3 - Town Centres

Supports reference to the sustainable growth of the retail and leisure offer in the existing town centres, however considers that the historic core of Warwick would not be suited to major development proposals. Specific reference should be made to Warwick Racecourse as an existing tourist and leisure destination suitable to accomodate such proposals. Would like the local plan to adopt a more flexible approach to the area of restraint boundary at the racecourse and include a policy to give favourable consideration to the improvement of facilities at the racecourse.

I am in favour of Scenario One, with development for housing being met by a combination of: District Wide small scale development.

Job growth centred on an Enterprise Zone at Coventry Airport will be good for the District but will require better transport links if sustainability criteria is to be met and large scale housing will be required in the north of the District rather than south of Warwick. Before demolishing existing office and retail space perhaps a comprehensive effort should be made to market it and seek reuse via a centralised agency to list and sell. Centralised services such as secretarial support, car parking and meeting rooms could be established and charged on a usage basis and furnished office suites provided on rolling two month contracts.

It is important to preserve the unique identity of Warwick as a small market town, full of historic buildings, small shops, public gardens. Warwick town centre is already weathering the recession better than most high streets because of the diversity of small independant shops and vibrancy of our market. Should further on existing independant book sellers, art shops and and antique dealers to foster niche markets. Larger scale development would be detrimental to the character of the town centre and better considered on one of the retail or business parks with more space and better infrastructure. Empty retail units should be made available to community groups for nominal rent or used to display items from the Warwickshire museum services. There is an opportunity to reuse the historic court complex in Warwick into a themed court visitor attraction and conference venue. There is sufficient visitor accomodation in the town centre and recent increases in capacity may cause small operators to go bust. Restaurants and cafes have proved very successful in warwick and should be encouraged - Warwick could emulate Ludlow and become a food town by combining quality dining with independent retailers and local produce. Visitors to the Castle and racecourse should be encouraged to visit the town centre via better signage, pedestrian access and voucher schemes. Events should be held to mark the 1100 anniversary of the founding of Warwick such as seeking city status and a year long festival.

5 Health and Wellbeing

Issue 5 recognises that people need to relax and have the opportunity to access leisure facilities but for continuity we suggest that the title of the background paper is used here to delete the word 'cinema' and insert leisure, recreation, arts, cultural and community events.. Using one word as an example of a particular group does not provide, in our opinion, adequate explanation of a strategy which incorporates many other components.

We don't see Issue 5 reflected here and suggest another bullet point is added to ensure that existing leisure, arts, cultural facilities and tourist attractions (which would include Warwick Castle and Packwood House) will be protected and enhanced as the foundations for any further developments. We are concerned that your tourism attractions are not receiving any specific attention in the issues and objectives.

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Objectives

Suggests that tourism should be included alongside retail and leisure as facilities which need continuing improvement in the three towns.

There is an overlap between Objectives 3 and 15 as the word 'leisure' is used in both these statements. We suggest Objective 3 focuses on town centre vitality through shops so that Objective 15 deals only with leisure and culture matters.

We suggest that Objective 11 should use the term 'community facilities' for clarity with a description such as, the provision of retail, social, health and educational needs of the community.

6: Congestion & Pollution

The policy context is described well and we support the recognition that an integrated transport network is needed, and that agencies should work towards reducing the need to travel, especially by car.

There is a need to add policies to:
actively restrict development which has a major negative impact on CO2 emissions .

We would also remind you that the Warwickshire Climate Change Strategy's aim to reduce greenhouse gas omissions may be difficult to achieve if population figures for the District are allowed to increase as has been predicted.

Objective 5.1 should read 'provide a sustainable economy'. Whilst the Districts economy is healthy changes in the type of work from industrial to more office based professions has meant less land is needed to provide a similiar number of jobs and there is little need to allocate more land for employment purposes particularly in the short term. Before encouraging people to live in the District it is important to reduce out commuting by making it easier for people to work at home or creating more jobs in the district. Policies should encourage employment development only to meet an identified local need not to encourage businesses and people to move into the district at the expense of Major Urban Areas of the region.

The suggested additional demand for retail is based on the assumption that the population will increase which is difficult to predict. In assessing demand the local authority should look at quantitative and qualitative need to ensure it will contribute to the vibrancy and diversity of existing retail centres. A threshold should be imposed to restrict the development of large scale retail outlets which would damage the town centres. Within significant areas of housing development provision should be made for local retail outlets which would avoid an increase in traffic, provide access to shopping for those without a car and encourage vibrant neighbourhood centres.

The absence of any forecast of population growth and the reasons for it is a severe weakness of the draft, and makes invalid the assertion (page 17, para4) that scenario three would 'meet forecasts ... and projections ... based on population and household growth'. Rather, it seems to base its argument for maximum development on 'supporting the economy', overlooking the circularity of the argument.

