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ID sylw: 108115

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: William Davis Homes

Asiant : McLoughlin Planning

Land off Old Budbrooke Road, Hampton Magna
We can confirm that the land which comprises the Site is under the unified control of William Davis Homes and is available for residential development.
The Site is located at to the west of the village of Hampton Magna at land off Old Budbrooke Road. Hampton Magna is located approximately 3 miles to the west of Warwick and lies within the Parish of Budbrooke within Warwick District.
The village is relatively small, and its appearance is of its time, but it has a good range of services.
The Site itself comprises approximately 21.1 hectares of predominantly arable land, with some pasture and horticulture activity. As above, of note is its proximity to Warwick Parkway Rail Station, which is situated on the north-western side of Warwick and within a 10-minute walk of the site, along a footway that runs the entire length of Old Budbrooke Road.
There are no technical impediments to the development of the Site for residential use.

Hampton Magna is one of only a small number of settlements that benefit from an existing rail station with frequent services to a major urban centre (in this case Warwick, Birmingham and London) and, aside from the Green Belt, is relatively unconstrainted.

We are firmly of the view that the Site presents the most logical, accessible and sustainable opportunity for a strategic extension to Hampton Magna, consistent with the historic evolution of the settlement and benefiting from close proximity to the range of facilities located within the village, and therefore should be released from the Green Belt for residential development. The following points are key to our justification of the above:
- The Site is within a 10-minute walking distance of Warwick Parkway Station, demonstrably allowing the use of existing infrastructure without significant investment being required.
- The site is of a sufficient scale and character to enable the delivery of biodiversity net gain in line with local and national requirements.
- In line with its release from the Green Belt (see further discussion and assessment below), development of the site would be expected under the NPPF to deliver a higher rate of affordable housing (currently 50% as per NPPF paragraph 67 part b), unless this would make development unviable. This would make an important contribution to meeting the strategic objective of the SWLP to deliver affordable housing;
- As a housebuilder, William Davis are committed to energy efficiency. All homes are designed with this as a priority, and this would be carried forward to development on the site;
-It is noted that any LWS would be retained, and development offset to ensure no impact.
Conversely, other emerging allocations in proximity to Hampton Magna would not reap the same benefits in terms of efficient access to Warwick Parkway Station, or indeed to existing services and facilities. Other sites are also noted as being significantly impacted by areas at a high risk of flooding with the potential for development therefore necessarily being viewed through the lens of the NPPF which seeks to steer new development to areas with the lowest risk of flooding from any source. We are also concerned that the development of other identified sites could result in the coalescence of settlements and the loss of important separation spaces.
Green Belt Assessment
The Stage 1 Green Belt Review which forms part of the evidence base underpinning the SWLP provides an assessment of selected parcels of land surrounding Hampton Magna (HMG1 – HMG5) and Warwick (WWK1 – WWK6). For the purposes of the assessment, the Respondent’s site falls within Parcel HMG4, which comprises land north and west of Old Budbrooke Road, west of church lane, adjacent to Hampton Magna. The assessment notes that: “The parcel makes a moderate contribution to two purposes, and no contribution to three purposes. Overall, the parcel makes a weak contribution to Green Belt purposes”.
As per the above, the parcel of land within which the Respondent’s site falls has been assessed as making no contribution to Green Belt purposes A, B and D. National planning policy contained within the National Planning Policy Framework sets out that “for the purposes of plan-making and decision-making, ‘grey-belt’ is defined as land in the Green Belt comprising previously developed land and / or any other land that, in either case, does not strongly contribute to any of purposes (a), (b) or (c) in paragraph 143. ‘Grey Belt’ excludes land where the application of the policies relating to the areas or assets in footnote 7 (other than Green Belt) would provide a strong reason for refusing or restricting development”.
Paragraph 148 of the NPPF is clear that “Where is it necessary to release Green Belt land for development, plans should give priority to previously developed land, then consider grey belt which is not previously developed land, and then other Green Belt locations”. On this basis, the Respondent’s Site represents a clear opportunity for development which should be prioritised over other Green Belt sites.
Additional Planning Practice Guidance published on 27 February 2025 sets out further guidance as to the identification of grey belt land in relation to the contribution that assessment areas make to Green Belt Purposes A, B and D. Critically, it is noted that all of these purposes relate to the consideration of towns rather than villages and would therefore not be considered applicable in the case of Hampton Magna as per the latest PPG
. In terms of the second part of the Grey Belt definition and the reference to footnote 7, the site is not restricted by any of the identified designations. On this basis, we would therefore consider that the Site could be identified as comprising as Grey Belt. It follows therefore that, subject to development of the Site not being found to fundamentally undermine the purposes of the remaining Green Belt across the plan area, development on the Site would be considered acceptable dependent on further considerations including the sustainability of its location (which has been rehearsed above) and accordance with the ‘Golden Rules’ as per the NPPF.
This section of the representations has sought to promote the site at Old Budbrooke Road for residential development, in line with the increasing housing need faced by the Councils and the critical requirement to find sustainable and accessible sites.
Importantly, the Site is considered to comprise potential Grey Belt land and a clear opportunity for Green Belt release in light of national planning policy and guidance.