Testun llawn:
I am not against development in Lapworth per se. I do think 150 new homes is too many and have seen no evidence there is a need for this many new homes. The Lapworth Parish Council Housing Needs Survey of 2010 showed very little new housing need. There are also currently around 50 homes of a mixture of sizes for sale in Lapworth and many of these have been for sale for more than a year. Why are these not selling if there is demand from people to live here?
At the consultation event at Lapworth Village Hall on 17th June, site options were presented. I am against the additional infilling between existing properties on Station Lane. The National Policy Planning Framework says that sustainable development should be pursured and this involves "improving the conditions in which people, live, work, travel and take leisure." Adding extra houses to a lane which currently still has a rural aspect to it in parts may well improve the lives of those moving into the new houses, but will impact negatively in a significant way on those that already live on the road. The NPPF also says "plans should recognise the intrinsic beauty of the countryside". Walking down Station Lane to catch an early morning train and seeing the sun rising over the fields on the east of the lane is a pleasure that will disappear if the field views are taken away by building houses on the roadside edge of the fields. The lane is also too narrow to cope with cars parked outside new properties, which with the numbers of cars per household required because there is inadequate public transport, will almost inevitably happen unless the houses are built with drives capable of taking three or four cars for family homes and two cars for two bedroom homes. I think far better would be to build small closes at right angles to Station Lane at various points or from the other roads in Kingswood - Mill Lane, Rising Lane and the Old Warwick Road, leaving some open views from the lanes and taking the car parking off the lanes and onto cul de sacs.
Communications: Cllr Alan Cockburn said "Good broadband connections are essential to modern life, whether for work, leisure or learning. Our rural businesses need broadband to be able to compete in today's increasingly global environment, and in a rural area like Warwickshire travelling can often be difficult, so that being able to work or learn from home can make a real difference to the quality of peoples' lives." This same statment could be applied to mobile phone signal, which is currently atrocious on most of Station Lane. If Lapworth is to receive more housing it needs to have both better mobile phone signal and be within the 91% getting superfast broadband.
Transport: There are only a few businesses offering local employment so public transport to sites of employment and leisure need reviewing. Trains provide a limited service to Birmingham, Solihull, Warwick and Leamington. There currently isn't and should be a bus service at commuting times to the Blythe Valley Business Park, the nearest significant centre of employment and there should be a frequent bus service to Knowle for shopping if the community is going to be sustainable.