Local Green Party Co-ordinator Mark McCormick
Green Party Local cordinator Mark McCormick has objected to a proposal for a housing development in the Moss Road area of Ballynahinch on the following grounds:
•The Moss Road is used as a rat run and already struggles to cater for the heavy traffic it is subjected with. If 35 dwellings are going to be built on this road how does the developer expect to have heavy machinery and building equipment moved up and down the road and how will residents trying to enter and exit their properties cope with this? Carlisle’s Fresh Foods and the playing fields also mean that this road is used for parking on both sides making it difficult for even one car to make its way along the road. This leads to congestion and it has become so bad that residents have complained there are days they cannot even have their bins emptied as the bin lorry cannot even make it down the road. This shows that there is simply no road network infrastructure to deal with an additional housing development on the Moss Road. The road would have to be extended yet there is no scope as to how this will be done in the application. The application simply states it will widen the road but has not made clear as to where and how this will be done.
•There is currently no access to this site from the Moss Road yet the application proposes the Moss Road as a potential access. The drop from the Moss Road to this site is almost 3 metres so if a site access was to be created an area of the site would have to be raised to this height. Doing this will cause massive disruption to traffic and access to properties of existing residents and I have already highlighted the already existing problems of congestion, in which this will only add to.
•The proposed dwellings are meant to fit into the character of the existing area yet these houses are all set to be two stories. There are no two storey houses on the Moss Road and even on the Belfast Road and so I would dispute that these developments will fit into the character of the area.
•The Moss Road is a north facing road and in the winter the ice does not thaw making the road extremely dangerous. Increasing more traffic on this road will increase the risk of accidents and massively reduce road safety. Also the proposed entrance to the development is close to a bend so any cars that get caught in the ice and unable to break will be heading straight for this entrance which could lead to collisions.
•The playing fields next to this site use to be the town dump which was covered over in the late 1960s. This dump was never cleared and so waste and polluting discharges are currently seeping into the stream and marshes on the proposed site via a drainage pipe. Although it is not the responsibility of the Planning Service to deal with the pollution it is certainly worth noting that this pollution will have an effect on the land the developments would be built on and would be a persistent problem and health threat to any residents in the proposed dwellings.
Pollution from spring at Moss Road site
•The field is prone to flooding and rain water from the Moss Road flows down into the south west of the site. This has not been considered in the planning application and I note that the proposed Bio Disc sewage system is to be positioned at the south west corner of the site. The Bio Disc system would therefore be in an unsuitable location.
•The Down Ards Area Plan 2015 has highlighted a number of other areas in Ballynahinch suitable for housing which have not been developed yet. These are the areas where housing developments should be sought, not in an area such as this application where there are a number of factors making it unsuitable. There are already many empty houses in Ballynahinch town and new estates built on the Riverside Road.
•Prior to the PAC decision, removing this area from the LLPA, it was stated that the area was in the interests of nature conservation and facilitated wildlife linkages within urban and wider countryside areas. How has this changed? The development of this site will destroy any wildlife and nature that is of priceless value to this area. The Moss Road is known for the beautiful view over this site and the drumlin landscape of Ballynahinch. Destroying this character area and green field site will damage the value of the houses on the Moss Road and the very identity of the landscape reducing house prices and living quality of all.
•It is clear that there are many problems with this site and planning application and I do not feel the applicant has properly analysed the plausibility of this site. This is clearly evident in the fact that the applicant has spelt Ballynahinch wrongly as ‘Ballinahinch’ throughout the plans showing that this was a rushed job and the full considerations of the site and residents of the Moss Road have not been taken into account.
The Green Party has expressed its disapointment with the recent no show of the SDLP at a vitally important meeting with local renewable energy companies and the planning service.
