Councillor sticks his head above the parapet
A TORY county councillor has spoken out against plans backed by the Conservative-run district council to build new homes on Warwick’s green belt.
Cllr Martyn Ashford, who has also been a member of Warwick Town Council for the past nine years, believes the local plan to build 10,800 homes in the district over the next 14 years is a misguided “officer-driven” blueprint which fellow Conservatives on the district council should not have approved.
Although consultation will continue as objections to the plan are considered, Cllr Ashford is angry that Warwick would risk losing three of its precious greenfield sites if the ‘preferred options’ go ahead.
The sites are at Loes Farm, opposite the Saxon Mill, Gallows Hill west of Europa Way.
Cllr Ashford said: “I do, of course, support the building of houses across the district. But these should be on brownfield sites to meet the local need for social and affordable housing. Not greenfield sites as the local plan seeks to do.
“I know there is a need for more housing but these preferred options are officer-driven in my view and appear to include student inward migration as a permanent figure for growth, instead of discounting the students in the figures projected.”
Cllr Ashford, who works as a lorry driver and has been a member of the county council for the past three years, added: “What we will end up with is an over-proliferation of houses on greenfield sites which is uncessary and unwanted.
“Nor is it likely we can supply the infrastructure we need to support these developments over the planned period.”
Cllr Ashford hopes the “lull” in proceedings while all the objections are considered will lead to district colleagues seeing the sense of arguments being put forward by campaigners like Mike George, who is trying to stop 180 houses being built at Loes Farm which provides a landbreak between Warwick and Leek Wootton.
The Council for the Protection of Rural England has already lodged strong objections to the local plan.
In a formal submission, the CPRE points out that the Loes Farm proposal would extend the existing Woodloes estate into the green belt creating urban sprawl while building on the much larger Gallows Hill site, west of Europa Way, would harm the historic Warwick Castle Park setting.
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Weather for Warwick
Wednesday 22 May 2013
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