BASE HEADER

No

ID sylw: 107198

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Mac Mic Group

Asiant : McLoughlin Planning

We do not agree that all of the identified Strategic Growth Locations or Potential New Settlements are supported by sufficient infrastructure to enable their delivery. It is clear that the SWLP recognises at a high level that such provision is integral to the delivery of significant housing and employment sites.
It is noted that the IDP will also help to coordinate planning and investment in new infrastructure by the two districts and other infrastructure providers and key stakeholders. Part 1 of the IDP forms part of the technical evidence base for the PO Consultation draft of the SWLP. Whilst we appreciate that further work is to be undertaken to determine details of the infrastructure needs for the preferred option, we are concerned at the lack of information contained within the Part 1 IDP. In our view, evidence regarding infrastructure requirements for the Strategic Growth Areas or Potential New Settlements is a fundamental requirement for their promotion. The absence thereof essentially renders the promotion of certain sites or locations for development over others unsound.
We consider that this amounts to a failure to accord with paragraph 16 of the NPPF, which sets out at part b) that plans should be prepared positively, in a way that is aspirational but deliverable.
Linked to this, we consider it a significant failing of the emerging Plan that it currently appears to prioritise or highlight areas which suffer from a lack of infrastructure, whilst conversely, promoted sites in areas benefitting from existing infrastructure have not at this stage been taken forward. We return to this later in our consideration of the sites adjacent to and in proximity to Bishop’s Itchington, at Section 3.
There is insufficient urban brownfield land to accommodate South Warwickshire’s housing and employment land needs. The majority of the SWLP’s strategic growth needs will be met within priority areas 1 – 3”.
It is critical that the SWLP makes clear at the outset that development will need to extend beyond existing urban limits.
It is in our view essential that the SWLP is clear from the outset that the only way to meet development needs will be to build on current greenfield sites in sustainable locations.
As per the new Standard Method, housing need has increased in Stratford-on-Avon from 553 units per annum to 1,126 units per annum (+103%) and in Warwick DC from 653 units per annum to 1,062 units per annum (+62.6%). This significant increase in housing need further heightens the importance of the Council looking to suitable and sustainable greenfield sites to deliver housing, given the acceptance that urban land could not meet even the lower demand, which was assessed in 2022, as per the Urban Capacity Study.