Last Saturday and Monday, there were presentations at Beddington Village Hall about a proposed new use for the old County Skips site on Beddington Lane (on the left hand side of the road travelling north on Beddington Lane opposite the bus garage).
Councillors Foster and Mattey visited the exhibition on Monday and we asked how many people had visited on Saturday and were told four – Chair and Vice Chair of the Beddington North Neighbourhood Forum, a Beddington South Councillor and your local MP, Tom Brake.
It was not much busier on Monday and we thought it important that even if you were unable to make it to the presentation, then you should at least have sight of it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DZdFqd9OYdQkbYor-EbRJdvOWJNrCRQJ/view?usp=sharing
Previous administrations have designated the site for waste usage and there is existing planning permission for its use in that industry. Councillor Mattey and others are far better qualified to comment on the technical / industrial proposals but there is major concern about traffic implications.
The Beddington Lane improvement scheme will ban HGV traffic over 7.5 tonnes from driving through Beddington Village. That means that all the traffic from this SUEZ development will be channelled north and out on the same Coomber Way route as the Incinerator traffic.
Numerically, SUEZ state that there will be 343 “operational vehicles visiting the site daily – that actually means 686 additional vehicle movements on Beddington Lane daily.
The Local Plan has also allowed the re-assignment of Metropolitan Open Land close to the Incinerator for industrial use and, whilst there are not yet firm proposals, discussions are progressing on the idea of warehousing, which means more HGV traffic.
So add two bus garages to the mix and we believe that congestion and pollution make the position untenable.
Beddington North Councillors proposed that rather than look at traffic impact studies on individual applications, that an overall Traffic Impact study should be undertaken and that approach has been tentatively agreed by Officers of the London Borough of Sutton.
But please, where there is an opportunity for public consultation, take that opportunity to voice your opinion – before the event it has impact, when decisions have been made, it’s too late – they don’t get reversed!