Testun llawn:
I have a son aged 17 years old and a daughter aged 12, who both attend schools in the Warwick Schools Foundation, and have done since the age of 3. For 10 years we lived in Kenilworth, and at the beginning of those 10 years, if we left Kenilworth at 8.00am we would arrive at Warwick Prep by 8.15am. At the end of those 10 years if we left home at 8.00am, we struggled to get to school for 8.30am! The build up in the volume of traffic traveling into or through Warwick over those 10 years grew so much that the school run became hell, and the only solution was to leave home earlier and earlier. Many parent's living all over the county and traveling to these schools now leave home between 7.00am and 7.30am just to avoid the worst of the traffic and ensure their children are at school on time.
We took a different approach, and after many years of the school run, decided to move to Warwick so that our children could walk to school and we would all have a better quality of life. Our house is in Bridge End. My son therefore walks across the Banbury Road to school, and although he is old enough to do this sensibly is not an easy road to cross as it is so busy and there are no crossing lights to make it safer. Our daughter walks up towards town to Kings High. I have been horrified to learn, that whilst thinking I have chosen the 'green' and healthy option for my children that the levels of pollution in Warwick are so high and set to be even higher.
Another great concern is the safety aspect for children . In the last year alone there have been 2 serious road traffic accidents with pedestrians, both of whom were senior school children. Their injuries were serious enough to be kept in hospital overnight. I would really like my children to continue to walk to school, but the thought of the traffic getting even busier is horrific. Already if we pull out of Bridge End in the morning between 8.00am and 8.45am the traffic is at standstill going towards the town. It is actually quicker to walk up to Kings High than drive, surely you cant want to make this worse?
Frustrated drivers already use Bridge End as a cut through to miss out on sitting in the traffic on the Banbury Road, or to drop off children who then walk to school from here. Surely with all the Governments green initiatives it would be better to making walking to school a better option.
Building more houses so close to what is already an area that for traffic feels to be struggling, and over capacity seems to make no sense. We are proud of our historic town and surrounding beautiful Warwickshire countryside, let's keep it that way. I strongly object to a plan which doesn't seem to have any positive outcome.