Kedington may have found a new ally yesterday in the battle to save the village from being swapped by Haverhill under the new Local Development Framework. On Thursday readers of the Haverhill Echo found a two page advertisement in the form of a letter from Nic Rumsey of Carisbrooke Investments, detailing their opposition to the current proposals for the LDF and counter proposals which if accepted would place the lions share of expansion to the north and west of Haverhill.
Carisbrooke Investments are a firm of developers based in Grosvenor Square, London, but have strong long standing links with Haverhill, in particular involvement with Haverhill Business Park. Speaking to KedingtonNews.Co.UK Mr Rumsey started by admitting that Carisbrooke did have options on some of the land to the west of Haverhill, but that of the 250 acres of land they have options on only 80 falls within the area of their proposals, going on to say that he genuinely believed the proposals his letter laid out were the best option for Haverhill. He then went on to explain that expansion as proposed to the east of Haverhill would require a massive outlay in terms of infrastructure for both sewerage and roads adding that the unpopular suggestion of an eastern leg to the ring road would cost in excess of £30,000,000. Pointing out that most of the required infrastructure had already been built on the west side of Haverhill Mr Rumsey also told us that he believed this was a way that Haverhill and with it the borough of St Edmundsbury could "build on the towns contacts with Cambridge".
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The letter also made much reference to Haverhill's growth towards Kedington stating that the current proposals would "affect the setting and amenity of Kedington for many decades ahead." also claiming that developments in Kedington's direction would "Inevitably extend beyond the ridge." For Carisbrooke's own proposals the letter claims that "Not only would this solution save Kedington as it is now known and loved by the community; it would also mean working with landowners who are willing and able to progress, in an area where outlying villages could remain unaffected." However a map accompanied the letter. We have reproduced it at the top of this article. The sections in Deep burgundy are what Carisbrooke refer to as "Our Solution"; The Line in bright red we have overlaid ourselves, this is the proposed limit of the "Buffer Zone" as put forward at the general meeting last month. In what they call a "balanced proposal" Carisbrooke have supported some areas for building on the east of the town, a substantial amount of which is on the Kedington side of the line and would be visible from the north end of Kedington if built on. We put this to Nic Rumsey who had himself been at the General Meeting. He said that all the land Carisbrooke had specific interest in was to the west of Haverhill and they had suggested some building to the east in what seemed like likely areas to give balance and went on to say that he had got the feeling that the Kedington Parish Council felt building between the village and Haverhill was inevitable, however he felt this was not the case and that they could stop building all together "If the council made a little more noise."
Mr Rumsey has expressed an interest in working with Kedington Parish Council to co-ordinate the approach of Carisbrooke Investments and the parish council to shared interests and has been invited to the next meeting of the parish council on October the 20th.
Article by M.P.Upton - 02/10/9
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