The infrastructure in South Warrington including Stockton Heath and adjacent villages and connections to central Warrington is poor and deteriorating. There is motor traffic congestion throughout the working day but particularly appalling congestion at work times and school-run times. This means that air pollution is high at those times, affecting the welfare of those living in and passing through the area including the health of vulnerable children that live in the Borough. Over the last few years, the actions, whether intended or not, of Warrington Borough council have been to encourage out of town shopping and to encourage out of town employment and these things taken together with recent town centre development and the notorious difficulties of crossing the river at Bridgefoot have led to appalling congestion during most of the working day but particular the astonishing difficulty of traversing the river at the beginning and end of the working day. COP 26 has a fundamental principle of decarbonizing and reducing atmospheric pollution, so the building of further homes and the permanent destruction of Greenbelt does nothing to support COP 26 but in contrast operates in the opposite direction of which COP 26 is pointing. Thus, the plan is not delivering on the commitment made by the UK Government. The building of new homes and the introduction of new vehicles into the area can only further worsen Warrington?s toxic gas figures.

The cycle lanes provision in and around Warrington, and particularly those in the southern part of Warrington are particularly poor, most lanes being narrow and some lanes being short and terminating in traffic build up areas. Vehicles are often seen stopped or even parked in cycle ways. Multiple vehicle ownership in areas of traditional terraced housing has compounded the problem with vehicle owners parking on roads blocking cycleways and paths. Current housing density and out of town employment exacerbates this problem forcing homeowners to own multiple vehicles to allow them to commute to work and abandon any thought of walking or cycling to work. New build housing is designated in areas where public transport services are already poor and there is no provision in the plan for improving public services and assisting motorists to abandon vehicle journeys. The reality is that the current local plan will increase the number of people that take to vehicles to get to work.

Overall, the population is ageing and yet the number of new homes being constructed as bungalows or one- or two-bedroom homes are in the minority, as these homes offer less profit to the developer, and this works in the opposite direction of population age profile changes. Warrington?s plan should deter builders from building yet more executive homes or allowing builders to acquire smaller homes such as bungalows and rebuild them as massive 2000 to 4000 square foot executive homes. The current activity runs contrary to common sense and forces young buyers and those that retire out of the area and contributes to the building of structures which emit more carbon in violation of the direction endorsed by COP 26. Warrington Borough should lead the development plan by requiring a lower housing density, greater distribution of homes geographically, and smaller home footprints, the building of a greater variety of homes including one- and two- bedroom homes and setting demanding standards for insulation and carbon reduction for each new structure built. Additionally, the preservation of trees, greenspace and local species must be taken into account for the new homeowners and mandated on developers to avoid purchasers of homes being consigned to yet another concrete jungle as already exist in some parts of the Southern Borough.

It is of enormous concern and great sadness that Warrington Borough Council is proposing to destroy and remove green belt from the southern part of the borough. This action will be irreversible and detrimental to everyone that lives within the borough and is unforgivable. Not only will the concreting over of Greenbelt lead to harm in the future with current climate change prediction models for the North-West showing increased flooding and damage to homes, the costs of remediating such damage will be borne by the householder and could have been avoided by spreading new build homes, in smaller groups, over a much wider area taking advantage of grey and brownfield sites and building with appropriate green protection on those sites to assist water drainage. Moreover, the recent creation of a border facility in Southern Warrington adjacent to the M56/M6 motorway and the increased area committed to logistics and warehousing development will further exacerbate the problem of water drainage and runoff, highway rubbish dumping, and, even more seriously than that, the congestion and pollution of the urban road system. It goes without saying that these increased industrial facilities will in turn lead to more accidents and because of toxic pollution bring harm to any residents in nearby conurbations. It is familiar to those that live and in the surrounding areas of Warrington that people who travel from South of the country to the Warrington area are pleasantly surprised by the amount of green belt that surrounds what they thought was an industrial town. It's therefore of critical importance to Warrington?s future as a destination for investors, employers, and residents that the maximum amount of Greenbelt is conserved and the absolute minimum amount of land taken for house building or industrial estates is allowed to be drawn from Greenbelt irreplaceable resources.

The green belt that surrounds Warrington particularly the southern region of Warrington, Is home to a surprising diversity of plants, animals, and other creatures such as insects. It is about time that Warrington realised that the concreting over of large areas of Greenbelt due to new housing and industrial estates is not just about the loss of ?a nice green view? but is a direct contributor to diversity destruction that in turn will lead to harm for the population of this area. Warrington has a unique opportunity to become a leader in this area, and to follow the principles alluded to in the COP 15 October 2021 Convention on Biological Diversity that deal with the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of nature.