Testun llawn:
With respect to the proposed housing development on land adjacent to the railway in Shrewley Common, Site Refs R40 and R51:
There is at least one family of badgers living on R51. Adults and cubs have been observed regularly foraging and playing on both the drive and in the garden of the existing dwelling. Badgers are a protected species by law(Protection of Badgers Act, 1992). Any development must obtain a licence to build near a badger sett, and protect the sett. In order to do so, any development should allow a minimum of 20 metres (and preferably much more) between the sett entrances and any surrounding fence so that the protected area is not too small. Because of this the site would not yield the expected number of new dwellings.
There are four well established oak trees on both sites. Oak trees are already threatened with Acute Oak Decline in the Midlands. We should be doing all we can to preserve any healthy trees that exist, not destroying them to make way for
development. These also support diverse wildlife, including at least one breeding pair of tawny owls. The nesting sites of tawny owls are protected by law. (Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981)
Part of R51 is, at the moment, access to the arable land behind house numbers 99-107. I am concerned as to how any new development would maintain this access, whilst still yielding the expected number of properties.
If the development does not maintain this access, this land would possibly fall into disuse. A major concern would be future development expanding onto this land under these circumstances.
There are no employment opportunities in the area. Public transport is non existent, and the nearest schools are at Hatton or Claverdon. This will mean an increase in traffic onto the Shrewley Common road, and onto surrounding B and C roads, as new residents travel to work and/or take their children to school.
Also , people visiting the village store by car already cause congestion when they park, effectively reducing the road to one lane. Adding even more traffic will only worsen this situation.
The amount of traffic noise from the motorway(M40) and noise from the railway would create a barrier to potential buyers of any new houses on these two sites.