M5 fears over extra traffic from 10,000-home development

There are fears Gloucestershire’s road network and public services near a planned 10,000-home garden town will not be able to cope. Tewkesbury Borough Council’s vision for development near junction 9 of the M5 at Ashchurch came up at a general election hustings last night (June 25).

The council recently rebranded the major plans as “a series of connected garden communities”. They say all of these new sites will need to be connected by well-planned, shared infrastructure, including secondary schooling, cycle paths and transport improvements.

And their revised vision for the programme includes comprehensively planned, connected communities designed to encourage good growth. But the topic was one of the questions parliamentary candidates were asked at the hustings at Tewkesbury Abbey.

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They were each asked what plans they have for public services to be able cope with the extra demand the 10,000 homes will create. Green Party candidate Cate Cody, who was the first to answer, said the country is unfortunately facing a housing crisis.

And while Gloucestershire needs more homes, they need to be in the right places. She said garden villages, if done properly, can be great “They are built with infrastructure,” she said.

“They focus on pedestrians and cyclists first and then cars, etc. They are much more likely to have dental services, doctors, schools and employment nearby.

“A true garden community can be brilliant. Places for nature, decent homes built to a really good standard with proper insulation.”

Ms Cody said the next Government needs to reform the planning rules to ensure new developments are built with the services and infrastructure they need. David Edgar said the Christian People’s Alliance policies are about making communities work for families.

His personal gripe was that new housing developments are not built with a good road network. “There are vast estates going up but a very strange way of linking into the road system.

“Roads aren’t everything but it’s a shame if all the traffic from the new estate piles into the road network.”

He fears that the traffic from Ashchurch will pile onto junction 9 of the M5. Fitting in doctors’ surgeries, schools and bus services are needed when new developments are built, he said.

Conservative Laurence Robertson said it was a big question and said the infrastructure is needed before development. He said he is working with Gloucestershire County Council, National Highways and Government ministers to make sure the road infrastructure is put in place.

“I’ve seen some bad proposals being made to downgrade junction 9 and the A46,” he said. “To me those proposals are completely unacceptable and at one point I did manage to get them taken off the table.

“There may be an argument for a bypass, and that’s an argument for another day, that will take away some of the traffic. It will not take away the local traffic. Dobbies has opened fairly recently, there’s the retail park being development, it’s taking on another 100 people. It’s all good news.

“But we do need the infrastructure as well as the schools, GP surgeries, hospitals and so on.” He said he will not support the garden community proposals unless and until they come with infrastructure.

Liberal Democrat Cameron Thomas said Gloucestershire is one of the fastest growing counties in the UK. His party wants to decentralise decision making so that more decisions are made locally.

And the Lib Dems propose incentives to build on brownfield sites such as former industrial or commercial land. “Infrastructure, services and amenities that are built in place along with the developments rather than after them,” he said.

“We will also implement a ten year emergency retrofit programme to make sure homes are carbon neutral.” He said he was conscious of the weight of feeling over the issue in Ashchurch and said local authorities do not have the clout or finances to be able to challenge developers.

A lot of decisions to allow developments on floodplains were granted by a planning inspector after the council’s refusal was appealed by developers, he said.

“The more power and resources we can give to our local authorities the better position they will be as your local champions to represent your interests and not those of developers.”