Ms Kate Little

Planning Department

Council Offices, Knowle
Sidmouth EX10 8HL

2 February 2006

Dear Ms Little

Further to the detailed objections to the above planning application contained in our letter of 25 January 2007 we wish to add two further objections based on recent health research.

It has been stated in the above planning application that raising the floodplain by approximately 2 metres will involve 65-90 lorries per day, 10 hours per day, 6 days per week for 3-4 years to bring in one million tons of infill and to this must be added a further 3-4 years of heavy construction traffic. We therefore make the following two supplementary planning objections as regard Local Plan Policy EN21 – Control of Pollution:

In research published in "The Lancet" on 26 January 2007, it states that ears of the harmful effects of traffic emissions are raised today in a major study linking motorway pollution with permanent and life-limiting damage to children's lungs. People who live within 500 metres of a pollutants grow up with significantly reduced lung capacity, and even children who have never experienced asthma are at risk, scientists warn.

The effect on Seaton of the level of traffic cited by the developer will have the effect of creating conditions similar to those in the study within the town. The study goes on to say that this is the first to link permanent lung damage, which can shorten life expectancy, to traffic pollution. Previous research by the same scientists showed that children who grew up in areas of high pollution and car fumes were more likely to develop asthma. But the new study provides strong evidence that vehicle emissions stunt crucial lung development in children between the ages of 10 and 18. The researchers suggest that diesel fumes are to blame.

They studied 3,677 children in 12 areas of southern California where a wide range of air qualities was recorded. They measured their lung capacity according to three measures annually between the ages of 10 and 18. They also took air quality readings in each area, recorded the distance the children lived from a motorway or major road and created a model that took into account local traffic statistics to measure their exposure to traffic.

Should this development be allowed, it will produce a detrimental effect on all children within 500m of the route of lorries to be used – bearing in mind that one route takes them directly past the primary school, doctors surgeries, several nursing homes and close to Seaton Hospital.

One of the largest studies of its kind has found that women breathing polluted air were at increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. The study involved almost 66,000 women aged between 50 and 79 who were monitored for nine years as part of the Women's Health Initiative, a major US investigation into the causes of heart disease in women. The results, in The New England Journal of Medicine, suggest that - for older women at least - fine particulates are far more hazardous than was thought. Pollution was assessed by the average number of particulates, which ranged from four to almost 20 micrograms per cubic metre of air. The effect of allowing this development will be to put women in Seaton in a similar situation to those documented.

A previous investigation by the American Cancer Study found a 12 per cent increased risk of cardiovascular heart disease with each 10 microgram rise. That study was conducted among men and women across a range of ages.

Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "This robust new research follows other large-scale studies which have linked long-term exposure to air pollution to an increased risk of death from heart disease and stroke, and suggests the increased risk is greater than we previously thought. This adds to the mounting evidence that air pollution should be taken seriously as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease."

Should this development be allowed, it will produce a detrimental effect women in Seaton – particularly bearing in mind that both routes pass doctors surgeries, a school, several nursing homes and close to Seaton Hospital.

A copy of this letter has been sent to the two Seaton medical practices.

Yours faithfully

Cc: Townsend Road Medical Practice

Seaton and Colyford Medical Practice