INTRODUCTION
As Mayor of Warwick, I am supposed to be apolitical during my year of office; however, I am assured by the Town Clerk that I am entitled to submit my objections, on behalf of the people of Warwick.
AIR QUALITY
I think the people of Warwick worry about the air quality in its town centre. There are laws about Air Quality in town centres. I have already been on the Environmental Health dept to enquire whether the fumes in High St/Jury St are lessening because of the traffic calming and I am assured that it is too early to monitor yet. Therefore, these plans are unacceptable to put an extra 27% of traffic on to our crowded streets.
OUR OBJECTIONS DISMISSED
The dismissal by WDC of all the multiple objections which were submitted when the recent Core Strategy was in public consultation was a poorly judged decision. All areas of Warwick District are dismayed at this and having to re-submit our objections.
FUTURE GROWTH FORECAST
Your population numbers are flawed and are, therefore, incorrect. Your numbers are highly inflated at 40,000, whereas in reality it is forecast at only 13,000 in Warwick Observatory's research.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Warwick residents feel you are forcing this huge number of future dwellings on our fragile infrastructure. There has already been massive development in Warwick. When the 1994 plans for Chase Meadow were passed it was for 1,100 dwellings but 1,600 are built or have planning permission passed for them. £1M Section 106 money was set aside for traffic calming in Warwick Town Centre from this development. Ditto when Warwick Gates was on the drawing board I questioned a Severn-Trent Water official at a presentation as to whether Warwick's Sewage Works and pumping station could cope with so many more people in these houses, using dishwashers, baths, showers and washing machines. I was assured there was sufficient capacity in both the sewage works and the water pumping station. So Warwick Gates was built. Immediately, it became apparent the water pumping was inadequate and an extra pump unit had to be built. Likewise with electricity National Grid have inadequate powers supplies and a new sub-station had to be built. These two plants were built AFTER Warwick Gates was built. Therefore I argue your infrastructure plan is flawed because infrastructure must be BUILT IN ADVANCE.
There are plans for both a Primary School and Secondary School in or near Warwick Gates. Neither have been built so where are they?
Electricity
We have the news casting this week of India's infrastructure failure this week with 6M people without electricity due to power failure. This is because of the increasingly wealthy middle-class in India demanding air-conditioning which has defeated the ancient power plants. A similar problem will occur in the 2020s in the UK unless more power stations are designed, built and come into use. This is relevant to Warwick District with its pylons and sub-stations.
Rural
Villages to the west of Warwick have marvellous infrastructure with a main rail line (Chiltern Line) to get to and fro work in big cities. Warwick Parkway station car park increases in size every 2 years and is full every weekday. The demand for quick access to major centres of population, Birmingham & London is unquenchable. Why cannot these 10,800 houses be built 100 in each and every village in Warwickshire? Then the shop, school and bus service would be viable.
TRAFFIC
No way can Warwick's fragile infrastructure of roads and bridges cope with 27% more traffic as is forecast in your plan.
I was instrumental in stopping a new traffic scheme in Warwick Town Centre in 2004 when we defeated the then Labour WCC's plans on 8/11/2004 with the promise of a new bus station (built on time and under budget), a cycle track to the Tech Park and VMS. The Traffic Forum (£30,000 set aside for it - about £10,000 spent to date) rumbles on with constant consultation and causes irritation to the commercial section, who sometimes refuse to get involved, then grumble (as they are now) with the remedial work being done on High St/Jury St. Warwick's narrow streets (some under 7.6 metres the national standard for a two-way road) and complicated junctions which cannot cope with 27% more traffic.
One hot day in June, when the bricked humps were being built, Warwick ground to a halt for 7 hours, because of a car/truck accident when a driver pulled out of Westgate car park - didn't realise it was a one-way road (as most are in the town centre) and a truck had right of way and the car driver piled into it. It took that long for a tow truck/emergency services to arrive. Children arrived at school 2 hours late with wet knickers/shorts, medical staff arrived hours late to run clinics, appointments for out-patients and impatient people arriving at WCC (whom I witnessed) really angry with the traffic hold up. The town literally ground to a halt. One shop only sold 6 postcards. With the extra 27% of traffic you forecast Warwick will become moribund with no commercial activity.
BRIDGES
The Earl of Warwick built the bridge across the Avon in 1797 and WCC renewed its pavement, the utility supplies which are trunked under the pavements in July 1998. It is a wide (yes widened) two way bridge with two narrow York stone pavements. It is widely used by tourists to photo Warwick Castle. Tourists try to cross on the apex of the bridge. A man in a TR3 killed a pedestrian doing that in the 1980s. The car was low and the tourist didn't see it.
