The Highways Agency (HA) together with Warwickshire County Council (WCC) is currently undertaking an assessment of the implications of the strategic housing and employment allocations proposed in the Council's Core Strategy Preferred Options paper for both the Strategic Road Network (SRN) and the local road network. This work is expected to be completed by June 2010 and will help determing what, if any, measures to mitigate the impact of the proposed development options on the SRN will be requred. This work should also help to inform the development of the Council's Infrastructure Delivery Plan, which will underping the Core Stretegy.

Given the uncertainty about which, if any, of the alternative sites are suitable for development, the HA has been unable to undertake any such detailed assessment of the traffic impacts of these sites at this time but would wish to do so when there is greater clarity. For the purposes of responding to this consultation, we have, therefore, undertaken a qualitative assesment of each of the sites focussing on the potential impacts of each site on the SRN and their suitabilty in terms of sustainability.

Site 2 lies immediately adjacent to the southern fringe of the Leamington Spa suburb of Sydenham. Part of the site is identified as a location suitable for housing in the District Council's Core Strategy Preferred Options document. As you know, the transport impact of this part of the site (together with the cumulative impact of the District Council's Preferred Options) is currently being assessed by the HA and WCC. However, the site included in the Alternative Sites consultation paper, compromised a much larger area of land than the Preferred Option site and we understand that the proposed development would include a replacement school in addition to housing.

The site is relatively remote from the SRN with the closest junctions (M40 Junctions 13 and 14) being some 6km to the south of the site. Therefore, we do not expect that the direct traffic impact of this site on the SRN will be significant. However, we would recommend that the site is provided with good access to public transport and other sustainable transport means to minimise the traffic impact of the site as far as possible.

All six of the proposed alternative sites are considered to have some impact upon the SRN. It is expected that Site 2 would have the least impact, due to the relative distance from the M40, and the number of local services, amenities, and employment sites within the neighbouring areas. The remaining sites would have a more noticeable impact upon the SRN. Site 6 in particular has the potential to severely impact upon some sensitive locations along the A46. As set out above, we would, of course, wish to undertake further detailed assessment of the traffic impacts of the sites on the SRN when there is greater clarity about which, if any, sites are considered to be suitable for development.