Publication Draft Local Plan: Focused Consultation

Object

Representation ID: 67234

Received: 12/12/2014

Respondent: The Warwick Society

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

In the draft Plan, Policy DS6, para 2.20 remains unsound because it is even less justified by the evolving evidence than it was in June 2014. The Joint SHMA Amendment published in September 2014 with the title '2012-based Sub-National Population Projections & Economic Forecasts: Implications for Housing Need in Coventry & Warwickshire' did not reflect the reduction of 29% in the population of the District in 2031 that the ONS now projects. It also maintains the unsupported projection of a substantial fall in average household size.

Both these defects in the basis of the draft Plan were fully explained in our representation of 27 June 2014. Between then and the publication of the 'Focussed Changes', in the light of that and many other similar representations, the Council has had the opportunity to update the Plan to reflect the significant change in the evidence supporting it. It has not done so, and the Plan continues to propose the allocation of some 4,900 plots on greenfield land, unjustified by evidence and contrary to the NPPF.

Object

Representation ID: 67511

Received: 12/12/2014

Respondent: The Warwick Society

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

Further work carried out by Warwickshire County Council and its consultants has failed to resolve the inadequacy of the phase 4 Transport Strategy. Its effect, with the proposed development on greenfield land, will be to increase congestion and worsen air quality in Warwick and Leamington town centres. The Plan remains unsupported by a sustainable transport scheme. On this ground too it fails, therefore, to comply with the NPPF.

The damage done to the historic environment by the inadequacy of the transport strategy and its 'mitigation' measures remains unresolved. No Heritage Impact Assessment of the Transport Strategy and its 'mitigation' (of traffic flows, not of environmental impact) on Listed Buildings and the Conservation Area of Warwick Town Centre has been carried out. The recent response of English Heritage to a planning application for the demolition of a 1960s house2
in the Conservation Area demonstrates the threat to the character of the Conservation Area and its
Listed Buildings should the proposed 'mitigations' be carried out. They would, at Bridge End, Castle Hill, St John's, Eastgate, and probably at Northgate, cause immediate visual damage. In the longer term, the economic impact of failing to protect and enhance the settings of buildings affected by increased traffic throughout the town centre would place at risk the maintenance and condition of over two hundred Listed Buildings. Again, the failure of the Plan to comply with the requirements of the NPPF for the historic environment is a deficiency of the 'Focussed Changes'.

Object

Representation ID: 67512

Received: 12/12/2014

Respondent: The Warwick Society

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? Not specified

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

The proposal to allocate greenfield land at Longbridge for employment use, and part of it as a Gypsy & Traveller site, is unsatisfactory. This land represents, on a very small scale, the informal 'green belt of the ancient hamlet of Longbridge. The harm done to the setting of the hamlet by the adjacent M40 and its junction makes it all the more important, not less, to protect the remaining green setting, and to maintain as far as possible the rural approach to the historic county town.

Considerable allocated employment land remains undeveloped on the other side of the Stratford Road,near to the proposed site. There is therefore no evidence of demand for further employment land in this area. The proposed Gypsy & Traveller site would not provide satisfactory amenity for its occupants.

Support

Representation ID: 67513

Received: 12/12/2014

Respondent: The Warwick Society

Welcomes the allocation of this brownfield land for housing.