentially a new town with the village of Yaxley. Furthermore it is logical and right that the same treatment should be incorporated in the Northern boundary, given the rural nature of the bridleway and Millennium Green Wheel which presently passes through open fields. The traffic generation from the proposed number of houses (and the employment site) will be significant and the present plans do not demonstrate that the problems can be addressed adequately. The developer's own consultant has said that 'not all the houses will have two cars'. They must be expecting at least an average of one and a half cars per household; that is in excess of 8000. One obvious way of solving this problem would be to reduce the number of houses.
Accordingly, the number of houses should be reduced to between 2500 and 3000, roughly the size of Yaxley. It is doubtful if this would result in a shortfall in the number of houses actually delivered over the City Council’s recently approve Strategic Plan period, as the current average build rate over either five or ten years would not have delivered the planned number of houses, ie 5350. If the planning authority is concerned about a theoretical shortfall, then they will be able, nearer the end of the plan
period, to bring forward sites identified for the next plan period by way of a Supplemental Development Plan. This matter alone renders the proposed development unnecessary.
Dealing with some of the specifics of the plans, we object to the excessive number of junctions onto both the A15 and Old Great North Road. With reference to the A15 there are six traffic lights controlled junctions, plus the extra junctions on the Yaxley bypass (also known as the Yaxley loop but referred to herein as the Yaxley bypass). Currently, during the evening rush hour, traffic is already backed up to the A1M junction 16. There is the probability of increased shunt accidents because of so many junctions. The junctions on the Yaxley bypass itself will further slow traffic, which would have an
adverse effect on traffic choosing it rather than London Road Yaxley. There are also too many different proposed speed limits.
In respect of Stilton, villagers use the A1M junction as the major access point. The slowdown in traffic flows caused by the lights on the A1M and the traffic lights on the A15 will increase journey times, increase accident risk and general inconvenience. The village will suffer demonstrable harm from the development as presently envisaged and could return the village to the historic 'traffic rat run' experience, which was almost totally alleviated by the construction of the A1M and junction 16. The same argument applies to the village of Folksworth.
With reference to the Old Great North Road, there appear to be six junctions, including that from the Employment Site, on this road. None of the proposed junction designs prevents a right turn for those exiting the development and driving down the country lane, through Haddon and thence via the
Bullock Road and others to Northamptonshire and westwards. Given the difficulty with the A1M junction, the A605 running at above design capacity, and regular closures due to accidents on the A1, traffic rat running will be common. This represents demonstrable harm to the residents of Haddon and those living beside the Bullock Road and on the Old North Road. The current experience in Wansford whenever there is a problem on the A1 must be avoided.
It is not necessary for us to put forward alternative proposals but in the spirit of cooperation we would suggest the following solution: Create an outer ring road within the development. This could run
behind the extended tree belt increasing separation from existing developments. This would run from the employment site proposed entry to the Old North Road to the spine road through the development and thence to a slightly realigned Yaxley bypass. There would be a junction here representing the only access to A15 but would serve to give access both North and South of Yaxley. The Yaxley bypass should be realigned so that it runs east of the proposed development on the bypass. This would obviate the need for people to cross the bypass to get to DC7 or R20, and R36 getting to DC3 etc. It would also make the bypass less of an internal spine road and more of a bypass and thus the route of choice for through users of the A15. At the detailed stage there will be a need to ensure that parents are not able to access the proposed secondary school from the Yaxley bypass. Residential site R37 should be deleted and become part of the green buffer. This site coalesces/links the development
directly with Yaxley and traffic will enter London Road and add to the congestion. The Parish Council notices that the open space around the scheduled ancient monument, which appears to contain war
graves, is still shown as football pitches. This is a desecration and one presumes that the applicant would not wish such desecration of its own war dead. At the very least it shows disrespect for the ancient monument.
Industrial/employment site
The site is being overdeveloped and the treatment of the boundary at E7 appears to leave no tree belt or separation between the A1M, other than the embankment. In general, the A1M may be characterised as a motorway running through open countryside. This defines in part the entrance to
Peterborough. This scale of development redefines Peterborough as a primarily warehouse and industrial centre sprawling into the country side. It will reinforce the impression given by the existing plans for Great Haddon residential development that the whole development is blue collar. If the
city has a belief that this development will deliver high-class jobs and executives to Peterborough then it is sadly mistaken.
Accordingly, and notwithstanding the generality of the above objection, we specifically object to the height of the industrial buildings. The site is on a hill that rolls up and away from the A1M. The
buildings will dominate the skyline. The effect on this visual approach to Peterborough needs to be softened, as does the view in from the Millennium Green Wheel. On these plans the Green Wheel will
be simply be a trip from town to industrial site.
The Parish Council also objects to the lack of tree- and landscaping on the border between the A1M and the development. The Parish Council believes that not enough work has been done on the visual aspect of the colour of these buildings and the difficulty of colour choice, given the requirement to cater for two distinct views into the development. The Parish Council objects to the traffic and transport
arrangements and our reasons are fully rehearsed in the section on 'Residential Development' above. However, for the avoidance of doubt, we specifically object to the Employment Site’s access onto the
Old Great North Road. All HCV and vans etc. shall enter and leave the site via the Parkway system. Cars should use a link via the suggested outer ring road, or the Parkway system. No signage (for example Company names or logos or To Let boards) to be erected along the A1M nor the A15 or Old Great North Road.
General Matters
There should be no access/egress during the construction phase of construction vehicles of any type (including cars) via A15 or Old Great North Road. The hours of working on, and deliveries to, the site to be restricted to 8am to 6pm Mon to Fri and 9am to 1pm Saturday. There shall be no Sunday or Bank or Public Holiday working. This is to reduce noise impact on residents in the area. Before any building work is commenced the Yaxley bypass must be constructed. We remain implacably against the name Great Haddon. This is an urban extension of the Hamptons.
Conclusion
The Parish Council objects to the development proposal in its entirety on the grounds identified in this letter. In addition:
the development is to be on prime agricultural land when there are many acres of brownfield site in the
city yet to be used, much of which already has planning consent but has laid dormant for years.
the employment area is surplus to long-term requirement in light of the hundreds of square meters of vacant employment space throughout the city and the surrounding areas.
the Parish Council does not wish the village of Stilton to be part of any further urbanisation.
The Parish Council wishes to express its concern at the confusing range of plans and maps presented at recent public consultations, the dates of which ranged from 2008 to 2011. Additionally, the timescale for consideration of the proposals was completely inadequate given the extent of the proposed development and the associated documentation which was 45cm in height!
The Parish Council is a member of the Norman Cross Action Group and supports fully the representations that the Group is making with respect to this development.

