The West Suffolk Local Plan is now available until Tuesday 12th March for a third and final round of consultation. There will also be a public exhibition on Saturday 17th February.
Consultation documents
Public exhibition
Date: 17th February 2024, 10:00 – 15:00
Venue: King Edward VII Memorial Hall, Newmarket
The plan includes building 415 houses on Pinewood Stud and a country park that includes the Seven Springs. We have highlighted to The Jockey Club our concerns over the proximity of the proposed housing to the Springs which feed the New River (chalk stream) that flows through Exning, past Wicken Fen before joining the Cam at Upware. At certain times of the year water is pumped from the river onto Wicken’s Sedge Fen as part of the management of this Ramsar (the Convention of Wetlands) site which has international wetland designation status as well as it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (national designation) and Special Area of Conservation (European designation).
ENRA (Exning New River Association) will be responding that we wish to ensure that any Local Plan allocation and policies for Pinewood Stud and the Seven Springs recognise the importance of the site, its sensitivity to adverse impacts and that development should only be permitted if it can be shown that potentially significant impacts can be avoided or, at worst, mitigated to the point of being insignificant.
We also believe that suitable measures, including governance and funding mechanisms should be put in place for the long-term protection and management of the Seven Springs site to maintain and improve its condition (water quality and ecology) and protect the archaeological features in the area.
Do look at the consultation documents online and go along to the Public Exhibition on 17th February.
