Is this the first accident caused by HS2?

Saturday 26th October was never going to be an ordinary day in Whitmore and Baldwins Gate. It was the day that HS2 were coming to the village hall to explain why we should support their £42,600,000,000,000 expenditure on a high-speed line that was no longer going to be that much quicker than the ordinary lines and that would be financially detrimental to most of Staffordshire.

One major impact (in more ways than one) that the event had, seems to be yet another road traffic accident on the A53 in the village ... the fourth in two months! Once again the village and the A53 were clogged. Fortunately it was not for 8 hours on this occasion. Rumour has it, though this is not to be relied upon as evidence, that a car was waiting to turn into the HS2 exhibition, causing a small tail-back, and another motorist failed to stop causing one vehicle to shunt into another and another.....

For the villagers, traffic is a MAJOR issue and now, with the proposed construction of a MINI_ROUNDABOUT, they are all up in arms.

Highway engineers and Traffic Management Designers can say what they like but the facts speak for themselves. The village keeps being the location of accidents, both minor and serious.

Adding 113 extra houses, increasing the village population by 50%, will supposedly do nothing to make matters worse, at least once we have our new roundabout and extra Puffin crossing. There's no doubt that these obstacles will slow traffic but the designers don't see traffic speed as an issue anyway. What they will do is clog up the village at peak times, blocking exits from other side avenues, and seriously limiting the access and egress of properties in the vicinity.

The proposers of this development and associated engineering works are missing the point that the village is NOT stagnating, has NO NEED for this development, has no MARKET for these houses, and HAS NO INFRASTRUCTURE to support such an increase in population. The development is UNSUSTAINABLE!

Simply because the Newcastle Borough Council has failed to demonstrate that it can meet its 5-year housing targets, it is now being preyed upon by parasitic land developers taking advantage of its predicament like vultures pecking at an injured animal.

Preserving Farmland

Baldwins Gate Action Group - Stop development at Baldwins Gate Farm!

Richborough Estates have submitted a planning application in to build on the field in the foreground.

The field is only used as pasture …… according to Richborough. 

Presumably potatoes don't count! Although taken a few years ago, this photograph from Bing Maps shows the potatoes in half the field. The other half, nearest the houses, was "set-aside" which all goes to prove that, as Grade 1 & 2 farmland, a farmer could use this field to grow anything ... or even NOTHING if the Government grants incentivise him.

The field IS currently used to grow fodder and as pasture but in the past it has also grown maize (for cattle but could also grow varieties for human consumption), wheat and potatoes.

Resolution 42/187 of the United Nations General Assembly defined sustainable development as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

In a country that already is unable to feed itself, it is imperative that, in the interests of sustainability, the best farm land should not be built upon. Once covered in bricks and tarmac, this field will be lost forever to future generations.

Learn more about our campaign to stop this destruction of a finite natural resource.