Leek Wootton

This could only be achieved by removing green belt, which is not acceptable.

Any expansion of the Parish would be opposed by residents keen to maintain the charecter of the Parish.
The outcome of the Leek Wootton Parish Plan demonstrated clearly the vast majority (83%) of residents were adamant in their opinion that there should be no large scale development within the village envelope. Additionally there should be no expansion of the village boundary and no erosion of green belt.

The allocation of between 30 and 80 houses for Leek Wootton will provide a modest amount of housing growth that can be absorbed into the village without significantly changing local character. The amount of growth proposed under this policy is appropriate to make an effective contribution to supporting local facilities and services. Growth of less than 30 dwellings is unlikely to have a meaningful impact on supporting local services.
On behalf of my client I submit for your consideration land that under the proposed policies would be suitable for housing development. The land is located on Hill Wootton Road, between houses fronting on to The Hamlet and the A46, as outlined in red on the plan submitted with these representations.

* The site is in a sustainable location and meets the sustainability criteria identified in the new local plan.

* The site is available for development. The land is owned by my client who would make the site available for development to contribute immediately toward the five year housing land supply. There are no legal restrictions that would inhibit or prevent the land being fully utilised for appropriate development.

* The site is suitable being located in a sustainable location on the edge of a village that has local facilities and is served by public transport.

* Development of the site is readily achievable. The site is in a location that is highly desirable to the housing market. The site is free from development constraints and there would therefore be strong demand by house builders to proceed with development.

* The new local plan proposes to designate Leek Wootton as a Category 2 settlement, suitable for between 30 and 80 dwellings. The site has an area of 1.85 hectares which at a density of 40 dwellings per hectare would provide a scheme of 74 dwellings. This amount of housing development would satisfy the total local plan housing growth target for Leek Wootton. All of the envisaged housing growth for Leek Wootton can be accommodated on my client's site. There would be no need to release other land in the village for housing development. Other edge of settlement sites at Leek Wootton are less suitable for development because they either provide land for recreational use or provide an attractive rural setting to the village.

* Allocating the client site for housing will provide a significant amount of affordable housing. The new local plan threshold of 40% affordable housing would provide about 30 affordable housing units on the client site. This amount of affordable housing can only realistically be achieved with a site of this size. Policy PO5 in the new local plan proposes a threshold for providing affordable housing in rural areas of 5 or more dwellings. A policy of infilling on small sites in Leek Wootton providing between 1 and 4 dwellings would fail to provide any affordable housing. To meet the need for affordable housing identified in the Strategic Housing Market Assessment and the Local Housing Needs Assessment it is necessary for the new local plan to allocate larger sites for housing development. My client's site will make a very important contribution to the provision of affordable housing which is unlikely to be satisfied by small scale infill within the village.

* In addition to the factors set out in the preceding paragraphs, the site is suitable for housing development for the following reasons:
o The site has no physical constraints. Currently the site is an agricultural field with no natural features that would require preservation.
o The site has no known drainage issues that would prevent development.
o The site has an 80 metre frontage to Hill Wootton Road with adequate visibility for road access. A number of semi mature trees along the roadside verge would need to be replaced with a suitably landscaped frontage.
o Development of the site would have very limited impact on the rural setting of the village. The site is visually enclosed by the embankment of the A46 dual carriageway to the east and an established housing estate to the west. The site is effectively an infill plot of land. These features limit public views of the site thereby greatly mitigating the visual impact of the site on the surrounding landscape.
o The A46 and the housing estate to the west provide strong defensible boundaries to prevent further development beyond the site. These characteristics would ensure development of the site would not lead to the long term erosion of the rural character of the village.

* I submit the site meets the sustainable criteria in the proposed new local plan and is suitable for designation as a housing development site.

I just wanted to lodge my complaint about the vast number of houses that you are proposing to build. Already the road from Leek Wootton to Warwick in the mornings is at a standstill from 7.50am onwards. With the increased traffic that will be caused by the houses that are going to be built travelling to work for many people will be even worse. I appreciate that a new road is going to be built to join the A46 at Leek Wootton but there is still going to be the traffic from the north woodloes area and Leek Wootton that you haven't taken into account and made provision for.

Leek Wootton is a beautiful village with a community feel that already suffers from noise pollution from the current A46. Carving another road through Hill Wootton/Leek Wootton will spoil a beautiful village. Not to mention the impact further housing will have on the village.

Greenfield sites ref 53 and 54 Land at the rear of The Hamlet Leek Wootton

1 The southern end of the site slopes steeply to the east and is some thirty feet below the embankment that supports the elevated carriageway of the A46. The pollution caused by the heavy traffic will gather here causing potential health hazards for those unfortunate enough to live there.

