UPSVLP 2093
I believe the plan to be unsound on the following basis:
- Absence of justification for the scale of green belt release in south Warrington. The bulk of the green belt release is in the vicinity of where I currently live, and will have a significant effect on the local area, the environment, green spaces, ecology and local air quality / sound pollution. As well as the destruction of the local landscape and regional character of the area and local villages.
- The overall environmental and ecological impact of the loss of green belt has not been properly assessed in the revised (draft) plan. I believe the council should seek to identify alternative brownfield sites in the town as opposed to the wholesale, irreversible and unjustifiable destruction of the south Warrington green belt.
- The existing green belt boundary was only confirmed 7 years ago and was purported to be good for the next 20yrs. This is an unacceptable deviation from existing planning agreements.
- The draft plan does not provide an explanation of how the already poor transportation / public travel infrastructure for south Warrington can cope with the increased levels of traffic and public travel (especially into the town centre). I believe this to be a significant issue for the area in general that is being overlooked in the draft plan.
- Given the poor local public transportation networks network in this area, this will undoubtably place an increasingly high demand on commuting by car and will
lead to increased traffic (and pollution) in the local area which is completely at odds with the UK?s climate change aspirations.
- Existing infrastructure and roads are not suitably developed to deal with the already high number of commuters from the area, I believe this will be further stretched as the draft plan does not take this into consideration and there are no clear proposals about how this would be dealt with.
- I believe that growth predictions which form the basis for the draft plan are unrealistic and are at rates that have never been previously achieved. This is poor justification for the increased numbers of local housing and destruction of green belt land.
I believe the draft plan needs to take into consideration the south Warrington environment, ecology and wholesale and irreversible destruction of the local green belt for housing needs. I feel the green belt release is unjustified and at odds with existing planning agreements. Brownfield sites should be examined as a matter of priority for housing needs in other areas of the town prior to the use of the green belt (as a last resort). The plan needs to establish realistic changes that will benefit the whole of Warrington as well as the outlying local communities. This should include forward thinking about the environment, infrastructure, roads, travel, commuting and our collective green spaces. I believe the plan is at odds with the need for a greener, cleaner local environment and overall government legislation and future thinking for climate change.