Our concerns

Download the New Town Fact Sheet to read more about the new town plans, the reasons behind the BARD Campaign and what you can do to help.

A new town of this size will devastate historic Stratford

• This is a rural setting without the transport infrastructure to sustain a huge increase in homes and people journeys
• Expert local opinion is against the proposal:
  • there simply isn’t the need for 6,000 new houses at Long Marston and it runs counter to the regional housing plans
  • there aren’t enough jobs to sustain 10-20,000 new residents in the area
  • these people would simply end up driving elsewhere in the region to find work, making a fallacy of the Govt’s ‘eco’ initiative

Damaging Site:

• There are better, more accessible sites for responsible development. 6,000 new homes and 15-20,000 new inhabitants would devastate historic Stratford-upon-Avon and the Vale of Evesham.
• One has to understand the scale of what is being proposed. The new town is two-thirds the size of Stratford-upon-Avon, yet being built only 6 miles from it
• Stratford: The economic, historic and cultural importance of Stratford cannot be over-stated. It is the home of Shakespeare, the home of the RSC, and a Mecca for tourists and theatre lovers from all over the world.

Infrastructure Concerns

• Stratford already has major transport and infrastructure problems. The proposed site will overwhelm the town. Long Martson is a rural area, ill served by road and rail networks. Changing this will require the construction of major new roads and rail extensions. This will be hugely expensive, time-consuming, and environmentally damaging.
• The proposed site will also put enormous strain on other local public services, most worryingly its hospitals and schools. The developers have said they will build new infrastructure, but this will take years and there simply isn’t capacity to deal with the new population in the meantime. Already children are being sent by taxi to schools in neighbouring districts 20-30 miles away.

Local Expertise

• The proposed site goes against the opinion of local and regional housing experts. The need for major new house building lies elsewhere in the region.
• Stratford enjoys almost full employment. A new town two-thirds of its size will play havoc with the local economy. County and District Councillors recognise this and have identified the areas and localities that do require government funding for housing, infrastructure and economic development. The proposed site ignores this.
• The truth is that this development will bring thousands of new people into a rural area on the edge of Stratford and the Vale of Evesham, where there are no jobs, no infrastructure, inadequate schooling and already overstretched medical provision.