Object
Village Housing Options and Settlement Boundaries
Representation ID: 60703
Received: 06/01/2014
Respondent: Mr Colin Bishop
-Development would potentially exacerbate water drainage problems and sewage pipe blockages.
-The site is the most beautiful part of the village enjoyed by tourists and villagers and its natural beauty would be destroyed.
-Wildlife on the site would disappear.
-Local school is at capacity and has no room for expansion.
-Traffic congestion would be exacerbated as the A425 isolates the site from the main village and will encourage the use of cars and as a result of highway changes (i.e. widened roads/new traffic lights/roundabouts) at the junction of Church Lane/School Lane/Southam Road.
-The village is already gridlocked at peak times.
Comment on Warwick District Council Local Plan, Village Housing Options and Settlement Boundaries Consultation, regarding Radford Semele, Site 1 - East of Church Lane.
I am writing to object in the strongest possible terms to the proposed plan to build a high density housing estate on the above site.
This was not the preferred option of the Parish Council. Indeed this site is not suitable for such a high density development because of the major traffic management problems it would create for the village as a whole both in construction and when completed. The infrastructure changes would be huge. It is the single worst site for such a development. I also have concerns about water drainage and sewer pipe blockages which I have experienced in the past and which would be exacerbated by further housing development.
Furthermore, to develop this site of such natural beauty around St Nicholas Church, a medieval Grade II listed building would be to destroy the very essence of the village forever. A very considerable and varied amount of wildlife would also disappear.
The most suitable sites would be sites 2 & 3 (On Plan) South east of the village off Southam Road. This would entail minimum infrastructure changes in the control of traffic through the village on the Southam Road and there would be easy access to both sites. The 30mph speed signs merely need to be extended. Visual impact coming in and out of the village would also be minimised.
Further thought should be given to this plan by the Council into the considerable and possibly hazardous problems development of this site would create.