SCAN says:
Amen to all that. Setting aside the detailed objections, which the Parish Council has amply rehearsed, the really scary aspect of this proposal is the extent to which it highlights the City Council’s complete
divorce from reality. For example: “intention to provide high-skilled and professional employment opportunities 'to match that of Cambridge'.” Perhaps they’d like to explain how a concrete jungle of cheap, overcrowded housing, eyesore warehouses and grossly overloaded infrastructure, alongside a city with no intellectual or cultural facilities, is going to attract high-earning professionals and their
high-tech employers? ‘Hmmm, now where to relocate? Kuala Lumpur? Mexico City? Singapore? - hey, how about Haddon!’ Even assuming that they’d want to be in the UK in the first place. High-tech companies like Pfizer are already leaving the UK because of our confiscatory tax regime and at least
one technology company in Cambridge is considering offshoring its graduate programme because existing UK universities can no longer produce technology graduates of any calibre. How does calling PRC a ‘university’ fix that?
Trouble is, these sad delusions of grandeur are being funded out of our taxes. Man the barricades!
Make your objections to the Haddon plan known to the City Council at every opportunity!

March 2011
Great Haddon
There was a public consultation event at Austin Hall, Main Street, Yaxley, on 1st March 2011.
You have until 14th April to register your comments:
- online at www.peterborough.gov.uk/publicaccess
- by email to planningcontrol@peterborough.gov.uk

March 2011
Great Haddon
From SCAN (.pdf, 2.6Mb)
The planning proposals to construct 5300 houses, industrial and commercial premises and schools on land to the east of the old A1, north of Norman Cross as far as Hampton, are still being considered and now form part of Peterborough City Council's Strategic Plan to build 25,000 houses by
2025. The current planning proposals involve highways and include the re-routing of the A15 between Norman Cross and London Road beyond the Broadway traffic lights.

