Local campaigner points to significant flaws in road infrastructure to sustain HGV movement
North Warwickshire Parliamentary Candidate, Craig Tracey, has spoken out against the “Inappropriate development” at the former Daw Mill colliery site. Craig attended a packed residents meeting at Nether Whitacre Village Hall last night (Thursday) organised by the Leys and Whitacres Residents Action Group.
Local Campaigner Craig said, “Even though the new proposals are suggesting a significant reduction in the HGV traffic flow, it is still too much and the local infrastructure simply won’t cope. Obviously there will be significant disruption here in the Whitacres but also in neighbouring areas such as Coleshill and Fillongley, where many concerns over traffic flow have been raised to me even without this proposal.
“The Applicant puts forward the forecast that the Council will have to make improvements to the junctions at Fillongley, Furnace End and Coleshill by 2024 due to congestion which it suggests would be required, irrespective of whether the development went ahead, and offers to make contribution to that work, but makes no mention of the vastly different works required to allow for more HGV traffic on country roads that weren’t designed to handle them in the first place!
In my view, which it seemed was shared by the meeting, it is an inappropriate development of the land and the proposals should be rejected by the Borough Council.”
On the future use of the site, Craig added “It is vital that local residents have their say and I have sent thousands of questionnaires out to villages asking for their views on what they would like to see on the land moving forward. In the absence of any meaningful consultation by the Borough Council as to what those who will be most impacted want, I will ensure that along with my objection to the plans, their views are represented at the Council House. I was also disappointed that the developers did not come to the meeting tonight to face residents and answer their questions.”