BASE HEADER

Yes

ID sylw: 108310

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: CEG Land Promotion III (UK) Limited and Mixed Farms

Asiant : Nexus Planning

Yes – Stratford-upon-Avon lies within the Spatial Growth Priority Area as set out in Figure 5 and therefore as an
extension to it, SG19 would contribute to growth in a priority area.
One of the main benefits of this option is that it co-locates jobs and homes in sustainable locations, giving more
people the option of living close to their place of work. This reduces commute times and makes active travel
options more appealing, which can contribute to a more sustainable community.
In addition, the provision of housing in close proximity to and with good accessibility to Stratford-upon-Avon
town centre and the strategic growth proposed at Wellesbourne, through the opportunity to connect Banbury
Road to Wellesbourne Road, providing enhanced connectivity between the two routes would assist in capitalising
on the economic growth potential at Stratford-upon-Avon and Wellesbourne.
As set out within the Transport Note, the proposed ‘Movement Corridor’ will simplify journeys of all modes
towards Wellesbourne, where major growth is planned without adding further pressure to routes in Stratfordupon-
Avon town centre.
At Wellesbourne, only approximately 5km from the site, the University of Warwick propose an ‘innovation
campus’, comprising up to 280,000 sqm of laboratory, office and light industrial floorspace with ancillary
development, the outline planning application for the site was submitted in December 2024 and is supported by
an adopted Masterplan SPD. If approved, this development will generate:
 4,113 full time operational jobs
 1,748 part time operational jobs
 314 temporary jobs during the construction phase
 £1.34 billion of operational gross value added
In addition, at Wellesbourne Mountford Airfield, Gladman Developments Ltd have submitted an application for
aviation led development which would deliver general industrial, storage and distribution, commercial, research
and development and light industrial floorspace in addition to accommodation for airfield tenants. Overall,
165,000 sqm of employment floorspace is proposed and this would generate:
 Between 1,228 and 1,625 operational jobs
 217 temporary jobs during the construction phase
 Between £68.8 million and £91.1 million per year to the local economy
CEG and Mixed Farms’ proposed development for East of Stratford-upon-Avon would co-locate employment and
housing and would include a neighbourhood centre providing a school, convenience and community facilities,
mobility hub and potential for live/work community hubs supporting both the development and surrounding
villages.
At a local level, SG19 is located on the edge of the principal and most sustainable settlement in Stratford-on-Avon
District and benefits from easy access to a range of services and facilities. It is not subject to any landscape
designations, is located within Flood Zone 1 and does not contain any designated heritage assets.
The site is located adjacent to and north of the A422 Banbury Road and would form a natural extension to the
existing residential area to the east of Stratford-upon-Avon. It benefits from having direct frontage along the
A422 thus enabling a new junction to be accommodated to access the development which links into existing
footways.
A number of local facilities including Bridgetown Primary School, recreational pitches, convenience food stores
and pharmacies are in the immediate vicinity of the site. The town centre of Stratford-upon-Avon offering a
range of high street retailers, restaurants and leisure facilities is within 2km of the site. Local buses travel along
A422 Banbury Road as well as A4390 Trinity Way and local bus stops are within a comfortable walking distance
from the site along Banbury Road making public transport a genuine option for travel.
The site benefits from excellent pedestrian infrastructure with continuous footways on both sides of A422
Banbury Road into Stratford-upon-Avon. Similarly, both A422 Banbury Road and the A4390 Trinity Way provide
cycle infrastructure in the form of on-carriageway cycle lanes (A422) and a shared traffic-free cycleway/footway
on the norther side of the A4390. The shared route extends from the roundabout junction with A422 Banbury
Road to the immediate west of the site to the roundabout of the A4300/Severn Meadows Rd roundabout further
west. The site is therefore in a highly sustainable position that benefits from excellent public transport linkages.
Development at East of Stratford-upon-Avon would provide a significant level of market and affordable housing
and supporting community infrastructure. It would also help facilitate the delivery and provide financial
contributions towards the ERR. This would, in its own right, deliver significant social and economic benefits locally
and at the sub-regional level.
Given that the SWLP now has a remit of exploring strategic growth opportunities, it should comprehensively
consider the substantial benefits that can be delivered through large scale growth south east of Stratford-upon-
Avon, in particular supporting the delivery of an eastern relief road, a strategic piece of infrastructure, noting that
paragraph 11a of the NPPF states that plans should positively seek opportunities to meet the development needs
of their area.
Having regard to the above, CEG and Mixed Farms proposes to prepare a detailed Vision Document for the site,
which will be supported by a range of technical work to demonstrate how the site could successfully deliver a
residential-led mixed use development on the edge of the largest and most sustainable settlement in Stratfordon-
