Strong opposition to civic amenity site proposals (From Western Telegraph)

Strong opposition to civic amenity site proposals

12:29pm Wednesday 5th September 2012 in Letters

I WOULD like to air my disconcertion over the proposed plans of Pembrokeshire Council to build a new civic amenity site at New Hedges/ Bethesda, Saundersfoot.

One of the reasons given for choosing this site is because it has ‘space to expand’. Does this mean it will be enlarged in the future?

We are assured that: ● ‘Impact will be minimalised’.

An admission that there will be impact on the local community.

● ‘...the access road and containers (being) sunk below road level so as not to be seen from the main road’.

Does this mean the site will be invisible from the highway?

A sort of Secret Civic Amenity Site with hidden access!

● ‘Odours will be kept to a minimum’. There will be smells to waft on a breeze to the residents of the Brooklands home, Bethesda Cottages, other properties in the area and into the vents of passing traffic. L’eau de New Hedges!

● ‘Noise levels produced will be less than the background noise already generated by the traffic on the A478’. This means, you live in a noisy place already, so our noise won’t make any difference to you! The (to be) affected properties have quiet back gardens, which offer their residents an oasis of relative peace from the traffic noise caused by the busy, fast road passing their front doors. The council’s plans don’t take into consideration that these already noise-plagued people will now have to deal with an onslaught of more noise and ‘minimalised’ smells at the back and sides of their properties.

● ‘Traffic impact is expected to be negligible’. To try and use an average of vehicles using this road throughout the year as an argument is simplistic! I do not believe that only 9,900 vehicles use this stretch of road daily during the summer months, or that the increase will be ‘negligible’.

● If the assurances that ‘careful consideration has been put into the proposed site plan to ensure that the facility will have minimal impact on the neighbouring community’ were true, then why the outcry?

The council’s map shows us the site will be over 130 metres from Brooklands Home (still too close to any residential property), but does not show any other property nearby of which there are several. This is not a case of not in my back yard, but a question of trust in local democracy.

JAN BOWEN Darmstadt Germany (Former Tenby and Saundersfoot resident)