Myton Road is already overloaded with traffic. It is home to some 3500 schoolchildren during the school day and the road just can't take any more traffic. I am retired but have to time any outings by car to avoid the delays inherent in setting forth between 8am and 10 am. as it can take me half an hour just to get to the outskirts of the town. The road is jammed between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. every morning during term time.
The same is true in the afternoon. The schools stagger their finishing time in the hope of distributing the traffic. This is fine but the effect is that there are several peaks when even getting to my house from Warwick is impossible without substantial queuing. The first wave is about 3.15 p.m. with further jams about 4 p.m. and the inevitable rush hour jam between 5.30 p.m. and 6.00 p.m.
The new houses proposed will inevitably increase the traffic and make a chaotic situation even worse. Clearly no houses should have direct access onto Myton Road; that would be madness. However, even building in the vicinity will inevitably bring some traffic to the road. The fact is that there is no road in the whole of Warwick District that has a worse traffic problem than Myton Road.
But it is not just Myton Road that is overloaded. The roads in the centre of Warwick are gridlocked too.
The infrastructure in Warwick
Traffic frequently queues back from the Eastgate traffic lights to the Castle roundabout and from there to the bridge over the River Avon and beyond. These are historic areas, part of the heritage that makes Warwick a tourist town; we can't afford to fiddle with the road layout. No one wants to see King's High School demolished to make way for a roundabout with Eastgate in the middle. And yet, if we want to reduce the traffic, it is obvious that we need to stop any more house building to the south of Warwick.
The proposed Traffic modification scheme for Castle Hill involving extensive modifications to the area including Castle Hill, Smith Street, St Nicholas Church Street and Banbury Road appear to have one main objective which is to manage through traffic to the detriment of local traffic and local residents. It will have the effect of damaging the very structure that makes Warwick a tourist attraction and provides revenue to the local businesses and facilities to the local residents. The scheme generally assumes a significant growth in traffic over the 200 year old Avon Bridge, and yet there has been no study commissioned to determine its capability to carry the estimated 10% increase in traffic expected to be generated by the housing/ business / through traffic growth.
It is clear to me that no amount of tinkering can deal with the fundamental problem - the number of residents, shoppers and schoolchildren already using the road. It is surely time to stop adding to the problem.
Air Quality
The Air Quality Regulations (England) (Wales) 2000 (as amended) set out objectives for improving the air quality in our towns and cities. In particular, the objective for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was set at 40 ug per m³.
Readings were taken in the centre of Warwick in 2007 and High Street, Jury Street, St. Nicholas Church Street, Smith Street, Bowling Green Street, Theatre Street, Saltisford and The Butts were all above this level. Indeed Pageant House with a reading of 56.4 ug per m³ was the highest in the whole area covered by Warwick District Council. A massive 41% above the minimum level deemed acceptable by the government.
It is argued that new technologies for vehicles have improved levels over the last 5 years, but I doubt that this is the case. Government incentives have concentrated on the level of CO2 (carbon dioxide) not NO2. Furthermore, there has been a general trend towards more diesel cars and these emit more NO2 than petrol driven ones. Recently the new road layout in Jury Street and High Street will have slowed traffic down. Of course, this is a benefit (in one way), but it means traffic spends longer in Warwick and emits more nitrogen dioxide.
What sort of policy is it when you concentrate most of your building in an area where air quality is worst? To make it even worse?
Coalescence of Warwick and Leamington
The Public Inquiry into the (then) proposed development of the Aragon Drive estate. Warwick District Council (who were objecting to it) and Warwickshire County Council were very specific about the fact that it was important to keep a green buffer zone between Warwick and Leamington Spa to prevent the 2 towns becoming one big urban sprawl. Indeed, it was stated that the cycle path on the outskirts of the estate was specifically designed to mark the boundary of development and the land behind was to be retained in perpetuity as an area of restraint. The Inspector was no doubt influenced by this when he gave permission for the development.
We need to have boundaries between our towns to give everyone a sense of identity. Jephson Farm provides a useful buffer zone to the north of Myton Road and this land should provide a similar buffer zone to the south.
Rate of Growth
I understand that the size of Warwick has increased by 1% a year over the last 10 years, double the rate of growth for Warwickshire as a whole and double the national average. Surely it's now time to look elsewhere. We need to reduce this to help to assimilate the new houses already built (and still being built) within the current structure.
The planned development in Warwick and Leamington appears to be designed to meet a target for the wider area, including for example the Stratford on Avon, whilst totally ignoring significant development proposed in that neighbouring town, including the controversial Shottery development for 800 houses already approved in that area, to name but one.
The proposals for the whole area are designed, not just as an organic growth to satisfy our local demand of around 5,000 homes which could be satisfied by development on existing brown-field sites, but apparently to bring in from far and wide new residents to the area which will have the net effect of turning our lovely ancient market town, an attraction to British and Overseas tourists, into an ugly dormitory for the major conurbations of Birmingham and Coventry.
Agricultural Land
According to the Agricultural Land Classification Map, most of this land is of Grade 2 quality. To put this into perspective only 0.1% of agricultural land in Warwickshire is Grade 1 (mostly in North Warwickshire) and only 11.9% is Grade 2.
In other words, this land is probably in the top 10% most productive in the whole County. Our population will inevitably rise in years to come and we will need to get the most from our modest resources. Surely it isn't sensible to build houses on the best land first.
The land too is brimming with wildlife - I have seen foxes, deer, pheasants, woodpeckers, bats, rabbits, newts and hedgehogs. We can't build on this sort of environment; it needs to be retained for future generations.
Flooding
A casual glance is sufficient to inform anyone that this site slopes gently from south to north. And slopes can bring flooding. There has already been considerable flooding in the Myton Crescent area when the old Dormer School site was built upon. It is inevitable that the same will happen here and yet the Local Plan is silent on the subject.
At the very least there will need to be a buffer zone between the old and new developments to allow for some natural drainage. Although the best answer is to leave things as they are and allow Myton Brook to take excess surface water safely on its way.