I am writing to you, as Director of Public Health for Warwickshire, with reference to serious concerns we have with the impact upon our health and wellbeing if Warwick District Council's preferred options within the New Local Plan are allowed to go ahead.

This would include a large concentration of around 3420 dwellings on the greenfield land to the south of Warwick between Myton Road and Europa Way which is currently an Area of Restraint and would join up with Warwick Gates.

This amount of development in one area would have serious health impacts upon local residents in the loss of green land and the addition of additional vehicles onto roads which are already in excess of their capacity.

I moved to Warwick 12 years ago where the air was cleaner and the housing less concentrated than Birmingham where I had lived from childhood.

The addition of this housing will create an additional 3000+ vehicles at peak times around Warwick on roads which are already stationary and slow moving and hence result in additional pollution and a further decline in air quality which was shown in the 2008 Air Quality Action plan for Warwick district to be poor. The worse area was then shown to be Warwick town centre.

I currently have to leave home 20 minutes earlier than I did 12 years ago or sit in a row of cars causing even more pollution. As more traffic is introduced even more will become stationary and slow moving causing an increased concentration of pollution in the Myton area.

It can only result in an increase in respiratory conditions such as asthma, chronic lung diseases and of course will be a contributory factor to lung cancer as shown in recent reports.

We are extremely concerned about the potential health impact upon our families.

I therefore seek urgent confirmation that the issue of air quality is being thoroughly investigated as an urgent matter of Public Health and urge that this Local Plan, in its current form, will be opposed in its entirety if it is found to be detrimental to the health of residents.