Object

Preferred Options Consultation - Land at Stratford Road, Warwick

Representation ID: 67334

Received: 12/12/2014

Respondent: Mr Russell Miller

Representation Summary:

Process is flawed
The Severn Trent Land is not available for development immediately and they do not support this plan
Any use of a CPO would fail the governments planning criteria on land being immediately available
Lack of a transparent feasibility assessment may show that the land is not viable anyway due to the cost of access, landscaping, flood defences, fencing and providing local services
Size of the site is inappropriate for the small village of Longbridge, and is right at the top end of the current planning guidelines.
Poor Access to the site on a dangerous corner off A429
Current lane to site is not fit for purpose
Building this close to the M40 has significant health risks for children
Land is on a flood plain and more studying is required. Additionally there are no costs associated with this work
SA raised a red flag against air, water and soil quality
The noise assessment undertaken at the site is not of an acceptable quality as it only occurred in a single 4 hour period in good conditions

Full text:

I wish to raise my formal objection to the land being used at Stratford Road for a Gipsy and Traveller site due to the following reasons. However as we have previously discussed the process WDC has followed to select the Proposed Site as a preferred option (including the public communication and consultation process) has been flawed and before any site can be selected a more transparent, democratic and evidence-based process must be run. I am also disappointed that my previous compliant regarding the process has received a stock answer from the planning team from the person running the process and it was not investigated by another member of the planning team as per the councils complaints procedure published on your website. Additionally sending a housing officer to the public meeting rather than a member of the planning team is at best unfortunately or a deliberate attempt to spread disinformation. The process followed is far from widely accepted best practice.

My planning objections are as follows:-
- The Severn Trent Land is not available for development immediately and although you have insisted it is available they have committed in writing that they do not support this plan and additionally will not allow access through their land.
- Any use of a CPO would fail the governments planning criteria on land being immediately available and the land proposed is not currently in your ownership
- I have serious concerns that the lack of a transparent feasibility assessment made available so far may show that the land is not viable anyway due to the cost of access, landscaping, flood defences, fencing and providing local services
- The Size of the site is inappropriate for the small village of Longbridge, and the site size is right at the top end of the current planning guidelines.
- Building this close to the M40 has significant health risks for children and should be discouraged.
- Poor Access to the site on a dangerous corner off A429 - the planning guidelines state that due to the length of the vehicles involved this needs to be built into the road design
- Current lane to site is not fit for purpose and needs to be improved
- Land is on a flood plain and although the council has quoted a study to say the risk can be managed, the study itself warns against this conclusion as more studying is required. Additionally there are no costs associated with this work.
- Your own assessments raised a red flag against air, water and soil quality on site but doesn't state how you will resolve this.
- The noise assessment undertaken at the site is not of an acceptable quality as it only occurred in a single 4 hour period in good conditions - this was noted in the report and you are well aware of its shortcomings