UPSVLP 2348
This plan to use Green Belt Land is UNSOUND for many reasons:
1. At a time when clean air has been shown to be in short supply, with resulting harm to health, removing any part of the buffer of green belt that currently helps to protect Residents from the fumes from proximate motorways is foolhardy and shows a lack of understanding of a duty of care to those living in the area.
2. Green belt and wild land cannot quickly be regained once lost- once gone it's gone. This flies in the face of the Governments own policies for protecting our natural world and shows a lack of understanding of the climate crisis. Green belt must be protected, and extended where possible. ALL brownfield options should be developed first.
3.The number of houses proposed in the development is not justified by official forecasts, so if the Council is intending to follow this course it is UNSOUND.
4. The local traffic is already very substantial and frequently the road system cannot cope. The number of additional vehicles that will be brought to our roads will add further chaos and worsening air quality for Residents.
5. There are no recreational facilities to speak of in South Warrington which means that putting almost 7000 homes in the South East Urban Extension means putting AT LEAST that many additional cars on the road regularly travelling into and beyond the Town centre- a route that is already heavily oversubscribed. A route that is dogged by canal crossings. The number of new dwellings and the consequent traffic therefrom is simply unsustainable in this area.
6. The plan does little or nothing to bring back life to the Town centre while simultaneously removing the character of villages in the South by enveloping all within the new development. This is not responding to the needs of Warrington's Residents.
7. The existing road network/schools/medical facilities cannot take the proposed additional traffic and people, yet the only prerequisite laid down in the plan is a diversion for the A49. Without the additional schools and medical provision being put in place at the start, our already stretched services will be overwhelmed. Without improvements to the road system the same will happen there.
For the Plan to be justified it should better reflect the actual needs for housing, as previously predicted in population growth forecasts, but if the Council must find homes in excess of that it should identify currently empty dwellings for remodelling/renovation and also repurpose Town Centre buildings as multi use properties to encourage living in the Town alongside retail and entertainment facilities. The Town centre is sorely in need of rejuvenation and this would serve to provide homes closer to wok and shops so cutting down on the need for cars and additional travel. Additional green spaces should also be created.
Brownfield sites should be identified and built upon as a first choice wherever possible to upgrade run down areas and improve the Town generally.
Suitable smaller (downsizing) homes should be built (fewer bedrooms but spacious living areas) to enable homeowners to leave their bigger properties which would then come on the market.
All of this would go a long way to providing additional homes without the removal of environmentally important and valuable green belt land and would also cause fewer issues with road congestion.