ACTION GROUP
Stilton Parish Council is a member of the Norman Cross Action Group (NXAG), which has been formed in order to protect the interests of villages and communities most affected by this huge development. The group comprises representatives from the villages of Haddon, Alwalton, Folksworth, Stilton, Yaxley and Farcet. District and County Councillors are also on the group and our MP attends when necessary. Having considered the latest planning proposals, Stilton Parish Council has resolved to take the following position:

APPEALS AND OBJECTIONS
Stilton Parish Council remains opposed to this development and fully supports the Norman Cross Action Group in its intention to appeal against the PCC Strategic Plan Inspector’s Report on the grounds that:
Inadequate information and notice was given about planning consultations in December 2009 and
January 2010.
The development is unnecessary because the PCC strategic proposals to provide 25,000 new dwellings by 2025 is unrealistic based on current new house construction, which is less than 1000 per year.
It is the Parish Council's view that all land currently identified for housing development in the Peterborough area, particularly brown space, should be built on and completed before any further large developments on prime agricultural land be approved. The Great Haddon development covers prime agricultural land which will be lost for ever if the development is approved.

THE A15 RE-ROUTE
If the proposed development gains final approval, the Parish Council supports the NXAG recommendations:
To re-route the A15 into the new township centre, that there should be no bus gate on the old A15 and that there should be minimal traffic lights installed.
That the space between the proposed new road and the current A15 should be designated green space in order to create a buffer between the new development and Yaxley. This green space should be protected in perpetuity through covenant.
That initially there should be no traffic calming measures on the existing A15 and that money should be held in reserve until such time that a full appraisal is undertaken once the new routes are fully operational. That all road systems should be installed in advance of any other development.
That Waterslade Road should be opened to two-way traffic and to adjoin the A15.
The Parish Council would like assurances that the proposed new route for the A15 will not resemble that which has been installed on the A15 at Hempsted (Old Fletton), on the way into Peterborough.

THE OLD A1
The Parish Council fully supports the NXAG recommendation that:
There should be a significant green belt/environmental buffer between the new development and the old A1
north of Norman Cross.
There should be no access roads from the old A1 onto the new residential development and that no
commercial vehicles should be allowed to access the proposed commercial development from the
old A1.
There should be no traffic lights at the junction of the A15 and the old A1 and that this junction should be
given careful planning consideration due to its close proximity to the A1(M) junction 16.
The Parish Council believes that full and appropriate measures should be taken to prevent the villages of Stilton, Folksworth, Morbourne, Haddon, Alwalton, Yaxley, and Farcet becoming traffic rat-runs.
The NXAG are currently involved in a range of meetings with the developers (OMR), consultants, Huntingdon District Council and Peterborough City Council. Stilton Parish Council is represented at these meetings.
The Parish Council is gravely concerned about the potential environmental, social, educational, and traffic impact that this development will have on Stilton and the surrounding villages.
The Parish Council would welcome any comments on the proposed development.
Please contact the Clerk on: mary_croll@yahoo.co.uk

SEE FOR YOURSELF
Information about the proposed plans for the development can be found on www.greathaddon.com and
http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/planning_and_building/major_development/great_haddon.aspx or Google 'Great Haddon'.

UPDATES
Revised and updated material has been submitted in relation to this development and will be under consultation between 23 February and 25 March 2011.
The planning application references are 09/01368/OUT (Residential) and 09/01369/OUT (Employment).
The revised/updated material can be viewed on line at: www.peterborough.gov.uk/publicaccess/
and the City Council's Customer Service Centre at Bayard Place, Broadway, Peterborough. Printed copies of the material will be available during normal opening hours at: Yaxley Library, Yaxley Community Information Centre, Hampton Library, The Office of O & H Hampton, The Barn, London Road, Peterborough
(9am-5pm)

PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS
The revised material will also be available for you to view, and officers from Peterborough City Council available to answer questions, at the following venues:
28 February 2:30 - 8pm at the Serpentine Green Shopping Centre, Hampton.
1 March 2:30 - 8pm at the Austin Hall, Main Street, Yaxley, PE7 3LU

May 2010
Great Haddon
From SCAN
Not surprisingly, there has been much interest in, and concern about, the proposed Great Haddon development. The Parish Council is actively involved in the consultation process and you will read in
SCAN about any important developments in this.
Peterborough City Council gave us the instructions for finding the Great Haddon planning application on its website www.peterborough.gov.uk. It’s a bit complicated to get to the right page, so here’s the way to do it:
Go to the Planning and Building Section
Click on the sub-option ‘View, Comment and Committees’
Click the text below the left-hand picture (View and comment on planning applications)
Click the ‘public access’ link in the text - this takes you to a page entitled ‘Planning and Building
Online Registers’
Go to the end of this page, tick ‘I agree’ then continue. This brings you to the Public Access area
Click on ‘Planning’
Click on ‘Application Search’ in the left-hand side menu
Type in either of the application references - 09/01369/OUT or 09/01368/OUT - and click Search
Click to View
Go to Associated Documents
View Associated Doc This should bring up the complete document, although SCAN got a 404 when we tried it, so they’ve obviously not actually been posted yet!
If you want to find out about the project, the best places are www.nxag.org.uk or www.greathaddon.com
The Council is willing to accept further comment/representation on the proposals because, given the scale and complexity of the scheme, a decision will not be made in the immediate future. Peterborough City Council, Hunts DC, Cambs CC, along with the Highways Agency, PCT, surrounding Parishes and many other parties are liaising closely on the proposals and have been consulted.

