County council disagrees with plans to add new homes to edges of Rugby and villages

Rugby Borough Council is refreshing its local plan, the document sets out where new housing and employment land should go.

The proposals are the subject of a public consultation with relevant stakeholders asked for their views and the county council signed off its official response towards the end of last week, echoing the concerns of the borough’s Conservative councillors that the method put forward to build an extra 3,500 homes is flawed.

There was a protest outside Rugby’s town hall in March over the expansion planned for green belt areas such as Brinklow, Wolston, Wolvey and Long Lawford.

It was argued that brownfield sites – already developed land without housing – were not being utilised and that the borough's dispersal strategy of scattering the homes across a number of existing areas was the wrong way to go.

Objectors believe that larger new developments, such as the one considered but dismissed for Lodge Farm, would be more capable of having the scale to justify new infrastructure such as roads and schools as well as being better than building on rural land.

The county argues that the dispersal strategy “is not supportive of active travel” making necessary an increase in trips from villages to larger urban centres for day-to-day needs.

It anticipates “a significant increase” in secondary school pupils needing transport, driving up already over-budget home-to-school transport costs, while those studying post-16 “will need to rely on their own transport” with an “increase in car trips”.

The response states: “The county council’s preference is for larger standalone developments – these would deliver primary and secondary education solutions in one place, i.e. Lodge Farm or Cosford.

“Cosford is close to the existing settlement of Rugby so initial services could be provided reasonably closely until such time as development supports the provision of new infrastructure.

“Lodge Farm might provide new infrastructure that would benefit not only the development but also Dunchurch and the smaller surrounding villages.”

It also predicts that the plan “may add further burdens in areas with already existing challenges” of social care by spreading out the extra housing.

“It is important in terms of delivering a new sustainable community that all stakeholders are consulted further so that any proposed development will not risk care infrastructure viability issues or overwhelm primary care services, which many of the people we support in social care rely on to live healthy lives,” it goes on to warn.

“This needs to be particularly considered for the proposals in Wolston which suggest development of 15 units of specialist housing for vulnerable adults.”

It requests further dialogue with the county’s social care department and the NHS integrated care board (ICB) if the borough plans to press ahead with the proposed locations.

Information published on Rugby Borough Council’s website explains its approach by saying it will “support existing and improved local facilities and services” and provide homes “in a wider range of locations” as well as delivering more affordable housing.

It adds: “Smaller scale sites around the borough are likely to be built more quickly than larger sites while creating opportunities for smaller and medium-sized builders.”

The reasons given for not progressing larger developments at Lodge Farm and near Newbold-on-Avon are “the potential impact on existing infrastructure, particularly but not exclusively the highway network” and “the known challenges of delivering schemes of this scale”.

It goes on to say the plan “seeks to locate new housing in areas where existing infrastructure can be supported or improved” with a new secondary school set to come forward in the north of Rugby.

“The scale of new housing proposed at villages has been limited to the projected future capacity of the village primary school, as advised by Warwickshire County Council,” it adds.

“The potential to expand primary schools was also considered. The largest rural allocations are proposed to be at Wolvey, Brinklow and Long Lawford because of the potential for the primary schools serving these villages to expand or accommodate additional spaces.”