Developers push up homes numbers

n last week’s Courier, you had an article headed ‘Council’s projections of growth are gravely flawed’ and a letter from the Leamington Society. Both expressed concern at the drift upwards of the number of houses in WDC’s Local Plan. But there is another pressure which could result in a much larger growth in the number of houses built in the district over the next few years.

In September 2013, WDC approved an outline planning proposal to build on the land to the south of Fieldgate Lane, Whitnash - W/13/0858. This was despite the fact that the site was specifically excluded from the draft Local Plan and despite the strong opposition of the local residents.

There is now another planning application with WDC: W/14/0216, ‘Details of the appearance, landscaping and scale of the proposed 111 dwellings, public open space and associated infrastructure.’ This has been submitted by the builder and purports to finalise the details of the layout of the site and all the buildings. But it is very noticeable that the number of houses has quietly risen from the 94 approved on the outline plan to 111 on the detailed plan - an 18 per cent increase.

Assuming the developers of all the sites in the Local Plan treat the housing numbers in the same way (highly likely) and WDC does not raise any objections (also highly likely), we are not talking about 12,900 new houses; we are talking about 15,200!

If you were concerned about the existing levels of traffic, parking, access to GPs and hospital, dental and other medical services, school capacity, water and sewage treatment, and all the other infrastructure issues that are necessary for modern life, your worries have just gone up by an additional 18 per cent.

Paul Newton, Fieldgate Lane, Whitnash