Ways to reduce traffic in Warwick
One of the key aspects of the Local Plan, but one which is easily overlooked, is that the Warwick Area Committee (WAC) has approved a strategy of significant traffic reductions in Warwick town centre in order to address and resolve the problems of air quality. These traffic reductions will inevitably have an effect on traffic flows in the surrounding highway infrastructure, and this must be taken into account when planning how much new housing is to be provided and, importantly, its location. Warwick will no longer be a convenient short cut as it is at present.
I have suggested that, in the first instance, there is a zero growth strategy until the Warwick town centre traffic reduction proposals have been implemented and the impact on local highways assessed. Any new housing must be located close to employment sites and south of the M40 to give sufficient separation from the Warwick/Leamington urban sprawl. This effectively rules out the sites suggested by the spatial strategy.
The area north of Wellesbourne would seem to be a much more suitable location, where a more integrated and self-sufficient development could be located and linked to the M40 at junctions 13 (with full access) and 15 (Longbridge) thus also connecting with the A46. - Dennis Crips, St Nicholas Church Street, Warwick