Controversial plans for homes on Warwickshire Police HQ site near Leaminton can go ahead after appeal

In June last year, Warwick District Council’s planning committee spent more than one-and-a-half hours discussing the plans, whcih were condemned by councillors and for which the authority had received almost 200 objections.

However, applicant Cala Homes, which bought the plot on Woodcote Lane from Warwickshire Police in December 2021, exercised its right to go straight to the Planning Inspectorate – the national body that has the final say when applicants are unhappy with outcomes from councils – because its case was not heard within 13 weeks.

And the inspectorate has now made the decision to grant planning permission for the application.

The district council planning committee’s biggest bone of contention surrounded a policy in the authority’s local plan – DS22 – which details how up to 115 homes could be delivered at the site based on Warwickshire Police vacating the headquarters.

Since then, a shared services arrangement with West Mercia Police has been pulled apart and Warwickshire Police has rowed back on plans to leave Leek Wootton altogether.

On that basis, the land was taken out of the green belt and subsequently given to the developer.

Objectors argued that the force staying put was a material change in circumstances which required reviewing.

Addressing councillors at the meeting, the district council’s senior planning policy officer Tony Ward acknowledged that the police’s change of heart did “ring a certain amount of alarm bells” and that he had been “very disappointed” having worked on a plan that factored in their departure.

However, the position of officers at the council, supported by independent legal advice, was that “things change over time” and therefore, the principle of housing on the site could not be dismissed without due consideration.

“I felt there may have been circumstances to cause the total abandonment of this allocation (of land for housing),” said Mr Ward.

“In the cold light of day, when you do the analysis of what we’re seeking to achieve, you can see that we can bring forward some housing to meet the wider needs of the local plan, also to help provide homes for the future inhabitants of the village.

“The neighbourhood plan itself for Leek Wootton has identified that it would be good to have a certain amount of growth to invite younger people and new families to the village as well as catering for existing and expanding ones.”

Councillors were not convinced by many elements of the application and advocated rejection on four grounds – “insufficient information” in relation to highway safety and flood risk concerns, “unacceptable” harm to protected species and the impact on heritage assets.

Councillor Bill Gifford (Lib Dem, Leamington Milverton) said: “The only benefit of this application is that it adds an extra 83 houses to our five-year (housing land) supply.”

“Why one needs a five-year supply is to stop an application coming forward to build, for example, in front of a listed building, near a dangerous road and in an area in danger of flooding.

“I don’t think we should be granting an application that has so many problems and so many risks just because it provides a few extra houses.”