MINIMISING the impact of the Washingley Farm Business Park (Business park could create 2,250 job, Hunts Post, November 28) was the main takeaway from the public meeting at Great Stukeley Village Hall on November 27.

I would like to make the following points:

1. The daily traffic flow between 8am and 10am was given at 427 vehicles, However, this fails to take account of:

n Regular traffic build-up through the Stukeleys when the A14 has been affected by an accident – an all too frequent occurrence which results in the use of Ermine Street as a rat run.

n The increasing use of Ermine Street to avoid congestion at the Spittles roundabout.

n The traffic which will emanate from the planned housing estate directly opposite the proposed Washingley Farm Business Park. With a planned 1,000-plus homes we can expect around 1,500 vehicles to leave the one entrance/exit point in the same time frame.

n Traffic to and from the approved Alconbury development as no-one can seriously believe that all the jobs will be served from the 5,000 homes on the same development.

n The planned 2,250 jobs will mean at least 1,500 cars entering the business park between 8am and 10am.

2. It is disingenuous to state that the traffic entering the business park will only come from the Huntingdon area. People from the adjacent Ermine Street Business Park come from the other side of Peterborough and use the Ermine Street as a rat run to avoid the Spittles roundabout.

3. To suggest that all the traffic problems will be addressed by the upgrade of the A14 is facetious. This has been in train for 20 years and is not a priority on any Government’s transport agenda, so the any time argument is a figment of the imagination.

4. The creation of 2,250 jobs sounds good, but is it? Very few, if any, jobs will flow to the Stukeleys – largely due to the fact that many of the residents are elderly. There are no shops, no petrol station, no post office – except for the two pubs there is little economic benefit to the villages. And Huntingdonshire District Council will siphon off tax advantages to the villages.

5. Suggesting that the development will be phased just means that we will be faced with a graduating problem, but the overall impact will be the same.

The sad fact is that if all three planned developments go ahead in their current form the Stukeleys will end up grid-locked.

The road system cannot absorb the current level of traffic. Factoring in the additional traffic that these developments will create, Ermine Street will be forced to carry at least another 6,000 vehicles in the 8am to 10am slot.

In any form this is a development too far.

Dr BARRIE JAMES

Owl End

Great Stukeley