Country park is a welcome idea

Perhaps this is because it was produced with little adverse publicity – unlike HS2.

Yet, after four years of endless criticisms of the proposed new railway, the Environmental Statement relating to HS2’s hybrid Bill was recently revealed to have engendered just 138 responses from Stoneleigh, Kenilworth and Burton Green … equal to only 0.5 per cent from the areas’ combined population of 25,500.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to compare the potential impact of both HS2 and the Local Plan on the green belt in the north-east sector of Warwick district (embracing Kenilworth, Stoneleigh, Baginton and Burton Green).

The Local Plan sets out proposals for providing throughout the entire Warwick District 12,860 new homes between 2011 and 2029, of which 910 are proposed to be built on a total of approximately 30 hectares (74 acres) of green belt around Kenilworth – at Thickthorn, Crackley Triangle (which overlooks HS2) and Burton Green (close by HS2).

A further 20 hectares (50 acres) approximately of green belt at Southcrest Farm, by Crew Lane and Glasshouse Lane, are proposed for the relocation of Kenilworth School, together with the sixth form college, plus providing the site of an additional junior school.

But by far the biggest demand on the green belt is for new employment – eight hectares (20 acres) at Thickthorn, five hectares (12 acres) at each of Stoneleigh Deer Park and Stoneleigh Park (the latter with HS2 running in a cutting through part of it) … and 235 hectares (580 acres) at Baginton, around Coventry Airport, the “priority” site, according to the Local Plan, for new major employment (currently the subject of the ‘Gateway’ public inquiry).

So – according to the Local Plan – housing, education and employment will, together, extend over some 300 hectares (740 acres) of green belt, about two and a half times more than the area currently forming the ‘Safeguarded Area’ for seven kilometres (4.3 miles) of HS2 between Stoneleigh and Burton Green, which will be a slender, linear development, with much of it set in deep cuttings.

It was gratifying to see in your April 18 edition that Kenilworth town councillor George Illingworth, commenting on HS2, now believes “there is very little chance of the scheme not going ahead as planned” and “we have to, in a sense, stop opposing HS2 and start working on mitigation and getting the best for the town.”

But there was no mention of item G12 of the Local Plan’s Draft Infrastructure Delivery Plan – a proposed Crackley Country Park.

This, the plan says, would be mitigation for HS2 and have potential to link with future proposals for Warwick University, including pedestrian and cycle access, links to the wider countryside, and ecological areas. The cost of £2.8 million – almost a third of the plan’s total budget for Country Parks and Strategic Green Infrastructure – would be met by HS2 Ltd and the University, including maintenance and management for 13 years. Seems like a good idea. A shame no one has commented or reported on it.

Alan Marshall, Inchbrook Road. Kenilworth