Decision due on 800 homes ‘garden suburb’ between Leamington and Warwick

Councillors on Warwick District Council’s planning committee are due to make a decision on Tuesday on a plan put forward by Europa Way Consortium to build 800 homes, shops, a primary school, children’s play area and allotments on land between Myton Road and Europa Way.

But the council’s planning experts, who have examined and conducted a consultation exercise on the proposal, say that it should not be allowed to go ahead.

And the consortium, having read the officials’ report, has now written to the council to ask for the decision to be deferred.

Chairman of the consortium John Edwards said: “The proposals will deliver a ‘garden suburb’ for the 21st century which provides a quality housing environment for a range of future residents.

“Despite the extensive pre-application discussions with the council’s officers, we have recently been asked to respond to major requests within a matter of days. It is unreasonable to expect the consortium to respond on such important matters in such a short period of time.

“Because of these concerns, I have written to the leader of the council and to all planning committee members requesting that a decision on the application be deferred at the committee meeting on September 24. This would enable the consortium to respond properly to the issues raised by the council.”

The district council received only one letter in support of the plan, while it registered objections from Warwick Town Council, Bishops Tachbrook parish council and Warwickshire County Council’s highways and ecology departments, while 102 letters of objection were also received, which highlighted issues including traffic congestion, the merging of Leamington and Warwick, noise and air pollution and pressure on infrastructure and services.

In his report for councillors on the planning committee, planning officer Rob Young pointed out that only 20 per cent of the homes in the development would be classed as “affordable”, which would not meet the district council’s low cost housing needs.

He said: “The proposals would have an adverse traffic impact, would be detrimental to highway safety and fail to make adequate provision for bus services.

“The development also fails to make adequate provision for secondary education, primary care facilities and affordable housing and the proposals would cause a net loss of biodiversity.”