BRIDGES/JUNCTIONS/SAINSBURYS
Every day (except Xmas Day and Easter Day though I have noticed that law being infringed in the last three years) there are 6 HGV movements delivering goods to Sainsbury's on Saltisford. Planning permission was passed for that store before the 7.5 tonne bylaw came in. The rail bridge being 13 ft 5 in (what is that in metres?) precludes the HGV truck coming off the by-pass and entering Birmingham Rd direct into the loading bay of Sainsbury's.
So the route has to be from the Hams Hall depot, A46 by-pass, exit Warwick Stanks Island, over a flattened Canal bridge, left at Lone Tree Island, right into Upper Cape, over another Canal bridge, up a congested Cape Road, over some speed humps (narrow ones) over a narrow 19C rail bridge with very narrow pavements, around Northgate, around another island down North Rock, around another roundabout and into the loading bay. 20 minutes later it returns via the same route in reverse.
I have investigated the cost of heightening the offending bridge (£5M) or lowering the land under the bridge which would have the effect of heightening the bridge. That is impossible because of a culverted stream. With the projection of flooding and this summer's monsoon it impossible to widen and deepen that culvert because water does not flow uphill.
The actual gate at Northgate vanished in the 14C because of "press of traffic" (according to the archives) and there are no drawings of it. Therefore, the foot, horse, animal traffic of those days made it a complicated junction at the top of hill for the past 8 centuries. The HGVs, on occasion, demolish the 1698 sundial and it is replaced by their insurance.
This is just one instance of the congestion of Warwick, already, with its weak links which are the bridges. It only needs one of these to fail, Network Rail to replace a bridge or the new Canal charity is perhaps unable to replace a canal bridge and there are no supplies at Sainsbury's Saltiford.
HEALTH FACILITIES
Warwick Hospital is built on the former 19C workhouse site and is totally inadequate for the needs of the four towns in Warwick District and the rural population. It is so busy. This is the 21stC and most out of Warwick visitors, out-patients, staff, cleaners etc drive. The parking is totally inadequate. I deal with angry residents who resent shift workers parking on their residential streets. Now the Rehabilitation Hospital is going to charge for parking so the same thing will happen in Warwick South.
I spent March to June 2011 visiting my dieing husband in Warwick Hospital. The care and attention he received was magnificent, however, I had time to observe the staff, which are overworked, overstressed and thanks to Harold Shipman light on the morphine, prolonging the deaths of the elderly. My husband had prostate cancer in the skeleton and there was no hope of recovery. With an increasingly elderly population this problem is going to get worst (it is masqueraded as "bed blocking") and it going to escalate in this litigious society.
There are no signs when exiting Lakin Rd car park to Warwick Town Centre (right) and M40 M42 Birmingham and the North (left). I am actively trying to get this sign put in place. Drivers are stressed visiting a hospital for a blood test, an X-ray, visiting the sick, collecting samples, prescriptions etc. When the driver has fathomed out how to exit the car park then the thought comes: Did I drive left or right into this car park? There are no signs at all. Mr Glen Burley (NHS head of the hospital) says it would cost WCC £5000 to put up suitable signs.
The answer is to demolish some of the 19C streets around and rebuild the 19C part of the hospital with a multi-storey car park for staff. Plans have been passed for another private hospital on Tournament Fields, but due to the Banking crisis no funds are forthcoming to build it. Along with the Nuffield Hospital (who has had an MRI scanner delivered this week) this would have relieved the pressure on Warwick Hospital out-patients dept. The initiative by WDC, Pete Cuts and St John's Ambulance Service to curtail the visits by the drunks bleeding from "Payday" incidents in Leamington's pubs has helped tremendously.
CONCLUSION
No way can these plans be accepted. There are far too many in your forecast of future population for Warwick and its fragile infrastructure will break down. Your population forecasts are incorrect. There must be no pressure to build on farmland food is needed, only brown field sites are acceptable. 4 1-bed apartments are to be built on Vine Lane, the Vine pub will be converted into 2 flats, why cannot these (only 6) dwellings be counted within the number required for the future? The residents of Woodloes are angry about the 180 houses along by the Saxon Mill, North Leamington is angry about the proposal to build in their green belt to the north of the allotments.
Ford Foundry site has Morrison's supermarket going up with a large truck and car park. The rest of that huge brownfield site should be housing, some 2/300 could be built there. Behind Leamington Spa rail station there is a temporary car park, another 80 could be accommodated there. Down Cape Rd, Warwick, planning permission could be rescinded on the Benford site for another 25 (P/P was refused) so that would be another 400 off the total. I'm sure other Cllrs could think of other brownfield sites which could be made available.
Finally, Warwick suffers from empty buildings (mostly owned by WCC) 2-22 Northgate St is currently for sale for £3M. Why does not a developer not refurbish those huge houses into two dwellings each, making 20 more. Riverside House would convert into magnificent duplexes.
Warwick's fragile infrastructure will break down if you approve this plan, please do not.