It's being proposed that over 4000 houses are to be built in Grappenhall, Appleton, Appleton Thorn and Stretton. I cannot believe that this plan has been issued, and here are the key reasons why:
* The green belt should remain green belt - building houses will destroy habitats and eco-systems, killing many wildlife in the process. (I've heard someone argue that the % of green belt to be used is much lower than it was - this is irrelevant, as 0% of the green belt should be built on.)
* The infrastructure for south Warrington is poor - whilst there are several train stations in the centre/north of the town, there are none in the south. Traffic is already a huge issue for the area, and adding over 4000 homes reliant on their cars is only going to make this worse. Any additional or improved roads will not do enough to mitigate the traffic issues, particularly where there are bottlenecks (e.g. crossing the Manchester Ship canal and the Bridgewater canal). Increased traffic is a huge issue from the points of view of health, air quality, environment, and quality of life.
* I know there are government targets for housing, but this is no excuse to build on the green belt - if building houses is necessary to hit targets, regeneration of brownfield sites is the way forward, and Warrington has plenty of these. The council should be pushing back on any targets which they feel would force them to consider building houses on green belt sites, causing environmental damage in the process.
It's being proposed that over 4000 houses are to be built in Grappenhall, Appleton, Appleton Thorn and Stretton. I cannot believe that this plan has been issued, and here are the key reasons why:
* The green belt should remain green belt - building houses will destroy habitats and eco-systems, killing many wildlife in the process. (I've heard someone argue that the % of green belt to be used is much lower than it was - this is irrelevant, as 0% of the green belt should be built on.)
* The infrastructure for south Warrington is poor - whilst there are several train stations in the centre/north of the town, there are none in the south. Traffic is already a huge issue for the area, and adding over 4000 homes reliant on their cars is only going to make this worse. Any additional or improved roads will not do enough to mitigate the traffic issues, particularly where there are bottlenecks (e.g. crossing the Manchester Ship canal and the Bridgewater canal). Increased traffic is a huge issue from the points of view of health, air quality, environment, and quality of life.
* I know there are government targets for housing, but this is no excuse to build on the green belt - if building houses is necessary to hit targets, regeneration of brownfield sites is the way forward, and Warrington has plenty of these. The council should be pushing back on any targets which they feel would force them to consider building houses on green belt sites, causing environmental damage in the process.