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I wish to strongly object to the building on Green Belt land in Blackdown and Old Milverton.
The Governments National Planning Policy Framework requires there to be "very special circumstances" for development in the Green Belt and for the harm created to the Green Belt to be outweighed by the benefit of the development. Those special circumstances are apparently that there is nowhere else for the homes to be built. Yet land to the South of Leamington has been identified as suitable for development and that land is still available. This land is to the east of the A452 Europa Way and south of Heathcote towards Bishops Tachbrook. A previous assessment performed by Warwick District Council shows that this land is easier to develop and already has a substantial amount of infrastructure to support it and is close to the M40.
A "Northern Relief Road", if built, will encourage further development in the green belt up to this new road. Furthermore it is not required as the traffic flow tends to be north. It would need to be built at considerable cost across the flood plain.
Warwick District Council argues that the land in the South of Leamington is not as attractive to developers because the concentration of development in that area may result in the developers making less profit. Consideration of the developers' financial gain is not a "very special circumstance" to permit unnecessary development in the Green Belt.
Green Belt land is specifically set aside to prevent urban sprawl, stop towns merging together and protect the countryside setting of historic towns. The proposals will reduce the Green area between Leamington and Kenilworth to less than 11/2 miles encouraging the merger of these two towns and will change the character of these towns for ever.
If this development goes ahead there will be a loss of a significant amount of high quality agricultural land in Blackdown and Old Milverton as well as a great loss to a great many walkers, runner, riders, and cyclists.
In recent years there has been exceptional growth in Leamington's population partly because of immigration from Europe. However this growth has now peaked and has tailed off. Further more the student population is declining and is tending to be housed in purpose built buildings and this means smaller houses are now not being rented by students and will therefore be available to the community.
In my opinion this proposed development in the Green Belt is not required. Land to the south of Leamington is more suitable, has infrastructure already in place and is available. Development of the Green Belt land in Blackdown and Old Milverton will be acutely detrimental to the towns of Leamington Spa and Kenilworth.