Peterborough City Council plans another large housing development at Great Haddon. The village of Yaxley, just across the border in Cambridgeshire, believes that this will considerable worsen the quality of life for existing residents, and they see nothing coming forward to contradict the belief that Peterborough, with its apparent obsession with expansion, is a bad neighbour to have.
08:20 Wednesday 17th November 2010
Peterborough Breakfast Show BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
PAUL STAINTON: Not only talking about the Royal Wedding this morning, also about Great Haddon. It’s a big subject, a big topic that people are a little bit upset about. It’s one of Peterborough’s biggest new developments of course. Peterborough City Council are preparing plans to build over five thousand new houses as part of this project. Nick Harding is from Peterborough City Council. Earlier he explained what the project might include. (TAPE)
NICK HARDING: Obviously with a scheme of some five and a half thousand houses you’ve got some employment land. That’s about sixty five hectares. And you’ve got a secondary school being provided, three primary schools, a district centre and a neighbourhood centre as well, plus all of the green open space that goes with it. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Yes. He’s all for it. But not everybody is. Cambridgeshire County Council had a meeting last night to discuss issues with the development .. you’ll hear what they had to say later in the mid-morning with Andy Harper. The people of Yaxley are slightly unhappy as well. We can speak to David Youles. He’s the Chairman of Yaxley Parish Council. Morning David.
DAVID YOULES: Morning.
PS: Doing my bit for Yaxley this morning. I’m trying to bring the Royal Wedding there. Trying all morning.
DY: No worries.
PS; What happened last night, and what are you particularly unhappy about, about these plans?
DY: I think realistically they’re bringing nothing new to the table. It’s a matter of building everywhere around. They’re not offering us anything in any way that could benefit the village, only reastically load more traffic and problems around us. So they’ve come with nothing fresh. It’s different clothing that they’ve put it in, but realistically we’re back to where we were before.
PS: Are they listening to you?
DY: No. Did you really expect them to? I think it’s the point that Peterborough are not talking to Cambridge, or not prepared to listen in any way shape or form. The boundary changes were done back in the early nineties, and they’re making sure that they’re using what’s in their boundary, without touching Cambridgeshire. And when it comes down to the schooling, realistically they may be offering the schools, in such a way they may be offering the secondary school, but realistically there’s nothing on the table to state that Cambridgeshire children will be able to use the facility. It’s being built nearby, but unless Cambridgeshire come up with the funds, Peterborough are saying no join ins. So where do we go from there?
PS: What would you like to see happen to these plans?
DY: I think a complete re-draw, new lines put up to overcome the problem of the traffic flow. At the moment they’re trying to actually steer traffic straight through a domestic area, where there’s domestic dwellings, instead of giving a by-pass which would ideally take away traffic and split the problem.
PS: Yes. I think Nick was saying earlier that most of the problems withy traffic and everything, it would be self-contained within.
DY: It’s self-contained within the new development that’s being proposed, but what they’re not speaking of, there’s another development that’s already been agreed, Hampton Leys, which has three thousand four hundred houses still to be built.
PS: Which is the other side of the road, isn’t it?
DY: Yes. The other side of the road. And there’s no .. they’re not taking into consideration at all what’s happening with that traffic flow. It’s obvious over this summer that as to the Yaxley side of Peterborough, they’re not going to want to go back into the parkways, they’re going to try and get out through Yaxley. So all that traffic will use us as well. And realistically, by going down the road that they’re proposing, it will mean a greater burden of traffic for Farcet also.
PS: These houses have got to be built though. We need them. We’ve got to keep expanding, haven’t we?. We’ve got more and more people.
DY: I fully understand. But only in the Council Chambers, not our Council Chambers, in Peterborough the other day, they’re now saying do they actually need twenty four thousand? Could they get away with sixteen? So they don’t really know what they’re looking for themselves.
PS: Yes. Nick was saying that they’re working hard with Cambridgeshire County Council, to bring solutions to the various problems that have been raised.
DY: I think they’re trying to bring something to the table that will mean that they still get their own way. They’re not giving any land. They’re not giving any movement in any way that could assist any of the outlying areas. It’s just what they feel they wish for. There are other areas, the other way, within Peterborough, that they could develop, instead of taking the greenland that’s being supposedly swallowed uup at this point.
PS: Are you unhappy that with these plans Yaxley sort of becomes a part of Peterborough, Elton sort of becomes a part of Peterborough, a bit like Werrington did a few years ago?
DY: I think it’s been spoken of before, that eventually Yaxley will probably be swallowed up by Peterborough, but that’s not the wish of the people. It’s more the point that we are under a separate county. We come under the Hunts and Cambs situation. So therefore we should be looked after, or at least assisted by that. And I think if you ask the population of the village, they would still like to remain where they are, and not part of Peterborough.
PS: What can you do?
DY: We can just keep protesting, and try everything that we can to check out on the planning. We have got certain things which we’re trying to run through with. The meeting was only presented to us last night. The majority of the Parish Council were present. And the information that was given to us was still limited. So we’ve got to see what we can do. There is a group that’s been organised to try and fight this cause, and we’ve got county councillors on board, and we’ll try to see what we can get.
PS: Well we wish you all the best. David Youles, Chairman of Yaxley Parish Council.
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