This is to let you know of my serious concerns regarding the new draft local plan for Warwick and its surroundings. I understood that the need for less traffic through Warwick Centre had been taken on board by local government - hence the recent work to slow down traffic through High Street/Jury Street with traffic calming measures and the removal of pedestrian crossings. However the huge number of houses being suggested in the draft plan would most certainly result in even more traffic polluting the centre of Warwick. And why build so many houses on what is at the moment Agricultural land? Surely there are brownfield sites which at the moment are lying unused. The area of the old Ford factory beyond Morrisons would be an obvious place to build houses. It is already immediately adjacent to an area of housing and would impinge far less on services. Do we really need 12,000 houses? Affordable homes we probaby do need, but not on this scale. Are the proposed new builds all aimed at the lower end of the market? Probably not. Looking at the local estate agents there is indeed no shortage of houses in the mid- to upper-price range, so why build more? Why pay consultants to establish that the local need will be for less than 6,000 new homes if their findings are to be totally ignored? As for the ridiculous re-routing of traffic in the Smith Street area and yet more sets of traffic lights, I see this as just an unneccessary nonsense.

Warwick is a lovely town, self contained, pretty country town. We have a lively shopping centre full of independent shops and small number of chains such as Marks & Spencer and Boots. We need to encourage tourists to keep the centre lively, not put them off by making it even harder to get here. By building all these houses the unique atmosphere the town offers is bound to be compromised. Please think again.