Object

Publication Draft

Representation ID: 65265

Received: 25/06/2014

Respondent: Mr Brian Bate

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

Representation Summary:

Transport figures flawed due to no consideration of bridge congestion points.
Castle bridge was designed for horse drawn traffic and only just copes with today's traffic. The bridge is ignored in the assessment. Building up to 12,900 homes south of the bridge would be a disaster, despite road improvement every single vehicle movement entering Warwick would need to pass Castle Bridge.
Vehicle movements to and from Schools are not included, the Myton Road already has severe congestion. Currently air pollution figures are exceeding permitted levels.

Full text:

The Transport Report used to support the New Local Plan is seriously flawed as it does not take into account that both Warwick and Leamington Spa have a river and a railway running through them. This creates the need to have bridges and are significant congestion points. There is only one road from the south to Warwick, the Banbury Road A425 and it crosses the river Avon at Castle Bridge. Castle Bridge was built of stone in 1793 and is a grade II listed building. It is also the best place for tourists to view and photograph Warwick Castle. The bridge was designed for horse drawn traffic and only just copes with today's traffic albeit with congestion problems. The bridge is ignored in the transport assessment!

Building up to 12.900 homes south of this bridge would be a complete disaster and no matter what improvements were made to the Banbury Road (twin lanes) it still does not overcome the fact that every vehicle entering Warwick from the south has to go over Castle Bridge. There is no alternative route.

There are two roads from the south into Leamington, Europa Way and Tachbrook Road. Both of these at their northern ends have to go under the railway via a bridge. In the case of Europa Way it crosses Myton Road and enters Princes Drive. The railway bridge in Princes Drive has a single carriageway with two lanes north and one lane south. The road then continues over a river bridge in a single carriageway.

It is proposed to make Europa Way a dual carriageway but what is the point when the traffic still has to pass under this bridge? There is no study of this bridge and its serious congestion point.

Tachbrook Road is even worse as at its northern end it has to go under the railway via a single carriageway two lane one way road. This bridge cannot be improved. After going under the bridge traffic then has two directions in which to travel both requiring a river bridge to cross via single carriageway roads.

The figures used in the Transport Assessment used do not include movements to or from Schools. The A425 Myton Road has three schools and there is already severe congestion three times a day. To ignore vehicle movements to and from schools is just ridiculous.

There is already air pollution figures exceeding permitted levels due to the present level of traffic.