What about all the extra traffic fumes created when 500 new Hassocks homes are built?

Hassocks residents’ have been having their say on proposals for 500 new homes on the edge of the village. Several residents’ concerns have been the ‘ridiculous’ amount of housing going up in Hassocks and the impact on infrastructure. This is my concern, too, along with the issue of the added pollution from all the extra vehicles.

Stonepound Crossroads in Hassocks is the only Air Quality Management Area in Mid Sussex. Nitrogen dioxide levels have been illegal there for years and Mid Sussex District Council has a legal and moral duty to reduce these harmful levels, not increase the volume of traffic by permitting several new housing estates on the roads leading to that junction.

In 2013 an action plan was adopted to reduce pollution. I would like to know how Mid Sussex District Council are monitoring air quality at Stonepound currently before new residents move into their new homes. Has the council’s action plan been successful in achieving a reduction?

An independent technical submission should be part of the detailed planning application stage which demonstrates the increase in traffic and consequent traffic fumes all this extra building will cause in Hassocks. If unacceptable levels of air pollution will be the outcome, this should be reason enough to refuse planning permission, not least, for the health of those residents who live at Stonepound, especially those children with asthma and older people with heart disease.

David Hammond

North Court

Hassocks