Page 33 of the Penistone Community Led Parish Plan 2013 sets out in regard to ‘HGV Access’ that:
“HGV’s are considered a problem in Penistone Town Centre with 55% of respondents stating the traffic is unacceptable.”
The photograph above, which was taken on 24 October 2016, shows one such high sided HGV travelling along the B6462 ‘Sheffield Road’ adjacent to Penistone Railway Station and nearby the site of the proposed Transport Interchange, towards Penistone Town Centre and en-route to the A628/A629. The majority of HGV’s which are required to access two existing business parks in Springvale and Oxspring are unable to avoid Penistone Town Centre and the ‘Square-about’ one way system on market place, due to the existence of a very low railway bridge in Oxspring, which has a height of only 13 feet 3 inches and prevents access and egress to these facilities avoiding Penistone.
Whilst the route through Penistone Town Centre is the only passable route for the majority of HGV’s, the photograph above illustrates how HGV’s utilising this route still have to manoeuvre dangerously into the centre of the road, on a blind bend, to enable them to pass under the railway bridge on Sheffield Road adjacent to the Penistone Railway viaduct (which has a height restriction of 14 feet 9 inches) with only inches to spare.
At present the only land proposed to be allocated in the Local Plan to meet Penistone’s employment needs during the Local Plan Period is a Greenfield and Greenbelt site located just outside of Springvale in the village boundary of Oxspring, adjacent to the existing Martree business park (Local Plan Site Reference: P2).
Yorkshire Land Limited believe it is inevitable that the development of site reference P2 would result in further access and movements of HGV traffic through Penistone Town Centre, due to the presence of the low bridge in Oxspring, highlighted above, which would again prevent access and egress avoiding Penistone.
Yorkshire Land Limited, have developed proposals for future development of a new business park as an alternative to site reference P2, to serve Penistone and the Western Part of the Borough beyond the end of the Local Plan Period in the year 2033, in a location which is not affected by low bridges and is not required to be accessed via Penistone Town Centre and will therefore help minimise future disruption by HGV’s in the area. Yorkshire Land Limited believes this is a far superior proposal.
Whilst the site proposed by Yorkshire Land Limited is currently in the Green Belt, it is also previously developed land, unlike the current employment proposal for Penistone in the Local Plan (Site Reference: P2) which, as set out above, is both Greenfield and Green Belt.
For more comprehensive details in regard to our proposals for a new employment site to serve the needs of Penistone, please visit our website: www.BlackmoorBusinessPark.co.uk