Residents fight plans for new homes in Warwickshire
Warwick and Leamington residents are currently campaigning against plans to build thousands of new homes in the local area.
The Save Warwick group have approached Warwick District Council demanding plans to be reconsidered in order to prevent an “urban sprawl” which would “irreparably damage Warwick”.
The group believe that the amount of homes proposed has been over-exaggerated with a particular emphasis placed on the profit for developers.
Save Warwick group member, Anthony King, expressed his outrage at the plans: “More than 17,000 are planned within the next 15 years less than eight miles of my front door in Warwick.
“In my 28 years here, nothing has been more successful in uniting residents in opposition to the district councils of Warwick and Stratford than the controversies over their local plans.
“I think there are now so many planning consents in the pipeline around here that the current inundation has less to do with building homes for people and more to do with developers building their land banks and holding out for even bigger profits in the future as prices rise.
“With natural increase and allowing for modest inward migration we see a need for something around 6,000 homes, so what are the others for?
“I can see many of these sites lying idle for many years and becoming wastelands on what is high quality agricultural land.
“Nobody denies the need for new homes and we recognise that many essential workers we need to staff our hospitals and schools are unable to afford a house in Warwick, so we support a planned expansion of our district including sufficient affordable homes that will cater for the natural increase of our population and a modest provision for incomers.”
The group have been particularly upset at plans for 250 new homes to be built on an area of land near the castle, known locally as Strawberry Field.
Mr King added: “Despite having received around 1,600 objections to their plans they have not even had the courtesy to address them before going ahead with a ‘master plan’ to develop the area, regardless.”
The general consensus from students at the University of Warwick seems to be that student housing is plentiful.
Second-year English Literature student Hannah Manzur, who currently lives in central Leamington, stated: “I don’t think that there needs to be any more houses in Leamington to cater for students.
“Perhaps if plans go ahead there could be more, but not as many as the council plans.”
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