Helping Shape the District

Introduction

This consultation paper poses a number of questions at the end of each section for you to think about. To respond to these please give us your views by completing the online questionnaire. Follow the link at the end of this document.

This is a unique opportunity to have a say in how your local community changes and develops over the next 15 years.

The Government is changing the law to give councils and neighbourhoods more responsibility in deciding the type and size of any new developments that take place in their local area. It is also planning to give councils new powers to make sure that local communities benefit from new developments.

This means that for the first time in many years we have a real opportunity to choose how much development we will have in our district, and use development and money generated from new developments to meet the needs and aims of local people and businesses.

Previous growth targets imposed on the area have therefore been abandoned, but the work undertaken on the Core Strategy and your responses have helped inform this paper as our first step forward in preparing a new local plan for Warwick District. This plan will guide the area’s future development for the next 15 years.

To make the best use of this opportunity, we need to understand what sort of place you want your community to be in the future. You know the area better than anyone, and we want to work with you to prepare a new local plan that produces the changes that local communities want to see in their area.

Like many areas of the country, we face a number of issues such as traffic congestion, a lack of affordable homes, and flooding. These issues have got worse over time as the area has grown and changed, and as investment in public services and facilities has failed to keep up with that change. There is now an opportunity to use new development and the powers that will be given to councils to help deal with these issues.

The idea of this short paper is to support the discussion we want to have over the next few months with local communities, businesses, voluntary groups, public organisations and landowners about what sort of place you want your area to be in the future.

It sets out what we think are the important issues facing your community today, and some scenarios for how the area could change to deal with these issues. Finally, the paper includes some draft objectives that we think the local plan should work towards.

To find out how you can join in the discussion, give us your views, and get more information about the local plan, please go to our website: www.warwickdc.gov.uk/newlocalplan, or visit one of your local Council offices where information and a questionnaire will also be available.