Climate Change and environmantal degradation are the 2 most important issues facing our societies. Our children and grandchildren urgently need the current generatios to act now to slow down and reverse the damage done over recent decades.
The commitments are commendable but there is little about reducing vehicle emissions and few links to the environmental destruction of flora and fauna.
I have followed WDC's appalling planning decisions over the last few years. Willful destruction of the greenbelt, weak enforcement of planning conditions and bending over backwards to enable HS2 etc. Both the Planning function and the Committee need to improve.

Modern society, despite products becoming more energy efficient, is still demanding more energy. Society wishes to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, but renewables will only be able to satisfy some of the energy demands. By reducing energy consumption this makes that goal a lot more achievable. We can either make moderate changes to society now, balancing our accustomed lifestyle with sustainability, or leave it until later when changes to our lifestyle will have to be more drastic. Drastic changes could include retrofitting houses. So by making homes more energy efficient now will save money and energy in the longer run.

Theatres Trust has signed up to the Culture Declares Emergency campaign and has set out commitments to help influence and improve the sector’s sustainability. The district contains theatres including the Priory and Talisman in Kenilworth, Bridge House and Warwick Hall in Warwick and the Loft Theatre in Leamington Spa. These are vital cultural and community spaces that enable local people to enjoy live performance and contribute to wellbeing, inclusion and placemaking. Theatres, like all public buildings, have an impact on the environment so efforts to improve their sustainability will generally be supported. To that end the Trust has made grants available to theatres undertaking such projects and we are a source of free advice and support where works are proposed.

Therefore we are supportive of this DPD coming forward and the additional policy and guidance it provides to applicants.

These are all crucially essential steps. Time is short and action is urgent.

I support the Climate Change action plan for all future building developments in and around Warwick. We should ONLY be building green/ eco housing which is in line with the Climate Change Emergency requirements.

We are in a climate emergency. Focus should be on using most effective renewable energy.
1. Imperative to use communal ground source heating systems. One plant for all houses to share and tap into.
2. 100% of houses roofs to have solar panels with orientation for optimal solar panels in place of roof tiles.
3. Charging points for cars.
4. New housing must be close enough to local facilities to encourage cycling and walking.
5. Design estate to retain all existing trees and hedges to maintain biodiversity.

While Barwood Land support the Council’s objectives to tackling climate change, and introducing new measures to do so, this has to be done in accordance with the requirements of the Local Plan process.
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) requires Local Plans to include a viability assessment to ensure policies are feasible and deliverable. As the current Local Plan was adopted in 2017 it did not include a viability assessment.
While it is noted that the viability assessment for the DPD has included consideration of current anticipated costs for additional policies, including accessibility, EV charging, biodiversity net gain, CIL and S106 this does not include any assessment of additional requirements which may come through the Local Plan Review.
In this context we believe that while it is helpful to consider additional policy requirements this should be done in line with the Local Plan Review process to ensure the policies are viable in the context of additional amendments to the Local Plan.
In addition the assessment does not appear to give consideration to potential carbon offset costs in the scenario where development may not be able to achieve net zero onsite. To ensure the assessment is robust additional scenarios should be tested to consider the costs of offsetting and that impact on viability.
Furthermore in reviewing the viability assessment there is a mismatch between the Benchmark Land Values (BLV) stated in the report in Section 4.49 and the BNP values noted in the assessment tables in Section 6. In some cases this will both negatively and positively impact on the viability results. This needs reviewing to ensure the results of the assessment are correct.
Section 6 of the viability assessment clearly shows that policies of the DPD will have a negative impact on land values for residential development, for the mid-range value price point (E) the appraisal shows a negative impact for medium, large scale housing as well as most of the flatted schemes assessed. This shows that without a reduction in costs in other areas, i.e. the reduction in affordable housing provision in the majority of cases the policies are not viable for residential development.
We note that the viability report expects costs to reduce over time, and we agree, however for this to occur the supply chain and skills to implement some systems, for example heat pumps needs time to become established. This is a significant reason as to why the Future Homes Standard (FHS) sets out the timeframe of 2025, to allow this to develop and costs reduce.
In this context we believe the DPD is premature and should be reconsidered in terms of its viability in conjunction with the Local Plan Review. Furthermore Section 6 of the viability assessment shows that the policy requirements are not currently viable without significant reductions in costs from other areas, i.e. affordable housing. This suggests that the Council are proposing to introduce local standards that fail to meet the viability tests of the NPPF.