Testun llawn:
The modified draft includes very substantial extra housing sites to meet the Inspector's requirement particularly on the duty to cooperate with Coventry's housing needs. All the new sites and the previously adopted sites, mainly to the south of Warwick and Leamington, are based on profligate use of land.
Although described as "urban extensions" they are designed at far lower density than the towns and this spread of "garden suburbs" does not reflect the context and urban quality of either Warwick or Leamington. This is in spite of the high value that the market clearly attributes to existing accommodation within these two towns.
We note that, in the February 2016 SA consultation on the WDC website (p6, para. 2.8) provided
several options for testing
* four housing growth options
* seven broad locational options
* four distribution options
The obvious option of providing urban extensions at urban density has been excluded from the working brief handed to the consultants. This key factor of density is the "elephant in the room" which WDC appears to have resolutely refused to recognise throughout the procedure for developing a Local Plan. The Council has therefore struggled to accommodate housing needs within the local geography while avoiding Greenbelt land. After the initial examination of the original Local Plan, WDC has been forced to consider major breaches of the Greenbelt.