BASE HEADER

No

ID sylw: 87163

Derbyniwyd: 05/02/2025

Ymatebydd: Mr Bryan Hay

C1 doesn't appear to meet the following plan strategic objectives:
Objective 1 - sustainable growth.
There are many houses for sale in and around Lapworth which have remained unsold for at least 12 months. Surely this indicates limited demand for housing in the area, suggesting that building many more houses would be unsustainable. Where is the plan's evidence for a requirement for housing growth in this area?
Objective 3 - Right place right time.
As above, additional housing doesn't appear to be in demand at present.
In as far as access to travel/communication. a significant proportion of C1 is enclosed by two canals and a railway line, making it appear somewhat inaccessible. Furthermore, whilst Lapworth does have a railway station, the current car parking availability s already far too small, and there is very limited scope for expansion. Station Lane and the environs are presently over-subscribed for parking, so increasing the likely demand would seem wholly inappropriate.
In terms of flood risk, a significant part of C1 fields which are at a lower level than surrounding land, and which currently allow for excess rainfall to partially flood off Lapworth village and roads. Any proposal to use this area for building additional housing can only result in flooding to those new houses, and potential issues to existing properties if the existing flood areas are removed or built on.
With regards wastewater and sewage management, the existing sewage works, just south of the southern-most part of the C1 area, is already close to maximum potential, and has suffered from the dumping of excess sewage in times of flood, so any significant increase of housing in this area will require either an entirely new sewage treatment facility, or very significant expansion of the existing facilities.
Green infrastructure: A significant part of C1 is presently very well used by both local residents and visitors from farther afield for walking, cycling, running and other recreation (check with the Canal River Trust). Canal towpaths and linking lanes and footpaths offer a well used and extremely valuable resource, which would be severely compromised by any significant development.
Objective 5. Effective use of land and resources: I submit that the large part of C1 is already a highly effective use of the area (see comments above about recreation).
Objective 6. Net Zero Carbon: A large part of C1 must surely act as a carbon sink, so large scale development would have a massively detrimental effect on this valuable resource.
Objective 8. Protecting our heritage and cultural assets: The two canals which form a significant part of C1 are exactly pert of our heritage and the manner in which they fit into the existing landscape should be valued and protected.
Objective 9. Enriching the tourism potential: As mentioned earlier, significant parts of C1 already attract many visitors from outside the local area. How can large scale development of housing possibly improve this?
Objective 12. Protecting and enhancing our environmental assets: Since C1 already represent an area of significant environmental importance, the destruction of a large part of the environment to create large scale housing can only have a highly damaging impact.