While development should be led by other policy objectives, not be an end in itself, we consider that the level of housing development should be lower than that proposed in scenario 2. It should meet local needs for more housing and, most importantly, needs for affordable housing and housing for the elderly. It should not enable population migration from other local authorities' areas which makes the condition of Warwick District worse for its existing inhabitants

Suggests that growth may not be the appropriate objective for Warwick town centre, conservation, or change, are more significant. Are very concerned that Background Paper 11 (page 104, first three paras) focuses only on retailing and leisure as town centre activities. It omits mention of residential use and office employment, which are the two largest economic activities in Warwick town centre. It prejudges work that has not yet been started on the Town Centre Plan (AAP) in considering services to play the 'anchor function'. It is essential for both sustainability and community cohesion that the centre of the county town has a broader economic base than this, and that daytime retail activity is strengthened, not the 'evening economy'. This objective must be considered further alongside the town centre plan work, and must not constrain the outcome of that.

The objectives should have been debated and agreed before any scenarios were developed and analysed failure to do this is a major weakness of the draft.

Draft objectives 1 and 2 promote balance between economic growth and housing growth, as though each justifies the other when it is actually a circular argument. The argument for housing is unsupported in terms of level, tenure, type of location therefore without evidence the objective has no meaning.

Strongly support objective 4 on the sustainable siting of development and objective 7 on their location and design improving (not just maintaining) the built and natural environments, especially historic areas and buildings. Draws attention to the importance of green space in separating and maintaining the identity of Warwick from Leamington, Whitnash and Bishops Tachbrook. Has concern over the meaning of objective 10 which as worded suggests primacy is given to the needs of the economy rather than conservation. The objectives to improve social, transport and and service infrastructure are noted however it is suggested that achieving this and correcting present deficiencies is likely to be more difficult in the higher growth scenario, as the impact of high growth on the District's infrastructure would be greater than any additional funding resulting from it could resolve.

Highlights the importance of A2 financial services to the vitality and viability of the town centres in terms of high attraction of footfall. The provision of financial services should be allowed to improve and evolve alongside improvements to shopping provision and not subject to restrictive controls. There is a need to review existing policies such as TCP4 and TCP5 which restrict A2 uses in designated frontages or the Council will risk the DPD being unsound. The focus should be on the quality of the occupier not maintaining an arbituary level of a particular use class. Banks regularly experience high levels of customer visits, the level of footfall being commensurate with and often higher than, the best known national multiple Class A1 traders and banks are increasingly retail in their appearance.

5. Health & Wellbeing

From the Parish Plan survey: Residents regard health & wellbeing as important, with a third of leisure journeys involving walking or cycling; footpaths are rated as important by two thirds, cycleways by nearly hald and bridleways a third. Greatest demand for activities in the village was various forms of keeping fit (1 in 5 respondents). Two thirds of respondents would like a doctor's surgery in Hatton Park.

6. Road Congestion & Air Pollution

An important issue for the parish which relies almost exlusively on the busy A4177. Just over hald of respondents consider the volume of traffic or the dangerous junctions on this road to be a problem.

Most households depend on cars, three quarters for work and half for school, shopping and leisure. A third use buses for school, but less than a tenth for shopping trips and 5% for work and leisure journeys. Half of the journeys made by bus are to Warwick and a third to Leamington. Overall this travel pattern is not conducive to sustainable development nor helpful in combating climate change.

Hatton has very few public facilities. the Ferncumbe School at Hatton Green is thriving and very popular, but probably has limited scope for expansion. There are village halls at Hatton and Hatton Park, a very small shop at Hatton Park and all weather sports area and children's playground at Hatton Park. the shop has almost closed on at least one occasion and the Hatton Park Village Hall has struggled to find volunteers to run it.

Scenario 1 with its low levels of growth would most closely match the views of Hatton residents and be most appropriate for this Parish.

The uncertain future of the economy is an issue of concern to everyone in the Parish.

Residents would wish to see economically strong, vibrant and attractive town centres given that they rely on them for many of their needs and services.

Retailing plays an important role in ensuring the economic vitality and viability of a town centre however this paper offers a distorted perspective by implying that intensive large scale redevelopment is required. There are two problems associated with this approach, firstly, that it destroys the historic street pattern and extinguishes evening life - this is not a recipe for enhanced diversity of use, conservation or a sense of place and community and secondly, evidence suggests that the decline of high street retailing is a long term trend. The council should plan on the basis of Leamington's identity and character rather than relating to its relationship with other non comparable centres, such as Coventry and Birmingham.