Gypsies and Travellers

The provision of dedicated Traveller sites should help to avoid the problems of illegal sites on unsuitable land

As a taxpayer if I want to travel by caravan I pay to use a commercial campsite. I see no justification for special exemptions for travellers many of whom it is revealed own palatial homes in Ireland

The Parish Council support the Local Plan in principal; we have made reference as detailed below to the areas we feel directly impact our Parish.

The Parish Council would request the housing demand produced by the original survey be revisited to take account of the latest data available, such as the 2011 census results, the later figures from the births and deaths register and inward migration figures.

Also the Parish Council would like WDC to reconsider whether they have given sufficient weight to the unprecedented development in the area over the last few years, which, would make extrapolation of recent figures unreliable.

Comments on Preferred Options

P05 Affordable Housing
The Parish Council are unaware of any demonstrable need for local affordable housing, we do not have an infrastructure to support this type of development, such as public transport and community facilities, however, we are in the process of compiling a Parish Plan. With survey results from the local community imminent, we would wish to revisit our comments should results show otherwise

P07 Gypsies and Travellers.
The District Council has to identify a site for travellers within the district, which it has not yet done.
We currently have one unauthorised traveller site within our Parish, which is subject to an enforcement notice, the unauthorised site does not meet the specification laid down in the new Planning Policy Framework, nor does it meet any of the criteria set out in the Preferred Options. We need to emphasize this point so the Kites Nest site, does not become the default option for WDC in the absence of another site being identified. The Parish Council take the view that the whole area, including Coventry and Rugby, which currently have underused Traveller capacity, is taken into account in identifying potential Traveller sites.

P08 Economy
The Preferred Options has identified the old Honiley Airfield as an employment site; we would insist any new development be restricted to the existing planning consent - potential for currently 2,000 jobs.
We request WDC in analysing the need for employment development consider the recent changes at Haseley Manor, which as an employment site could not attract business to the area and is now in the process of being redeveloped as housing.

P01 Greenbelt
The whole of our Parish lies with in the Greenbelt and we would wish it to remain so, if appropriate we would also wish our Parish to be designated as a "green wedge", providing a significant buffer between the conurbations of Kenilworth, Warwick, Coventry and Solihull.
We have a myriad of extremely well used Footpaths, Bridleways and Cycle routes; we wish these to be preserved as an important area for leisure and recreational activities.

We do not wish housing development forced upon us with the removal and restructuring of the Greenbelt boundaries, but we would support some sensitive infill development within our existing settlements.

P018
As a Rural Parish, we do not have any provision of storm drains to alleviate excess surface water and local road floods. We would wish WDC to revisit their strategy on the maintenance of ditches and gulleys and to also ensure landowner responsibility is enforced.

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See Scanned Representation