Councillors have turned down plans to extend delivery times for 44-tonne lorries operating out of RAF Newton. Almost 200 residents had opposed plans to allow large vehicles to travel through a new housing estate at earlier and later hours in the day, because they presented a "considerable risk to the safety of children" living and playing in the area.
The now de-commissioned RAF Newton base in East Bridgford is home to five hangars, now used for the loading and unloading of goods, as well 500 newly-built homes in Wellington Avenue. In the future, more than 1,000 homes could be built, including a new school.
Currently, heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) may operate within the hours of 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, 9am until 1pm on Saturday and not at all on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
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Permission was therefore being sought to allow vehicles to operate between 7am and 7pm Monday to Friday, and 8am to 4pm on Saturdays. Plans stated no more vehicles would be using the route, and instead their shifts would be spread out over the new operating times.
The matter was discussed during a Rushcliffe Borough Council meeting on Thursday, August 11. Planning officer Emily Dodd told the committee: "The land was removed from the greenbelt when the core strategy was adopted in 2014. It is an allocated housing site.
"Environmental Health officers asked for the submission of a noise report to look at the impacts at the hangars, issues such as loading and unloading in those additional hours, and were satisfied with that report.
"However, board members, the parish and neighbouring parishes and a number of residents are concerned."
Councillors had to balance the economic benefits with the impact on residents, and officers said they had been satisfied it would achieve a "satisfactory compromise". However, Newton resident Sarah Shaw, who attended the meeting, said 178 residents had objected to the plans.
She raised issue with the noise assessments which were conducted on a Sunday between 10am and 12-noon, when no hangars were operational, while another took place between 6pm and 8pm on a Thursday. "This does not represent the noise levels," she said, adding some vehicles can create up to 90 decibels when passing by those on pavements.
"It represents a considerable risk to the safety of children living in Newton and indeed the children of future residents," she added.
It was also claimed the current hours "are not being adhered to". Some vehicles, she says, had been operating as early as 7am and as late as 10pm. "How would this be policed?" she said.
East Bridgford ward councillor David Simms also opposed the plans, stating it was an arterial road running through up to 1,000 homes.
"If we allow this erosion on what we have put in place in the past, when do they say the precedent has been set now?" he said. "Business is great, we need business, we need jobs, but to put in a rural garden village extended hours I don't believe is necessary."
Similarly, Councillor Neil Clarke, the chairman of the transport and environment committee at Nottinghamshire County Council, said the plans "concern me greatly". He said: "By increasing the hours beyond what they had permission for before merely increases the danger for residents."
Councillor Clarke, who represents Radcliffe-on-Trent for the Conservatives, added the operating times into Saturday afternoons were "wholly unacceptable". He proposed a new recommendation that the plans be turned down, against officers' recommendations.
Debby Mason, Conservative councillor for Tollerton who sits on the planning committee, seconded Councillor Clarke's recommendations. Further concerns were then raised over the operating hours once a new school has been built at the rear of the estate, as well as the late operating hours posing a danger once the dark, winter evenings arrive.
The new recommendation, to refuse permission, secured nine votes. One vote was secured against refusal.
Permission was, as such, refused and the operating hours will remain unchanged.
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