Development free for all in Radford

I was horrified to read that there are plans afoot to move the library which has not been on its present site for very long. In order to put it there we lost a lovely Victorian library building which is now converted to apartments, and more importantly we lost the old spa, just when spas were beginning to become fashionable again. It could have been a terrific tourist attraction for Leamington. We should be very careful of such short term thinking. For example, the school in Radford Semele sold off its old building for development in spite of objections by the villagers. Now with the prospect of new housing aimed at families, where is the space for the children that will move to the village?

Which brings me on to planning. With the gap between the old and new local plans Radford Semele is in turmoil. There are three sites currently subject to planning permission for development. The land on the Southam road as you leave the village was brought into the village envelope as a deliberate way of stopping development along Spring Lane and in the field beside the church. These tactics looks as if they may well fail, as the latter two sites are now going to appeal.

I have asked questions of the council but haven’t received any satisfactory answers.

I think that it used to be the case that the old plan stood until the new one was adopted. Now there is a development free-for-all in the gap between the two plans. The two appeals will surely be very costly in terms of both time and money for the council. If the new plan had been brought in to replace the existing one at the right moment a lot of money would surely have been saved, and development areas would have been more clearly defined.

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