BASE HEADER

Yes

ID sylw: 108118

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Catesby Estates Ltd

Asiant : Pegasus Group

Catesby Estates are supportive of a Green Belt review to support the South Warwickshire Local Plan.
Much of South Warwickshire is within the Green Belt, and without Green Belt sites, Stratford and Warwick would be unlikely to meet their housing need; Paragraph 146 of the NPPF states that exceptional circumstances can include instances where an authority cannot meet its identified need for homes through other means, on land outside of the Green Belt.
The December 2024 NPPF introduced significant changes to national Green Belt policy.
The Green Belt policy in the SWLP Part 1 will need to make reference to grey belt to ensure that it is consistent with the NPPF, as required by Paragraph 36. This is also recommended by the SA, at paragraph 3.7.6 in Appendix E.
The draft Policy Direction suggests that areas of land may also be safeguarded to meet longer-term needs. This is supported, and would align with Paragraph 149(c) of the NPPF, which encourages this where necessary. Such land may be set aside to meet the future needs of the South Warwickshire authorities, or those in the two Housing Market Areas they fall within, with new Green Belt boundaries created which endure in the long term as required by Paragraph 145 of the NPPF; as highlighted elsewhere in these representations, further discussions and evidence-gathering is required in order to ascertain the level of unmet need which may need to be accommodated on such sites. It must be emphasised that ‘safeguarded land’ would need to be in addition to the ‘reserve sites’ referenced in Policy Direction 4, which would be meeting the shorter-term neighbouring authorities over the plan period, not beyond it.
Catesby land interests within Strategic Grown Area SG04 are all within the Green Belt. The Green Belt is tightly drawn around, and indeed, washes over, a number of existing settlements across the Plan area. In proposing, assessing and identifying sites for development, where the most sustainable forms of development will require the inclusion of land around existing settlements. It would be somewhat nonsensical to not undertake a Green Belt boundary review as this would result in isolated development beyond the extent of the Green Belt, which cannot be a sustainable strategy. A Green Belt boundary review and identification of land within the Green Belt for development is therefore supported. 4.38. It is also considered that Catesby Estates’ land interests could constitute grey belt land that could be suitable for development in accordance with the tests for grey belt defined in the NPPF (December 2024). The South Warwickshire Local Plan Green Belt Review Stage 1 document supporting the draft Plan has considered Catesby land interests as specific sites KEN8 and KEN9. In terms of purposes a, b and d of including land in the Green Belt both areas made at best a weak contribution to purpose b (KEN9). The parcels should then be considered further in terms of their potential to deliver development on grey belt sites. This is discussed further in Section 11.