Boundary changes are eradicating Whitnash

Some of your readers will be able to remember back to the 1930s when Whitnash extended all the way from Prospect Road in the north including the area where Asda and Campion School sit today, all the way south along the Whitnash Brook Valley to Harbury Lane and the Fosse Way.
By The Newsroom
Published 12th Oct 2014, 08:22 BST

Once again through a boundary review (or Community Governance Review as Warwick District Council like to call it), WDC have annexed another part of Whitnash to Leamington. This is the part of Whitnash east of the railway to the Whitnash Brook Valley. You will also remember last year WDC’s recommendation to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England that the Whitnash Ward be renamed ‘Briar Ward’.

I am sure it is a pure coincidence that Leamington has taken this area at a time when WDC has granted planning applications for several hundred houses which will of course mean lots of money going to Leamington. Whitnash’s desire to keep the Brook Valley in Whitnash isn’t driven by money since the emerging Whitnash Neighbourhood Plan wants to protect the historical nature of the brook valley and prevent it being used for housing development.

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At the same time another area of land, Woodside Farm - behind Landor Road and Ashford Road which WDC has granted planning permission for another few hundred houses and which is currently part of Bishop’s Tachbrook parish - is to remain as part of that village. This area is 1.5km from Bishop’s Tachbrook and entirely separate from it.

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Warwick District Council is going to have to explain to the new residents, who would naturally think they live in Whitnash, that they are actually living in another village. “Bishop’s Tachbrook” signs will have to be put up on the entrance to this estate on Tachbrook Road. Interestingly, the land barely gets a mention in the draft Bishop’s Tachbrook Neighbourhood Plan.

Your readers may well be able to draw their analogies to Warwick District Council’s ongoing attempt to eradicate Whitnash. WDC may try to blame the Local Government Boundary Commission for England or its predecessors, but to me and my fellow town councillors the objective is clear and nearing completion.

I would urge all your Whitnash readers to write to Robert Hook of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England and also to Warwick District Council to tell them their decision is wrong.

Cllr Robert Margrave, Whitnash Town Council

Related topics:Warwick District CouncilLeamington