‘Our Local Plan is an unacceptable burden’, says Warwick and Leamington MP

This is the outspoken view of the Leamington and Warwick MP Chris White, who says that planners should go back to the drawing board with their proposals.

He has written directly to Michel Doody, leader of Warwick District Council, to express his four main concerns. They are: the ‘fairness’ of the concentration of homes to the south of the towns; the ‘unacceptable burden’ this will have on residents and infrastructure; that people’s voices are not being heard; and that the large scale of the development is unnecessary.

He said: “I have received numerous representations from constituents over the past few months about the Local Plan and the overwhelming majority of them have been negative.

“Any sustainable Local Plan must propose an equitable division of new homes to be built, and I believe that this Local Plan does not propose such a division.

“The allocation of the new homes has further raised concerns about infrastructure. The recent problems that have taken place with regards to the High Street/Jury Street roadworks (in Warwick) has already undermined public confidence in the ability of local authorities to deliver infrastructure improvements. The allocation of such a large amount of new developments south of Warwick, Leamington and Whitnash (4,500 homes in total) has led to concerns as to whether their local infrastructure will be able to cope.

“I share these concerns with local residents and I believe that the number of homes proposed alongside the concentrated nature of the developments would put an intolerable strain on local infrastructure even when taking into account the proposed upgrades. Moreover, it is likely that the upgrades in themselves would be a considerable inconvenience for local residents and could have an impact on the local economy.”

He also asked that residents’ views are taken on board during the consultation. He added: “Ultimately the final say should rest with local residents and no Local Plan should be put into effect which does not have the approval of the vast majority of local residents.”

He said that the overwhelming concern raised by residents, which he agrees with, was that the number of proposed homes is too high.

The Local Plan states that more homes are needed to accommodate the influx of people wanting to move to the area - but Mr White believes this reasoning only helps to ‘exacerbate’ the problem, which will in turn attract even more people and put a burden on infrastructure.

His objections come at the same time as residents began their opposition to the plans and the proposed gypsy sites in the region, as seen on the front page of this week’s Courier (June 28).