BASE HEADER

I am a resident of Hatton Park and I would like to object to the scale of new development planned by Warwick District Council for the next eighteen years.

The infrastructure of the area will simply not sustain such development. The amount of traffic on our roads already causes huge problems on a daily basis. I refer in particular to the possible building of between 70 - 90 new homes in the Hatton/Hatton Park area.

The A4177 is gridlocked in the mornings with the queue of cars attempting to get into Warwick often starting at the Hatton Arms. Under these circumstances leaving Hatton Park is nothing short of a nightmare. To introduce a significant increase in the number of cars joining the daily commute is short sighted and ill thought through. The 4177 in the last few years has already seen many accidents, some with fatalities. This raises the questions of how the emergency services are going to cope with busier roads? How the local schools which are already full to capacity will cope with extra children? How doctors' surgeries, some of which already cannot offer routine appointments for up to two weeks are going to cope with extra patients?

The possible sites identified in Hatton Park and other sites across the district lie within the Green Belt. On July 2nd a ministerial statement was released reiterating that inappropriate development in the Green Belt should not be approved except in very special circumstances. It also states that it is becoming apparent in some cases the Green Belt is not being given sufficient protection. This clearly shows that even if WDC cannot meet their need on non Green Belt sites, it doesn't necessarily outweigh the loss of Green Belt.
The Warwick area does need and cannot cope with the amount of new homes that the council are proposing. I urge the council to review their figures and to adopt a plan for fewer homes which can be accommodated on non Green Belt sites.

I would also like to add that I do not feel that traveller/ gypsy sites in the Green Belt fall into the category of special circumstances. I therefore strongly object to the possible siting of a traveller/gypsy site at Oaklands Farm. That particular area like the existing traveller site in Kites Nest Lane is prone to flooding. It floods from water which runs from fields on the opposite side of the A4177, including the two fields shown on your map of proposed sites as R115 and R126. My understanding is that there are a myriad of pipes and also balancing tanks in these areas from the old psychiatric and chest hospitals. Are these therefore really suitable areas for new homes?

There is also the matter of the loss of wildlife habitat. Smiths Covert is the home to Muntjac deer, badgers, foxes, pheasants and many others wildlife species and birds.