We, the undersigned residents of Mancot and surrounding areas, are opposed to the allocation and development for housing of land between Ash Lane and Park Avenue in Mancot, Flintshire. 

The reasons for opposing the allocation and development are substantial in both number and impact on the local community:

• Local schools are already over-subscribed with pupils
• There are already significant traffic and safety issues outside both Sandycroft Primary School and Hawarden Village Church School. Adding a further 250+ plus houses will significantly exacerbate these problems
• GP surgeries and dentists in the area are limited in number and are also over-subscribed and struggling to cope with demand locally
• Local cemeteries are overstretched with little room left for future burials
• Lower Mancot and Sandycroft were both severely flooded earlier this year. The allocated land is at the top of the hill and this field itself is already categorised as a flood risk. So are most of the connected roads in Mancot leading down to Sandycroft (source: Natural Resources Wales). Building on land prone to flooding could have devastating implications for existing dwellings and the local environment
• This development will lead to an even further loss of local green belt land through it's 'deletion' and allocation for housing development
• The development will lead to a growth in settlement that which is above the stipulated settlement levels and the proposal would result in growth far beyond what is sustainable for a village with the current facilities and infrastructure
• Local transport services have already been cut substantially and will struggle to cope with further demand
• Increase in traffic will lead to greater levels of pollution in the local area at a time when local government should be looking to significantly reduce it's environmental impact
• Glynne Way in Hawarden is already the subject of Air Quality monitoring for similar reasons to the introduction of the 50mph speed limit on the nearby A494. The Council has stated that it understands why commuters are unhappy with the speed limit but that protecting the environment and implementing a sustainable policy is a priority. It would be hypocritical in the extreme to make such statements and then simultaneously progress with a development site which will evidently exacerbate a known air quality issue
• Further environmental impact through the loss of wildlife havens such as hedgerows, ditches, mature trees would be unacceptable
• Previous mining in the area has led to houses on Park Avenue needing to be underpinned
• The local authority has previously resisted development in this area in order to maintain a distinction between Mancot and Upperdale. Development would break this distinction, severing the green barrier and irreversibly altering the character of the local community
• There are many brownfield sites in the area that could be developed instead, making the justification and modification of this land unacceptable
• The size of the site is beyond justification. Rather than adopt a range of smaller sites more suitable to local communities, as advanced in the UDP, the Council appear to have gone against policy to purposefully make these sites attractive to private developers who favour large development sites
• The land is fertile agricultural land and should be protected to ensure future food supply

We urge Flintshire County Council to remove this allocation from the LDP and stop the planned development of this land for the reasons outlined above. We also urge the Gladstone Estate to reconsider the proposed development of this green barrier land which is vital to the heritage and cultural identity of our local community. 

At a time of increased ecological and environmental damage, further eroding of the local rural area is simply unacceptable. The Welsh Government has just this year, declared a 'climate emergency' in response to the threats faced to society by the climate crisis. For Flintshire County Council to react to this by simply 'deleting' green belt land so that it can be developed by private property companies is both deeply irresponsible and in direct contravention to the sort of environmental protections our community deserves. 

After a decade of austerity cuts by central government, our local council should be prioritising the building of social and affordable housing on brownfield sites, not further developments of local white elephants made up of houses unaffordable to the majority of young and working class people.