Onslaught starts as Bilton housing plan unveiled

Taylor Wimpey held a consultation event about their plans for fields west of Alwyn Road at Old Laurentians rugby club on Tuesday to inform neighbours and ask for their views.

Many were worried about the main access being from Scots Close with heavy traffic already an issue.

Andrew Jackson, of Alwyn Road, said: “I just think you are asking for accidents to happen.”

Rugby Borough Council agreed to send its Local Plan, which allocates the fields for housing, to the planning inspectorate on June 21.

Some councillors said not taking the plan to the next stage would make the borough vulnerable to opportunistic developers.

But it seems the reverse is true as Taylor Wimpey responded to that decision by pressing ahead with its plans. Borough councillors for Bilton Lisa Parker and Chris Cade said developers have been given a green light to cherry pick the best countryside sites.

“The timing of this ‘consultation’ for these 250 houses at the rear of Alwyn Rd is particularly insensitive,” they said in a joint statement.

“It does however prove our point that developers are lining up to concrete over the green fields of Bilton and Dunchurch before even one single family has moved into the brownfield development at Houlton which has permission for 6,000 houses and a school and infrastructure already built.

“We’re proud to have voted against this Local Plan and we’ll now do everything we can to get the best outcome for the residents we serve.”

Gregory Mann from Taylor Wimpey said there may yet be another consultation event or leafleting to ask residents about the Alwyn Road plans, with a planning application expected at the end of the year.

He added that highways advice had no problems with the access from Scots Close.