BASE HEADER

housing development plans for the Milverton area.

I wish to object strongly to WDC's proposals for building new houses in North Leamington.
I live in Range Meadow Close, which I understand will not be directly affected, but I live close to a Green Belt area, which will be completely spoilt. I have chosen to live in a semi-rural location partly for health reasons. The air is purer on the edge of town and since living here my previous condition of chronic bronchitis has completely gone.
But also, the whole nature of this area will be spoilt for everyone living here by the extra buildings, which as I understand will include schools, shops, new roads and an altogether unacceptable level of urbanisation in what is now a semi - rural location.
I question the numbers of new houses that the government seem to require, in one small area of the country. The population will surely not expand to the levels these figures suggest, if multiplied to a national scale. Has anyone queried these figures?
I cannot understand why new houses cannot be built to the south of Leamington in the Europa Way area. This is not Green Belt and already has the roads, the industrial estates, the retail park, also schools, which could deal with the extra population, not to mention traffic flow.
Driving along Heathcote Road, onto the A 425 just south of Warwick yesterday afternoon I was amazed at the very small amount of traffic on this stretch.
So different from trying to struggle from Leamington to Warwick along the Emscote Road, which seems to be congested all the time these days. There are at least nine sets of traffic lights between Binswood Roundabout in Leamington and St John's at Coton End in Warwick. A distance of barely two miles!
It would make much more sense to make better use of the Heathcote infrastructure, which is already in place, and under-used.
Please let us keep our Green Belt to the north, as a haven of peace and relative tranquility in these stressful times, not just for those living nearby, but for the whole area, which is fast losing it's pleasant Country Town image and risks degenerating further into just another concrete jungle.