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I am writing to protest strongly about the plan to develop green belt land in Blackdown and Old Milverton in Warwick District Council's preferred options for the local plan.
I have taken specialist legal and planning consultant advice in putting together my objections. I do understand the need for affordable housing in the area but I object to these being planned for the Blackdown and Old Milverton green belt land.
I object on a number of grounds:
I believe there are viable non-green belt alternatives as identified in the 2009 plan. There would seem to be 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 fulfils 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 green belt is more important to preserve. So what I cannot understand is that 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 at 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 Warwick District Council conducted 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. I have been told that at a meeting with councillors the reason for the change from this plan was given as 'everyone needs to share the pain' My barrister says this is not a legal planning argument!!
There are alternatives, mostly in the south of Leamington on non- green belt land.
The land just south of Heathcote could have 1200 houses and this is an area previously deemed suitable. The Radford Semele site could accommodate 565 houses instead of the 100 proposed. I am led to believe that the argument against developing Radford Semele to this level is the gas pipeline but I have had this looked at by a planning expert who believes that the pipes would still be far enough away to accommodate the higher level of houses.
It would seem to me to make much more sense to develop land to the south of Leamington that is nearer public transport links and closer to employment opportunities.
New housing to the north would significantly increase traffic on the A46 and A445 and would require a new expensive road to be built. Again I find it surprising when there are other alternatives.
There also seems to have been no consideration given to the loss of productive farming land that is planned to be sacrificed.
In summary, I strongly object to the development of greenbelt in Blackdown and Old Milverton as I believe there are more attractive alternatives to the south of Leamington which make much more sense from a planning perspective.
Having taken advice already, I feel so strongly that this plan is flawed and would be prepared to mount a legal challenge should it come to that.