I noted with interest the two previous letters in the Review regarding the proposed development of the land at Allaston and noted that they both state the main access to the site is through Windsor Drive, having also examined the proposed development on the company web­site  which also states that the main access is through Windsor Drive (http://allaston.maplerock.co.uk/">http://allaston.maplerock.co.uk/)

As a resident of Windsor Drive I would like to point out that planning permission for access to this land through Windsor Drive has been applied for three times to local, area and district planning authorities and has been rejected every time as being unsuitable for the proposed use.

So there is no access to the proposed development through Windsor Drive unless the developers intend to ignore the decision of the planning authorities.

With no access through Windsor Drive this only leaves the proposed access through Court Road, with a development of over 300 houses using this road for access, most homes today have two cars so say 600 cars, with each car making an average of 2 trips each that means an extra 2400 cars a day plus trade vehicles using Court Road every day. This road can hardly cope with the volume of traffic currently using it especially at school times so the extra volume would be out of the question.

Also the Primrose Hill road into Lydney is not suitable for an increase of traffic of this volume as anyone who uses this road into Lydney town centre will confirm.

The only viable entrance to this site would be via Highfield Lane into the bottom of Driffield Road with a roundabout constructed at the top of Highfield Hill to handle the increased volume of traffic. As there are no jobs in Lydney for these 300 plus families they would all need to travel to work in Gloucester, Newport, or Bristol adding to the already heavily congested roads.

I would suggest that a better use of this land would be to develop it into a leisure park with hotel and possibly a golf course as this would keep the Green Belt as green land and also provide much needed employment in the area.

Of course this would only yield a small profit and an income over the long-term and not the instant return wanted by these cash-hungry developers.  Instead they are providing unwanted and unneeded houses, turning pleasant countryside into urban sprawl just so a few people can make a large profit from turning farmland into a massive housing estate.

– Windsor Drive resident.