Dear Sir,
My preferred option plan consultation feedback:
GREEN BELT - National Planning Policy Framew9rk requires "very special circumstances"
The Green Belt covers only 13% of the area of England. This preferred plan is for 10,800 dwellings
and 43% of land used will be green belt. How can this be justified when there is still plenty of white
field land available south of Leamington? Presumably the "very special circumstances" come into
effect when the 57% development on white fields has been used. This growth is scheduled to take
15 years at a constant annual rate of 555 houses per year. 57% of 15 is 8.55. So it will be eight and a
half years before these "very special circumstances" (ie. white field sites are filled and green belt is
needed) comes into effect. By then another plan will have been made!
I disagree strongly with any relaxation of the green belt which is there to stop conurbations merging.
This plan will leave less than 1 Y, miles between ~Kenilworth and Leamington.
Why does Kenilworth need to expand? It has always been in the past a much smaller town than
Leamington and Warwick and mushroomed massively in the 1960s, and also in the 1980s when
Knights Meadow and the Lindisfarne Drive estates were built. Why should we let this happen again
to keep pace with the other towns? Councillors tell me that the Green Belt is strangling Kenilworth.
This is precisely its purpose. We should be grateful that our town has these safeguards in place to
protect it.
770 dwellings equates to about 1770 people which is almost a 10% increase in Kenilworth's
population in an area which is quite detached from Kenilworth and is not likely to make its
inhabitants feel a part of the community. The town centre should be in the middle of the town. Far
too much development is on the east side and it should now be the turn of the west, if the Green
Belt has to be sacrificed, where there is no risk of it merging with other towns and which would be ~
short walk to the centre of town without cars needing to be used.
THICKTHORN.
How was the Thickthorn site chosen?
Surely not because it abuts the A46 which is noisy both day and night. Was a site visit made to see
just how noisy it will be for all the inhabitants? Were decibel readings taken at various points up the
hill to ascertain the suitability of this site? The noise is particularly bad on a hot sunny day with the
prevailing south-west wind. What about HS2 whose boom will be heard at Thickthorn as it passes 18
times per hour in both directions on the EAST side? This estate will be on the flight path of Coventry
*
International Airport where there is no restriction on night flights and jets scream right over the
proposed development land and at a very low level on their way to Baginton as they have to avoid
the Birmingham flight path, (which is also noisy) as this is the crossover point of the two flightpaths.
It would be a very selfish decision to commit people to a life of misery with all this noise even
through double glazing. This is not the same scenario as the Woodloes where houses abut the road,
which at that point is 4 lanes instead of 6, where there the A46 is the other side of the natural sound
barrier of Primrose Hill. At Thickthorn noise is impossible to stop owing to the contours of the land
which is a basin causing the noise to be trapped and sweep up the hill towards dwellings. The noise
is incessant both day and night. It is an ideal location for the sports fields which are already there,
where people can go away at the end and not have to endure it 24 hours a day. Office buildings
along it will not dissipate the sound.
TRAFFIC
Having 1200 cars discharging from the estate each morning will be a nightmare and cause even
longer queues up Birches Lane and into Glasshouse Lane. It will be a worse effect than the horse fair
there every day of the year. Updating St Johns gyratory presumably means traffic lights which will
cause long tailbacks into the town centre as they have priority under the give-way scheme.
I cannot understand how a dual carriageway between Kenilworth and Leamington will help as all the
traffic will have to funnel in at either end and will just result in 4 lanes of slow moving traffic instead
of 2. Creation of bus lanes will in any case limit traffic flow to one lane in each direction to speed up
a bus every 10 minutes if you're lucky, and nothing will be gained in terms of traffic build up.
There are no points wide enough along Glasshouse Lane for the junction of a spine road, as the
corner with Rocky Lane is on a dangerous bend. In any case, Glasshouse Lane is a unique and
attractive feature of 1930s period landscaping, a Kenilworth gem, which should be preserved and
which junctions along its length will destroy.
NUMBERS
Where do these figures come from for 10,800 houses?
It is in the interest of the District Council to have as many new houses as possible, as they receive 6
times the Council Tax from the New Homes Bonus Scheme for every new dwelling completed and
more than that if they are affordable housing.
This plan is not led by suitability but the interest of landowners to sell off their land for housing.
These are not sufficient grounds for this massive increase in population concentrated in a small area
as the plans make little use of rural area development. Lots of villages need regenerating. Radford
Semele has had no growth since the 1960s and has a school in place already. It has good transport
links to the M40, Fosse Way and Leamington Station and IT IS IN A WHITE FIELD ZONE. If such a large
number are needed, they should be put in the South Leamington area on white field sites as
Leamington already has all the amenities (parks, department stores, nightclubs, cinemas) jobs to
support it. This is a Warwick District Council plan not a Kenilworth plan and there are plenty of other
places where housing could be built.
WHAT ARE YOU, OUR TOWN COUNCIL, DOING?
Old Milverton and Blackdown Parish Council are sending a formal objection on behalf of the area.
Where is the formal OBJECTION from our town council on behalf of its 23,000 residents? Our town
should be protected from losing its identity.
Offices are not needed -lots are available to rent. St Johns next to Jet garage, old Pottertons site.
Industrial land is not needed as Archery Fields is empty with fountains and wasteful landscaping at
the entrance.
You cannot make people live and work in the same place. These ideas don't work. Kenilworth is not
an industrial town and should not strive to be such.
THE A46 WAS PLACED WHERE IT IS TO KEEP IT AWAY FROM THE POPULATION.
Why were these ideas devised secretly without asking the people who voted for you their opinions
before consulting the district planners?
CONCLUSION
Population figures should be challenged.
Green belt should be protected.
Consideration of the effect on the HEALTH of people living alongside a motorway with NOISE and
POOR AIR QUALITY owing to constant fumes and directly under a flight path with NOISE due to very
low flying aircraft should be made.