Footpath 53 - And A tiny Bit of Gloating

I’ve read the AVBC documents on Asda’s proposals - yawn, it took two sessions to plough my way through them both. I'd have written this sooner but I've been hampered by too many distractions [work, Christmas shopping, cat trying to help me type].

There are lots of conditions to be met for permission to be granted - hmmm. Anyway, here’s my potted - and no doubt biased - version for those of you who can’t be bothered with the official stuff:-

Pros

1. Heanor Haulage is a dump and will be revamped.
2. There will be much needed jobs on offer within the area.
3. The junction at Station Road and Cromford Road will be improved.
4. Derelict and unsightly buildings will be removed.
5. Contamination will [hopefully] be cleaned up
6. Heanor Haulage will be able to continue with their operations. [not in my list of pro’s but I'm trying to be nice]
7. Section 106 money to be spent locally, including £65,000 on Pottery Lane. ‘A total of £167,000 for the physical, social and economic regeneration of Langley Mill.’
   
8. Wildlife will be encouraged to flourish in certain areas.
9. Positive economic, social and regeneration benefits for Langley Mill.
10. New houses to meet the demands of housing requirements in Amber Valley, ‘Although Langley Mill is not identified in the Regional plan as one of the main locations for new housing growth’ - interesting, so why do they keep trying on Cromford Road?

Cons

1. Traffic problems.
2. A threat to Heanor’s existing trade.
3. The proposed Asda is too big for a village setting.
4. Heanor Haulage will be staying - oops sorry.
5. Flood risks.
6. Disruption to residents.
7. Not safe for pedestrians going from Asda to the Acorn Centre with HGV's using the link road.
8. Langley Mill and Aldercar has already had a significant increase in housing without any health provision.
9. Extra noise for residents near the proposed roundabout.
   
10. Because of coal mining in the past, the fronts of our houses may indeed drop off - as I suspected and mentioned earlier - big pyjamas will be worn. Not only that, we may be blown up or gassed.

Apart from all that - and there’s bound to be lots more that I haven’t listed - there’s the problem of ‘public right of way footpath 53’, the section that runs from Bridge Street through HH’s roof to the railway bridge, why anyone cares about this bit is a mystery to me - but ‘rules is rules’. So before anything can be done at all, permission has to be sought - from the correct department - as the footpath can’t be diverted or obstructed ‘from its legal alignment during or after completion of the development.’ Therefore ‘a legal order may required to facilitate the proposals.’ [Asda - I can blow it up if you require - well I can jump up and down on it a few times to the same effect, it's very wobbly - just give me the nod - they’ll never know who dunnit].

Hmm, so why did Heanor Haulage try to close it several years ago? We even ended up on the telly with a petition - well a survey to prove it was used - to stop them from closing it. What a load of rubbish! … They were just trying it on weren’t they?

Apparently, the ‘unrestricted Heanor Haulage operations have resulted in a long history of complaints since their arrival in May 1996. The use of the site does create unacceptable environmental problems.’ If they knew this to be true, why haven't they stopped them? It looks like there’s been a lot more than us phoning up, it's a pity we didn’t know and all get together to compare notes.

Contaminants on the Heanor Haulage site include - ‘Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH), aromatic Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) compounds, mercury and Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes (BTEX) compounds’ - lovely. It has been recommended that gas monitoring be continued due to the presence of carbon monoxide being discovered on the site.

Oh dear, oh dear, Mr HH must be spitting feathers - they’ve got to be relatively quiet and a lot more environmentally friendly, they can only work between 0800 - 1800 Mondays to Saturdays, that includes deliveries and despatches etc. Ha ha ha ha ha, not only that ‘all vehicle maintenance and repair work shall be conducted within the workshop and not in the open air. All external doors and windows opening directly into the workshop shall be closed other than for the duration of vehicle access/egress’. ‘ No solvent based spray-paints shall be used outdoors on the site’. Is that clear enough for you Mr HH?!

There may be archaeological work done because of the industrial archaeological interest in the ‘Vulcan Works’ - above and below ground, also the back-to-back workers houses before building commences, that should be interesting to the historical society. The local schoolchildren visit the top of Bridge Street every summer to look at the old building there and the workers houses.

Work has to be completed in three phases

1. Heanor Haulage office and Depot.
2. Asda Foodstore, retail units and petrol filling station.
3. Residential Development.

This is all assuming that both proposals are passed, each phase has to be completed before the next one begins. I hope that there'll be a temporary Post Office sorted out as a lot of people rely on the one at Langley Mill, I can't see anywhere that this is covered, but I could have missed it.

The bugbear for Bridge Street remains with the access to the new houses once they are built, we agree Dean Street is too narrow, but even though there is only housing on one side of Bridge Street, there are still parked cars on both sides for most of its length. If there weren’t, a small boy wouldn’t have run out into the road a quarter way up the street and hit our car with his his head [it was that way around, we have the dint to prove it.] He was shaken but relatively unharmed, this is because the residents of Bridge Street are used to children playing in the road so drive slowly. There is no way in this world that the statement ‘2-way vehicle movement’ can apply to Bridge Street, it won’t happen as things stand, even with a car park at the top of the street.

There were representations made, most expressing support for Asda, I could see my suggestions amongst them so I wasn’t totally ignored - well not yet anyway.

The grumpy old man has been in touch with the Asda chap - seeing as they didn’t write to me - so we’re going on the coach [from the Bridge Centre at 5.00pm] to wave our ‘YES to Asda in Langley Mill’ leaflet [if I can find it] at the councillors next Monday - unless I’ve been arrested for threatening to blow up footpath 53 …