Not positively prepared. The people of Lutterworth have already put objections (with valid reasons) forward for planning applications related to the building of warehouses at Magna Park. It feels that the only reason these warehouses are in the Local Plan is because a private company has put a planning application in - the council wouldn't be considering this otherwise, as there is no need or want for it. There are many "to Let" signs around Magna Park which suggests to me that there is already a surplus of warehouses in the area.
The roads around the area are all ready at maximum capacity - particularly around "Gibbets Roundabout" where the A426 joins the A5. Already traffic queues back to the M6 daily and I have seen no evidence of this being addressed. I wonder if it's because this road is right on the Warwickshire boarder so Harborough have chosen to ignore it. Traffic would inevitably be queuing back onto the M6 if more traffic was encouraged to this area. Also the A5 has already seen too many fatalities (particularly at the High Cross Junction) and this will only get worse with more traffic - Claybrooke and Ullesthorpe villagers will be forced to take ever increasing risks to turn right onto the A5.
Not Justified. This area has very low unemployment. Building more warehousing would mean staff would have to commute in from elsewhere. As previously stated, the local roads are already dangerous and at capacity. Building new houses will not solve the issue as this will just increase traffic further. The jobs on offer here will not be in line with the strategic plan either - the majority of jobs here will not offer breadth of employment opportunities for the higher skilled residents. My children continually point out the "to Let" signs and ask why the fields have to built on if there's already empty warehouses.
I am very concerned for the respiratory health of the residents in this area - nowhere does this plan consider the asthma and COPD rates of its residents. Living within the M6/M69/M1 triangle already subjects us to very poor air quality (as acknowledged on the Harborough website). I have 2 members of my family with asthma, both of them have only developed it since living in the Lutterworth area. I find it totally unjustifiable to increase traffic and pollution in this area at the cost of our health.
Not effective. There is already lots of new warehousing at Rugby, Northampton and Magna Park (to name just a few). with these spaces not yet filled, it seems totally ineffective to continue to build more at the expense of our children's health and future. They are the ones that will have to live with the decisions made now. There is no mention of protecting green space around the villages near Magna Park.
Not consistent with National Policy. There is a national policy to improve air quality so it seems totally wrong to continue to build in this area - in a valley surrounded by motorways - where the air cannot circulate. There is also a policy stating that warehouses need to be closer to rail networks. Increasing Magna Park goes against both of these national policies.It would not be good for the local economy to have so much of one type of business in such a small area. National policy talks about growing diverse economies - but this plan is all focussed on one, low skilled. low paid area of the economy which could deeply damage the current community.