Object

Representation ID: 6893

Received: 09/11/2009

Respondent: Mr J P Garrett

Please accept this letter as my formal objection to the "Core Strategy Preferred Options" document dated June 2009.

The specific areas I object to are, the housing proposals on:

1) Land at Lower Heathcote Farm, south of Harbury Lane

And also:

2) Land South of Sydenham and east of Whitnash
3) Land at Woodside Farm, north of Harbury Lane, Whitnash
4) Land west of Europa Way, Warwick

My objections are based on the following:

* On the recent Housing Needs Survey conducted in Bishops Tachbrook, 500 of the 750 homes in the village responded and told us that only 15 new houses were needed in the village. Therefore we do not need 4200 new homes.

* 4200 houses between Bishops Tachbrook and Warwick Gates threatens the very existence of Bishops Tachbrook as a village. If it becomes another suburb of Leamington Spa this will reduce the quality of life for the community here in Warwick Gates, Whitnash and in Bishops Tachbrook.

* Large estates lack social cohesion which leads to anti social behaviour and poor education performance. This proposal is the same size as Warwick Gates, Chase Meadow and Hatton Park all put together; what kind of community is likely to be born as a result of this development? Especially as 40% will be social / council housing in an area with poor transport links to the areas that give the most support to the under privileged i.e. the town centres.
* I think that such a number of new homes contradicts the vision that Warwick District Council has, "providing a mix of historic towns and villages set within a rural landscape of open farmland and parklands".

* Utilities, Services (Police, Dentists, and Doctors etc.) are all stretched to the limit now. With both the major hospitals only accessible across congested bridges over the river Avon, I fear for how long it will take emergency cases to get the medical resource they need.

* The huge increase in traffic arising from at least 8000 new cars in this area will result in pollution and add to existing air quality problems in Warwick and Leamington town centres. At peak times the traffic along Europa Way (even as far as the J14 M40), Gallows Hill, Tachbrook Road and Tachbrook Park Drive are grid locked, your proposed development is situated right along these roads, simply adding to the congestion already experienced. So far you have failed to fix the current problems and there is no evidence on your part to suggest that you will, even for when this proposed development is complete.

* With the demise of AP, Fords, IBM and other firms there is not the work available for incomers. Many people already leave the area to work elsewhere. A large proportion of people living on Warwick Gates commute up and down the M40 or by rail as far away as London.

* I see no sense in carpeting our green spaces with housing for a mobile population to travel elsewhere. Our remaining agricultural land should be preserved to feed future generations.

Why did you decide not to create a brand new settlement within the district (like Southam) maybe below the A46/J15 inter-change where direct links to the road network are very easily accessible? Why did you decide not to disperse the houses over the whole of the district? Your "Preferred Option" was not the public's in the initial consultation so why have you ignored our views?

I do believe that some housing maybe needed for organic growth within individual communities; however, I feel this should be decided at a local level with the support of the local people not imposed from the Government in a top-down approach as it is at the moment and certainly not to the numbers you are suggesting.
I urge you to rethink the Options radically; to look again at regeneration possibilities in the towns, to work with owners and developers on imaginative schemes to bring forward brown field sites for housing development.
1) What happened to local democracy? How can The District Council blatantly side with Central Government and the quango of an unelected regional assembly in forcing through such a blatantly undemocratic strategy? This strategy will have a detrimental effect on Warwick Gates, but its shock waves will also be felt in Bishops Tachbrook, Whitnash, Warwick, Kenilworth and further afield across the district.
2) Warwick Gates children already have to travel out of the catchment area to primary schools, so use some of the land near the estate to build the school you should have included for our children when the development was first proposed.

3) Use Brown field land within larger population centres such as Coventry, Leamington and near Warwick Parkway Station and The A46 first, for factories and businesses, so as to protect the countryside for residents of Warwick Gates, Bishops Tachbrook and Whitnash. Some of this land is already prone to flooding, so why not enhance the natural habitat rather than destroy it. Destroy it by building homes and businesses that will be at risk of flood damage.

4) The developments proposed for South of Warwick Gates will also have a negative effect on the value of our houses, increase traffic congestion and lower air quality. In short, it will leave us with a poorer general quality of life than we currently enjoy.

5) Our local doctors surgeries are already at capacity and facilities at Warwick Hospital have been steadily downgraded during the last five years, with a view to Wallsgrave Hospital serving the whole of Leamington, Warwick, Kenilworth and Coventry. Add this to the extra traffic on the roads and there is serious likelihood that lives could be lost as a result of this development.