BASE HEADER

Dear Sir / Madam

Re. the proposed traveller site, GT04:

We wish to express our objections to the proposed Gypsy Traveller Site, GT04, with particular regard to transport issues, the impact on the local infrastructure and the rural environment.

Firstly, the proposed site would be adjacent to the Fosse Way (B4455), a road that is heavily used by local residents, commuters accessing local employers as well as the M40, HGV and leisure traffic, throughout the day. In addition at peak hours in the morning and afternoon, the road is heavily used by employees and visitors to the Jaguar / Land Rover site at Gaydon, with queues stretching as far back as the islands on the Banbury Road and at the foot of Ufton Hill. This would be on a stretch of road which already has two junctions at Middle Lane and Harbury Lane that are recognised as accident blackspots by the emergency services and Warwickshire County Council, with more than 12 serious accidents in the last 3 years. The building of further accesses onto the Fosse Way from the proposed site, therefore, would inevitably lead to increased congestion and heightened risk to all road users. Clearly, therefore, access onto and from the road network at GT04 would be extremely unsafe.

Furthermore, the demands on the local education infrastructure would be unsustainable. GT04 is in the Central Area of Warwickshire LEA, so therefore not in the priority areas of the nearest Southern Area schools, both primary and secondary, which are already oversubscribed anyway. Would this not mean that children from the traveller site would have to be transported further afield, to schools with excess capacity such as Whitnash, Radford Semele or Southam? If so this would cause another transport problem. As currently there is no bus stop on this stretch of the Fosse Way, the installation of one on each of the north and south bound lanes would be a further hazard in addition to those commented on above. The alternative of having to use the bus-stops situated on Middle Lane would, of course, mean pedestrians having to cross the Fosse Way, (a road with a 60 mph limit), often at peak times for traffic, creates a further risk. All of this on a road which does not even have a path or pavement for the children and other public transport users to stand on anyway. The pressure, therefore, on the local schools' infrastructure, which would be immense, does in itself lead to several other difficulties.

Finally, the building of the Gypsy and Traveller site would inevitably have an impact on the rural environment and damage wildlife habitat, not least from the installation of mains gas and sewerage facilities on the site. In addition the site is liable to flooding, as has been evident over recent years when the ditches and drainage have not had the capacity to deal with heavy sustained rainfall and the Fosse Way and adjoining fields, including those of the proposed site, have become waterlogged for days. This type of weather has become commonplace and would create significant problems for the site's residents, especially in the winter.