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I am writing to oppose the Warwick District Council's Preferred Options Local Plan, which is proposing a large expansion of housing in the Green Belt north of Leamington Spa.

Green belt, as per the Governments National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), is designated to prevent the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas, prevent neighbouring towns from merging, safeguard the countryside from encroachment, preserve the setting and special character of historic towns and assist in urban regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land.

By developing the proposed sites around Old Milverton in North Leamington, it will ignore the Councils own study of Green Belt land at Old Milverton and Blackdown, which concluded that these areas had high Green Belt value, as set out by the NPPF. It will also bring Leamington Spa and Kenwilworth closer towards merging, the boundaries between the two towns being less than 1.5 miles.

The land is currently an important open space for all residents of North Leamington, enjoyed by walkers, cyclists and many others for recreation. The proposed building and road development would substantially limit the amount of land available to be enjoyed and turning some of it into maintained parkland would still detract from the value it has as countryside.

Warwick District Council has previously identified (2009 Core Strategy) areas that could be developed that are not on Green Belt land and have not been included in the new proposals. As such these areas should be developed before consideration of developing on Green Belt land according to the NPPF. According to Warwick District Council, these areas are easier to develop, have much of the necessary infrastructure already in place, as well as existing out of town shopping centres. However they have been overlooked as they are not seen to be as 'attractive' to developers who would make less profit.

I hope that you will consider my views and those of many others who are objecting to this abuse of the governments National Planning Policy Framework, by retracting the proposal to develop the land north of Leamington Spa at Old Milverton and Blackdown and consider again already viable non-Green Belt options.