BASE HEADER

No

ID sylw: 106604

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Mrs Mary Peirson

The consultation portal is badly designed, making it difficult to comment on individual sites. It could have been so much easier with a Comments page right at the top allowing drop-down selection of areas or sites to comment on. As it is you have to burrow into the plan to only find policy comment boxes. There are no links to comment from the interactive map which itself loads badly.
The plan projects major development south and west of Warwick/Leamington, on top of the large number of houses that have already been built there. This ‘urban sprawl’ does nothing for the towns, creating dormitory areas, with relentless modern houses and no mixed development that has so successfully characterised urban development historically. More effort should be made to improve the density of the existing towns ensuring their commercial viability and further developing them as nice places to live.
It fails on a number of the strategic objectives
The urban sprawl south of Warwick and Leamington fails to protect and enhance the environmental assets: Some of the best and most versatile farmland will be taken for houses, contrary to latest guidance. Wildlife habitat and wildlife corridors will be reduced/damaged. Planting a new tree is a misguided thought that this protects biodiversity when older varied habitats have been plundered.
The local definitions of green belt need to be re-assessed. In line with the A46 northern boundary being green belt, the south/west side of the M40 should also be the boundary of development. This will enable local villages to retain their character and integrity, boosting the appearance and attractiveness of the county. Overdevelopment of local villages counteracts the SO to create attractive places.
The plan is unsustainable without major investment in infrastructure – in particular hospitals and sewage systems. It is relatively easy to build a school or a doctors’ surgery, assuming that the staff can be found to run them. It is quite another thing to develop a hospital create new sewage treatment works and provide more transport infrastructure. These developments need to be done first to create the headroom for sustainable development.