Testun llawn:
My comments below refer to the areas of inconsistency with National Guidelines and that it is Not Positively Prepared. The first are a consequence of the Plan policy of increasing housing in green belt villages which are judged to have good infrastructure and not to increase housing in those without the perceived infrastructure. My comments refer to the proposed increase of the size of Hampton Magna By allocating an extra 245 homes to the village.
The village was judged to have a good infrastructure by allocating points for the existence of various features, such as shops, a pub, a school and transport links. No account was taken of the capacity of the existing infrastructure to increase to accommodate the extra housing. It would have been a more sustainable approach to increase the size of smaller villages to the point where the extra infrastructure could be provided. In the case of Hampton Magna, the infrastructure will be severely tested not only by the extra housing suggested, but by the fact that the increase in size of the developments at Hatton Park, without any infrastructure enhancement, will put an extra burden on the Hampton Magna facilities.
It therefore has a negative effect on the overall sustainability of both sets of villages. The variations to the local plan do not correct this imbalance, but increase its effect by putting more housing in the villages with increasingly stretched infrastructure resources. This negative impact on the sustainability of both sets of communities should make the modified plan unsound.
An example of the effect of this infrastructure degradation brought about by the policy of overloading the larger villages is shown in the report on traffic congestion one of the three access routes into and out of Hampton Magna, "Old Budbrooke Road/Warwick Parkway Station Access Junction - LinSig Assessment", a report by Vectos for Warwickshire County Council Highways. This report shows the extra journeys created by the extra housing results in the queues at the railway bridge near Warwick Parkway Station increasing to levels of 24.6 vehicles Northbound and 25.7 vehicle Southbound during the morning peak. Traffic levels are described as above the capacity of the road system during this period.
Although no figures have been published it would seem likely that a similar situation will occur at the Stanks Island junction of the A4177/A46/A425 which many of the travellers that have been through the earlier congested area will next hit on their journey to Warwick, Leamington or via the A46 to the National road network. This is already a notoriously congested area, where the only "mitigation" mentioned in the Vectos Report, "WDC STA: Final Phase Assessment of Additional Housing Allocations February 2016", is the increase in lanes to and from the A46 and the introduction of traffic lights to the island. These modifications were planned before the local plan or its modified version were published and are to allow an extra road to access the roundabout and to alleviate standing traffic on the A46 already happening at peak periods. Once again adding population to an area that is only just adequately coping will give rise to creating a situation where the infrastructure cannot cope.
In the case of the services into Hampton Magna, much it was based on its previous history as the Budbrooke Barracks of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and the surrounding farmland. This existing infrastructure has been enhanced to a level where it is just capable of servicing the local needs. Its capacity constraints are regularly demonstrated by the failures in sewerage and electricity supply.
The existing sewerage arrangements were added to the MOD Barracks sewerage system when the site was developed into Hampton Magna from its previous use as the Budbrooke Barracks of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. At its completion the local sewerage was not adopted by the then Severn Trent Water Authority and only adopted, in the main, just before the Authority's privatisation and the formation of Severn Trent Water. No mention is made in the original or modified local plan of the need to ensure that the capacity of the local and area systems can cope with the significant extra usage.
Similarly, there have been no references to the need for enhancing the local water supply capacity.
Much of the electricity supply for Hampton Magna is conducted along lower voltage distribution company overhead cables. These are prone to damage in adverse weather conditions and short and longer power outages are a regular occurrence in the village and in Hampton on the Hill. Once again the local plan and modification document make no reference to the need to enhance or modernise this supply situation.
Nowhere in the Infrastructure Development Plan are these service capacity problems mentioned at anything other than high level general assurances from providers that all will be well. It may be said that these are issues for the sites' developers to deal with, but if, in dealing with them, the sites are not viable commercially, then the selection of the site has been poor and that part of the plan unsound.
A separate area of concern in the modified plan is the prescription of a higher housing density in the modified plan than in the original. Budbrooke's emerging Neighbourhood plan specifically requires that any extension to the village should be built with a housing density similar to the existing at 25 dpha. The modified Local Plan states for the first time that the density should be 35 dpha. Warwick District Council were aware of the contents of the draft Neighbourhood Plan as they were consulted on a late draft and commented on other matters, but not the proposed housing density. This is at the very least not in the spirit of localism and you may consider that the Council failed in their duty to take into account the wishes of the community as laid out in the draft plan.