We are extremely concerned at the proposals and disagree wholeheartedly with your findings for The EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES required by the National Planning Policy Framework to remove the land North of Milverton from the Green Belt. Having looked into this matter in detail, we have concluded that these "exceptional circumstances" have not been demonstrated by Warwick District Council simply because they do NOT exist.

Firstly, we understand that you have said that the proposed development is to support Coventry City Council's ("CCC") housing need. We do not agree that CCC's housing needs should be satisfied using land as far away from Coventry as Leamington Spa. Leamington Spa is NOT a suburb of Coventry and should not become one. It is a fact that there are sustainable sites closer to Coventry that should be used in preference to the land north of Milverton to reduce unnecessary commuting, inevitable congestion and further road construction.

In practice it is unlikely that people who want to live in Coventry will buy houses on land north of Milverton and therefore we fail to see how this development proposal will support Coventry's housing need.

Secondly, the release of land from the Green Belt requires the "value" of potential sites to the Green Belt to be taken into account and those with the least value to be removed from the Green Belt first. WDC, in cooperation with Coventry City Council, has assessed sites on the edge of Coventry as being of lower Green Belt value than the land north of Milverton but this has been overlooked.

Even if development at Milverton were acceptable as a sustainable location for development, there are other sites with a lower Green Belt value that should be used in preference to the land north of Milverton.

Finally, the beautiful "green lung" between Leamington and Kenilworth will be reduced to less than 1 mile and the picturesque northern gateway to the historic regency town of Royal Leamington Spa will be destroyed forever. By doing so, planners would be allowing Coventry to become a sprawling mass invading the Warwickshire countryside.

Furthermore, highly productive farming land will be lost together with long established wild life habitat.

If this land north of Milverton is released from the Green Belt, the residents of several local towns will be deprived of an area which is highly valued and sustainable for walking, running, cycling, riding, bird watching and is also used by local schools for educational walks. The Public Footpaths across this Green Belt land are used all day, every day and provide a valuable, tranquil area in which to exercise, relax and observe a rich and varied collection of wild animals and birdlife.

Additionally, in our view, the proposed park-and-ride scheme is unsustainable because:

1. The proposed site is too close to Leamington. It would be better if the site was focused on the A46 roundabout with the A452, which could form part of the Thickthorn development and provide for Leamington, Warwick, Kenilworth and Warwick University.
2. Much of the traffic using the A452 crosses to the south of Leamington where there are the major employers
3. Shoppers are unlikely to use the park and ride when there is plenty of parking in Leamington

A railway station is not viable because the railway line is in a deep cutting in Old Milverton making construction impractical.