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Dear Sirs,

I am writing to register my opposition to the possible use of Site GT02 as a Gyspy and Travellers Site under the new Local Plan.
I believe this land is an unsuitable site for such a usage for a number of reasons including...

1. The impact it will have on the local economy particularly at a time when there is already pressure on jobs in rural locations. Its impact on the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre which currently occupies part of the proposed site is likely to result in the closure of what is a growing business providing full-time and part-time employment for local people, as well as work for other members of the local community during exhibitions. Local shops in the village, pubs and restaurants in Radford Semele, Offchurch and further afield and local B&B facilities all also benefit when exhibitions are being staged - a much-needed boost which will be lost if the Exhibition Centre closes.

2. There is a requirement for such a site to be suitable for access to, among others, education and health facilities. But the primary school in Radford Semele is already full to capacity, to the extent that children in the village have been turned down for beginners places in the forthcoming school years and have instead been offered places at a school on the Sydenham estate in Leamington which is itself approaching capacity. I also understand that the nearest doctors' surgery on the Sydenham estate is currently not taking on any new patients; and there is no bus service to the next nearest surgery almost five miles from GT02.

3. The proposed GT02 site is on low-lying land which has been prone to some degree of flooding and where there are no mains sewerage facilities. In addition the site will be visually detrimental to the rural nature of the area, not least because it will be prominent from three of the four approaches to the roundabout at the junction of the B425 and the Fosse Way.

4. Any development in that area is also likely to have a detrimental effect on the wildlife habitat of the adjacent protected ancient woodland for which this region was once noted.

5. The site is also on the Archaeological Register, and such development will prevent any further historical exploration.

6. In addition the proposed site is on what has already been designated a high risk travel route, with more than 12 serious accidents in the past three years; there are no pavements, no street lighting, and to walk or cycle on such busy commuter routes presents a clear danger.