Testun llawn:
I am writing with regard to significant concerns we hold in relation to the Warwick DC's new Local Plan document.
The development of an enormous number of new homes, schools and facilities in the area has been proposed, as I am sure you are aware. While we fully support the idea that more housing is required nationwide, and absolutely appreciate that this must be spread across a number of counties, but we feel that the sheer number of new dwellings earmarked for development in this document is far in excess of what is requires locally, and also would irreparably damage Warwick.
More specifically, our concerns are:
* Coalescence is a real risk if the bulk of development is to take place in the land south of Gallows Hill. This would mean that Warwick, Heathcoate, Whitnash and Leamington Spa would form one continuous sprawl of conurbation, therefore losing the specific identities of the separate areas.
* Air pollution: Warwick town centre has already illegal levels of air pollution. This has an impact not only on existing residents, but how is it justifiable to develop new housing and expect new residents to live in an area which has already unacceptable levels of air contamination? This is all before taking in account the fact that the development of new housing and the arrival of significant new dwellings, along with the associated car travel, will hugely increase this problem even further.
* There is currently congestion on all routes to and from the site south of Gallow's Hill at peak times; this will be made unbearable.
* This potential increase in residents would put pressure even further on already stretched facilities such as healthcare, schools and existing infrastructure. Warwick hospital is already very confined, and serves a huge area of the locality. How much more patients can it cope with? I suspect not enough.
* The town centre economy would be massively adversely affected by an increase in traffic and pollution, as the areas earmarked for building would be highly car-dependent for residents. Local public transport is awful; more buses etc would simply increase congestion and pollution even further. This would all adversely affect Warwick's appeal as a tourist destination and could have catastrophic effects for local residents and business owners.
* Quite simply, too many houses are being proposed, and in the wrong areas.
Ways we believe the Local Plan could be improved are:
* Set a new level of housebuilding consistent with the needs of population growth, not growth for growth's sake.
* Spreading development into areas already with established communities and places of work, for instance Heathcote, Hatton Park and areas north of Leamington Spa instead of creating new sprawls of housing which people will need to commute from.
* Making new homes in small developments integrated into existing areas of infrastructure, therefore creating sustainable, environmentally acceptable housing solutions.
We look forward to hearing your views on this matter.