Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to the above application.

(Councillor D Brickhill, the Ward Councillor and David Rolinson, the agent for the applicant attended the meeting and spoke in respect of the application).

The Transportation Officer addressed the Board on Section 106 obligations and the way in which they complied with the CIL regulations.  He commented that as contained within the Transport Assessment there were capacity problems on the local network specifically for traffic accessing Crewe from the Gresty Road corridor and impacting upon the South Street/Nantwich Road and Gresty Road/Catherine Street junctions. The Basford West development could not be accommodated on the road network without mitigation measures being provided.  Crewe Green Link Road would provide an alternative route for traffic that avoids the South Street junction by linking the A500 to the A532, strategic traffic modelling has shown that this link will relieve pressure and reduce traffic on the Gresty Road corridor, creating capacity in the network for the traffic generated by this development.

The cost of the Crewe Green Link Road had been partly funded by Government and the remainder was to be funded through developer contributions including from Basford West.

In respect of the Highway contribution of £300,000 towards improving public transport it was noted that the accessibility of the site was required to be improved, this was to be achieved by ensuring that the existing bus service was retained and also that it was enhanced by improving the frequency of service.  The contribution of providing these services had been agreed and would be used to improve the sustainability of the site for residents.  Bus stops would be provided within the site to allow good access to bus services from both the residential and employment parts of the site.

In respect of the Highway Contribution of £2,500,000 towards the A500 corridor towards M6 Junction 16 it was noted that the A500 had high levels of existing congestion as a result of traffic using this route to access J16 M6, the congestion was not confined just to peak hours and was experienced throughout the day.  A mitigation scheme to widen the A500 on its approach to the M6 J16 had been agreed and this complemented the Government pinch point improvement scheme at J16 M6.  It was acknowledged that the impact of the development on the A500 would be less throughout the day given the introduction of the residential development relative to the previous application for the employment site, however at proportion of this employment and distribution was still proposed and therefore the contribution was based on a proportion of the expected cost of Section 278 scheme agreed as part of the previous application.

In respect of the Highway Contribution of £ 330,000 towards improving site access to cycle and footpath routes it was noted that in order to ensure there was good sustainable access to the site, a number of footpath and cycle path improvements had been identified to improve the access towards Crewe town centre.  This would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54