BASE HEADER

Dear Sir,

Objection to proposed Gypsy and Traveller site GT11

There are four proposed sites for Gypsy and Traveller sites close to Chase Meadow.

Access to GT11 will be from the A4189, a very busy road, outside the 30mph zone. Cars race down the hill from Hampton on the Hill, and fast over the A46 bridge before hitting the 30mph limit. There will be road safety issues with vehicles turning in to/out from this entrance into fast moving traffic.

At GT11, access to the site is via a farm access road closed and locked by double farm gates. If all pitches on site are full, and there is open access to the farm road, I can see a situation where new travellers or family members of site 'residents' turn up and camp/park along the farm access road. This will be in contradiction to planning consent, and I imagine that the company running the site will be faced with continuous problems in evicting extra travellers pitching up short term. There will be litter to clear, time wasting and legal expenses to move on the extra visitors, and the local residents will not be happy.

The views from the A4189 on approach to historic Warwick are fabulous, looking over the racecourse to the town, and you should consider the loss of this stunning view which will be ruined by the view of GT11. The benefit to the town of tourism is key in these hard economic times and we should be doing all we can to bring tourists into the town and making our town attractive.

The provision of grazing has to be made for travellers' horses, and I do not consider GT11 is suitable for horses to be brought into the site which is next to the stables at Warwick Racecourse. Race horses are very valuable and fit, and they are vaccinated against many diseases. Equine Influenza is a highly contagious viral infectious disease of horses that can cause serious effects in susceptible animals; usually an episode of acute respiratory disease with clinical signs beginning abruptly and including high fever, nasal discharge, enlarged lymph glands, and coughing. If non-vaccinated horses are living near the stables, owners of racehorses will not want to bring their valuable horses to Warwick to race, and this will have a serious impact on Warwick retaining its great racecourse and the trade from other events held at the premises.
I think you should consider in the Local Plan of adding traveller and gypsy pitches, in the same way as social housing, to any new housing development. It should be mandatory for developers to include provision for them on their land as a quid pro quo for having planning permission to build new homes.

As there have been many objections to having a traveller and gypsy site at GT11 it will be difficult to "promote peaceful and integrated co-existence". I believe that it is too close to a high density residential area, and that you would do better to look at GT17 and GT18 with the advantage that they already have existing services.