Complete disregard for existing residents

The Rural Dispersal option would enlarge existing communities where capacity for existing infrastructure and resources, like the schools, Doctors etc is already at over capacity, such as in Highnam. They also lack a good transport network, so would not be cost effective. It is already at the point of the infrastructure not coping with demand. The roads are already too busy, the school is over capacity and local children have to travel fair distances to a school by car. This goes against developing a good carbon footprint. The B4215 which is a B road in name only, but much more like an A road; cannot cope as it is; large lorries use it as a 'cut through' to Gloucester from the M50 as a short cut, and have to compete with the many commuters travelling over the Severn at the only point they can (The Over roundabout) whilst also competing with farm tractors and machinery, as this is a rural area with many farms. The road network serving and passing through Highnam village is already beyond saturation point. The current network of services to the existing community are already at full capacity. Service outages, leaks and general breakdowns are a regular occurrence. Surface water flowing off the new housing development at Lassington Reach is already creating downstream flooding problems through Highnam Court and beyond through Minsterworth to the River Severn. Clearly, significant additional development would seriously compound this and new developments built on or next to flood plains are only going to exacerbate the problems.. Highnam a traditional landscape patchwork of field hedgerows and boundaries, woodlands, together with plentiful wildlife. This would be lost if the village was further developed. The majority of people in Highnam of working age travel elsewhere for their employment. This is not sustainable in the long term if we are to reduce our carbon emissions by cutting down on car journeys. More developments is only going to put more cars on an already overstretched road network. Development would mean a loss of good quality, productive farmland surrounding Highnam which greatly contributes to our need for food security and helps maintain local bio diversity. Stop turning our rural villages into Town extensions!

I sympathise, and agree, the sdc seems to have little concern for existing human residents or endangered species. They are proposing to raise the level of adjoining land by burying it under 6ft of builders rubble. This is completely unnecessary for the proposed housing development and only increases their build costs. It also destroys the existing hedgehog population and will be overbearing to the neighbours, only a metre away. The water runoff alone will create problems. And for what? Who gains from this pointless project?