2 Traffic noise from the A46 which forms the eastern boundary of the proposed site.

3 Access from the site will be onto the narrow Hill Wootton Road, and to access the wider road network traffic to the west would have to join the busy Warwick Road and to the east the Coventry Road at a junction with poor visibility created by the railway bridge crossing diagonally across the junction at which there have been serious accidents including fatalities.

4 The narrow lanes connecting to the route into Leamington Spa are under strain as motorists and delivery drivers use them as a"rat run" during their commute to and from work/school run.

5 Leek Wootton is poorly served by public transport.

6 There is a very limited range of services in the village.

7 Mature trees will have to be felled to improve visibility exiting the site.

8 Power lines traverse the site.

9 The proposed development is disproportionately large for the existing village.

10 The northern end of the development pushes the village envelope beyond its present bounds and closer to Kenilworth.

We write in connection with the local plan proposals and as residents of Leek Wootton would like to express our concern regarding the proposal to develop the two parcels of land running adjacent to the A46. We know these sites well and wish to object strongly to any development proposals for this land.

Leek Wootton is a dispersed settlement where development proposals should be considered very carefully . Infilling could ruin the character of the village while estate development would overwhelm it. The two parcels of land proposed are in our opinion totally unsuitable for housing development being far to close to the A46 which brings all the problems of noise and air pollution and whilst you may argue that these can be overcome they would never be eliminated irrespective of what actions were taken. In addition there is the traffic problems that an increase in population would cause. There is already a very dangerous road junction that leads into Leek Wootton on the very road that would need to be used to get access to the proposed development site.

Finally we would like to say that having lived in Leek Wootton for the past 30 years it is a fine example of a typical country village and great care should be taken to preserve it so that it can still be enjoyed by generations to come and not be ruined by over development.

I wish to register an objection to the proposed Local Plan on the grounds that it continues unwanted urbanisation by stealth.

The claimed need for 10,800 new houses is not supported in the Plan and applies only to the period of the Plan. The next "Plan" is likely to want another 10,000 - and then another. It really means "another 500/600 extra houses a year" every year without end. However, the towns are already too big for their centres -- shown by traffic congestion, inadequate parking; the development of housing-estate satellite shopping areas and major out-of town shopping.

I appreciate that saying NO to any more houses is "not an option" but it should be. This so-called "Local Plan" is not really proper town planning at all but merely limited containment of year-on-year incremental urban sprawl that will diminish amenity and eventually destroy the attraction of living here. I come from South East England where creeping urbanisation is more advanced. I feel sure that you should understand this only too well.

The proposed developments south of Kenilworth and north of Leamington would diminish Green Belt and increment Urban Sprawl in direct contradiction of stated policy. In fact, Policy Objective 16 alterations to the Green Belt to allow development should be deleted as it is in direct conflict with the reason for retaining Green Belt.

The proposal to remove Leek Wootton from the Green Belt would be particularly damaging because the green space between Kenilworth and Warwick is narrow and necessary to keep the towns apart.

There does not appear to be a costing for this Local Plan nor a cost-benefit analysis nor even any explanation as to how it would be funded. I cannot help but suspect that there is minimal benefit for substantial cost to us ratepayers in order to accommodate imposed additional housing.

At a recent Parish Council meeting, The Chairman and Councillors of Leek Wootton & Guy's Cliffe Parish Council discussed the Local Plan. Their views are below -

The Parish Council are particularly concerned with the following proposals in the draft Local Plan:

1) [PO16] We are opposed to any Village Envelope and Green belt boundary changes within Leek Wootton.
It is felt strongly that this creates a significant erosion of the boundary and development protections in our area, and it is contrary to the recently adopted Parish Plan.

2) [PO1] We believe that the basis upon which projections of future population and housing needs are not realistic or supported by proven evidence, and that the housing development plans for Warwick District should be much smaller than those proposed.

3) [PO4] The proposal for 30-80 new dwellings in Leek Wootton is contrary to our Parish Plan (fully backed by residents survey responses) which states that any large scale development is precluded and individual new property proposals possible only within the current building envelope.

4) [PO14/PO15] The proposed 'Leamington Northern Relief road' will unavoidably cause excessive environmental damage, having to cross a railway line, river and a flood plain.

5) [PO1/PO14] The large developments proposed in the surrounding area particularly Kenilworth will inevitably increase significantly the traffic through Leek Wootton unless these developments are kept to a more manageable size.

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