Agenda item

Councillor Jonathan Nunn, in respect of item 6 and on behalf of Wootton and East Hunsbury Parish Council, Collingtree Parish Council and Hunsbury and Collingtree Residents Alliance, with the agreement of the Chair circulated a paper in respect of Policy N5- Northampton South SUE/5 and noted that Collingtree and Wootton and East Hunsbury parishes had been granted front runner status with regards to developing a Neighbourhood Plan. He stated that there was an acceptance of the need for development but they believed with the help of partners, that they had arrived at a better proposal that met the concerns of flooding and traffic congestion. He referred to the map appended to his circulated paper and noted the area to the south east, coloured orange, that was suggested to be developed in keeping with Collingtree and to the area to the north west, coloured purple, that would be developed in keeping with East Hunsbury. The area in the middle would be open space and there would be no road link between the two developed areas.

The Chair noted that there would be no discussion of this by the Joint Committee but that this proposal would be submitted to the Inspector overseeing the following Public Examination relating to the Joint Core Strategy along with all the other representations that had been received.

Mr Peter Hawkins, in respect of item 6 and on behalf of the Great Houghton Action Group, commented that he welcomed the recognition of the omission of a reference to the representation made by them with regards to paragraph 10.4 of the Pre-Submission version of the Joint Core Strategy as set out in paragraph 5.1 of the report. However, he further stated that he did not believe that Appendix 2 of the report adequately reflected the issues they had raised: paragraph 10.4 of the Joint Core Strategy did not recognise specifically the Nene Ridge nor its landscape sensitivity despite reference to it in the Northampton Landscape Sensitivity and Green Infrastructure Study. Mr Hawkins believed that the response to the Hardingstone SUE was disingenuous as paragraph 12.48 of the JCS used the Northampton Landscape and Sensitivity and Green Infrastructure Study that referred to most of the site as having medium level sensitivity and also to the high overall sensitivity of the total site together with the rest of Nene Ridge: there did not appear to be any adequate requirement in any JCS policy to recognise the importance of landscape sensitivity on the Nene Ridge or anywhere else when developing or considering proposals. Mr Hawkins also stated that the Action Group still had concerns that Great Houghton would lose its rural village status and queried whether it was intentional that villages within the Northampton Borough Boundary be removed from the village hierarchy. The residents and friends of Great Houghton would continue to fight to retain their rural status: Mr Hawkins also stated that the Action Group did not believe that the issues they had raised about Great Houghton’s rural village status and the importance of landscape had been adequately or legally dealt with.