February 2010
Great Haddon
From SCAN; Parish News:
GREAT HADDON PROJECT
The planning application for this area was published on Christmas Eve. Stilton Parish Council has been invited to comment and the District Council has also asked for our reactions.
This project, due to start in 2011, will provide 5350 houses on land lying between the A1(M), A15 and Hampton. It will eventually house 12,000 people. There will be a variety of housing types, three primary and one secondary school, five gypsy/traveller pitches, as well as shops and business units.
Open spaces, both parks and less formal, will be provided. After looking carefully at the plans Stilton Parish Council has commented on the following issues;

1. The destruction of high quality agricultural land when brownfield sites in the immediate locality remain undeveloped.
2. Education - we queried the need to provide three new primary schools when local schools all faced falling rolls. The impact of a new secondary school on Sawtry College does not seem to have
been considered. About 250 pupils now attend Sawtry from Stanground, Yaxley and Farcet.
3. Transport - the provision of a Park & Ride facility is proposed; this could affect our present bus service between Peterborough and Huntingdon, to the detriment of people without cars to get them to the new site.
4. Health - Hampton caused great strains on Yaxley Health Centre. We would like assurance that NHS facilities will be provided in a more timely way this time.
5. There seems to be no link-up with any proposed developments to the south of the A15. Stilton Parish Council is seeking clarification from Huntingdon District Council (the relevant authority south of
the A15).

December 2009
Great Haddon
Great Haddon web site.
Two outline planning applications have been submitted to Peterborough City Council for Great Haddon, a proposed urban extension in the south of Peterborough located between the A1(M), A15 (London Road) and Hampton. Public meetings are planned in early January 2010 in Yaxley and Hampton:
7th Jan 2010, Queens Park Hall, Yaxley (near Co-op), 2-5.30pm and 6.30-8.30pm
12th Jan 2010, Serpentine Green Shopping Centre, 1.30-5.30pm and 6.30-8pm

The applications propose up to 5350 new homes, 65 hectares of employment land, a district and two neighbourhood centres (with a mix of retail, commercial, community and health facilities), educational facilities (three primary and one secondary school), five Gypsy and Traveller pitches, open space, highways, utility and drainage infrastructure.
Public consultation on the applications will run until 20 January 2010. Please view all of the material submitted as part of the planning applications via the online register. The planning applications are also available to view from 14 December 2009 at Customer Service Centre, Bayard Place; and at Central, Yaxley and Hampton Libraries. Public meetings are proposed in Hampton and Yaxley in early January. Further details will be publicised shortly.
Contact details
If you would like to comment or view the applications go to the Plannning and Building online register
or write, with your comments, to:
Planning Services, Stuart House East Wing, St John Street, Peterborough, PE1 5DD
or email planningcontrol@peterborough.gov.uk

April 2006
THE LDF NEEDS YOU!
The Core Strategy and Statement for Community Involvement will be released for consultation on Friday 28th April 2006 for six weeks until Friday 9th June 2006. These documents are available for viewing between these dates with the Parish Council, the local Libraries and on line at www.huntsdc.gov.uk (under Planning, use the Environment and Planning link), and elsewhere (see local press or Huntingdonshire District Council website for more details).

This is the final opportunity for you to make a representation about these documents before they are examined by an Inspector, and then go forward for formal adoption. You also need to be aware that the process of making representations has changed, linking to ‘tests of soundness’, (guidance notes are provided with the documents). Some additional notes (Word, 26kb)

June 2005
Development was one of the key issues we raised in the Village Appraisal, with the great majority of people indicating that Stilton should not grow any further (graphs and stats).

On 27th June 2005 Huntingdonshire District Council launches its Local Development Framework Core Strategy Consultation. You can access the information on their website here: this is your chance to influence the shape of Huntingdonshire over the next 15 years.

The Core Strategy is the first document to be produced for the Local Development Framework, and deals with a wide range of important issues, such as protecting and enhancing the environment, improving the quality of new development and planning for appropriate homes, jobs and services.