Testun llawn:
I am writing this note to strongly protest about the plan to develop green belt land in Blackdown and Old Milverton as part of Warwick District Council's preferred options for increasing local housing.
I have followed advice from both a lawyer and planning consultant in putting together my objections. Whilst I do understand the need to increase the availability of affordable housing in the area, I object to these being planned in the Blackdown and Old Milverton green belt land.
I object to this on a number of grounds:
I believe there are other viable non-green belt alternatives as identified in the 2009 plan. There are no compelling planning reasons or 'exceptional circumstances' to justify the development of the green belt land in Blackdown and Old Milverton.
This green belt land satisfies the 5 purposes of green belt and in paragraph 16 of the government document ' Strategic gap and green belt policies in structure plans' clearly indicates that if there is a choice between green belt and green wedge then it is more important to preserve the green belt. Therefore if the choice is to either reduce the greenbelt land to the north of Leamington or reduce the green wedge in the south then the latter option must be the choice.
In the previous preferred options the green belt land in Blackdown was eliminated for further study ( point 7.32) and so Warwick District Council seem to have abandoned these conclusions from their own greenbelt study. In 2009 WDC carried out a substantial investigation, and a public consultation, and adopted a development plan for a similar number of houses which did not require ANY release of greenbelt. It has come to my attention that at a recent meeting with councillors the reason for the change from this plan was given as 'everyone needs to share the pain'. My barrister has pointed out that this is not a legal planning argument!
There are other options, mostly in the south of Leamington, and on non- green belt land.
The land just south of Heathcote would allow for 1200 houses in an area previously deemed suitable. The Radford Semele site could accommodate more than 550 houses instead of the 100 proposed. I have been told that the reason given for not developing Radford Semele to this level is the existence of a gas pipeline. This has been examined by a planning expert who believes that the pipes would cause no issue with the construction of the higher level of housing.
It would make much more sense to develop land to the south of Leamington that is nearer the various transport links, and closer to employment opportunities.
New housing to the north would significantly increase traffic on the A46 and A445, and would require the construction of a new road. This seems totally inappropriate when there are other viable alternatives.
There appears to have been no consideration given to the removal of productive farm land that would be removed as part of the plan.
In summary, I cannot object strongly enough to the development of greenbelt in Blackdown and Old Milverton. There are more viable alternatives to the south of Leamington which make far more sense from a planning perspective.
Significant advice has already been taken which has only reconfirmed my view that firstly the plan is flawed, and secondly I would be prepared to mount a robust legal challenge should it come to that.