Testun llawn:
I understand that the Council is obliged by law to consider the bid by a charitable Trust to have changed the status of the land currently separating Cubbington Village and Lillington to allow for the building of 200 homes. This would appear to be an opportunistic bid to increased the value of the land in such a way as to benefit the Trust in their wish to sell it to developers.
There are a number of issues in relation to this project that need to be addressed.
Firstly, if agreed, the proposed houses will destroy the 'village' identity of Cubbington, making it effectively just another district within the Leamington conurbation. I understand that this is of major concern to the Cubbington Parish Council, which is firmly opposed to the proposal.
Secondly, the whole site is underpinned by impermeable clay and the Severn Trent Water Authority has already expressed concern about the future of water run-off. The Council will recall that in very recent times, Cubbington village suffered flooding, a situation that will be exacerbated should the current protection provided by the adjacent fields be removed. Allied to this concern is the question of sewage disposal for those who will live in the new settlement.
Thirdly, there is question of the provision that will be needed to cope with additional traffic if the houses are built. It is quite probably that each household will own at least one car. Currently, the roads in North Leamington are congested by traffic entering and leaving Leamington. Local road junctions are already under extreme pressure and there have been a series of accidents at the two main junctions. In addition, the road through Cubbington is currently used as a rat run by those wishing to bypass Leamington's hold-ups by accessing the Trading Estates south of the River Leam via Cubbington and Radford Semele.
In as far as access to the proposed development is concerned, it is self evident that the three tiny cul-de-sacs earmarked for access via Parklands are too small to cope with access to a major housing estate, and consideration will need to be given to how access could be improved.
Fourthly, there is the question of addition educational facilities. It is quite possible that those choosing to live on the new development would have children of school age. Local schools are already full, so consideration would have to be given either to increasing the capacity at the existing schools or to building something new at great expense.
Fifth comes the question of shopping and employment. Much of Leamington's shopping is sited south of the River Leam, as are many of the town's employment opportunities. Adding another 200 families in North Leamington will exacerbate the volume of traffic forced to navigate through the town, making already congested situation worse.
I understand that pressures have been applied by Central Government to ensure that Leamington plays its part in housing and caring for an increasing population, and that our council is bound by law to consider its options. In my view, the proposal to build a new estate on the Northern edge of the town is, for the reasons outlined above, self-evidently a non starter.