Avon District. At this stage, a ‘Site Constraints and Opportunities Plan and Conceptual Framework’ prepared
by Define is provided (see Appendix 2 to these representations) to outline how development of the site could
sustainably be delivered. This demonstrates that the site in CEG and Mixed Farms’ control can address site
specific considerations, comprising the following:
 Circa 1,200 market and affordable dwellings;
 Significant community infrastructure provision including a neighbourhood centre, primary school, sports
pitches, public parkland and biodiversity parkland;
 A genuinely landscape-led approach that mitigates any impact on the Alverston Hill vantage point and
important views;
 A substantial network of green infrastructure with green corridors that will provide opportunities for
sustainable travel and recreation. This will build upon a local neighbourhood concept;
 New movement corridors to help address existing traffic and associated environmental issues within
Stratford-upon-Avon itself and create strong, direct links with the economic growth aspirations at
Wellesbourne as identified within the SWLP and demonstrated through the recently submitted planning
applications as detailed above;
 Avoiding residential development within the safeguarded zone of the high-pressure gas pipeline; and
 Strong connectivity to Stratford-Upon-Avon through improved linkages along Banbury Road.
CEG and Mixed Farms would welcome the opportunity to discuss our proposals for the site in more detail, once
the Vision Document and associated technical work has been completed.
Interim Sustainability Appraisal
The site is assessed in the Interim Sustainability Appraisal of the South Warwickshire Local Plan (the “interim SA”)
alongside 23 other potential Strategic Growth Locations (“SGL”) considered as Reasonable Alternatives.
According to paragraph 5.1.1 of the Interim SA the SGLs are expected to meet a proportion of the identified
housing and employment needs for the SWLP period 2025-2050.
SG19 (East of Stratford-upon-Avon) is considered as a mixed-use site across 229.19 hectares (ha) and with an
estimated housing capacity of 5,469 dwellings. CEG and Mixed Farms represents the largest portion of SG19 and
is in single ownership with no legal restrictions which could affect development. To ensure that future
development is unencumbered by legal issues relating to equalisation and/or complex collaboration agreements
between landowners, the various ownership parcels of SG19 should be allocated individually for development,
rather than collectively under one allocation.
Of the 24 SGLs considered within the Interim SA, two (including SG19) are within Stratford-upon-Avon with the
other being SG18 (West of Stratford-upon-Avon). In addition, the Interim SA also considers a series of potential
New Settlement Locations (NSL), including ‘E1: Long Marston Airfield’ located approximately 2.3km south west of
the southern extent of SG19.
Section 4.2 of the SWLP outlines that a new settlement aims to deliver a new community capable of fulfilling
‘most of its day-to-day needs within the settlement itself, limiting the need to travel.’ Whilst CEG and Mixed
Farms acknowledge the potential benefits of a new settlement, which provides many of the services residents,
employees and visitors require, provision of a new settlement at Long Marston Airfield would not eliminate the
need for road connections to and from the settlement from the A46/M40 via Stratford-upon-Avon.
Indeed, the existing development at Long Marston Airfield, notwithstanding the proposal within the SWLP to
create a new settlement, requires additional highways infrastructure to be provided which is still not
forthcoming. Long Marston Airfield as allocated within the Stratford-on-Avon Core Strategy must deliver ‘a
connection to the strategic highway network (A46) at Wildmoor through the construction of a south-western
relief road between A3400 Shipston Road and B439 Evesham Road together with a road between B439 and A46
Alcester Road to be provided by others’.
Allocation of land at SG19, along with increasing the allocation at Long Marston Airfield to new settlement scale
would secure the land and funding to create a cohesive extension to the road network around the west, south
and east of Stratford-upon-Avon.
The Interim SA does not consider the Green Belt, outlining at paragraph 2.7.3 that a ‘policy off’ position is
adopted. Of the two SGL options within Stratford-upon-Avon, SG19 scored more favourably in the Interim SA,
outperforming SG18 in two categories (Flood Risk and Landscape), whilst it performed comparatively less
strongly with regard to Cultural Heritage. The two SGLs scored equally in ten of the objectives.
CEG and Mixed Farms consider that in further comparing the SGLs following the work of the Interim SA,
reference must be made back to the NPPF which sets out a sequential approach to the use of land for
development. As the SWLP accepts that there is insufficient brownfield land available to meet development
needs (and CEG and Mixed Farms acknowledge it is likely that some Green Belt land will need to be considered
for allocation) it is important that before assessing and allocating Green Belt land, sustainably located non-Green
Belt options should be considered first in line with the sequence as set out at paragraphs 145 to 147.
A significant part of SG18 to the north of Alcester Road / A46 lies within the Green Belt and is therefore
sequentially less preferable to accommodate development than SG19 which lies entirely outside of the Green
Belt.
Therefore, the site’s location outside the Green Belt, adjacent to a principal urban area, with the ability to
connect homes in Stratford-upon-Avon to jobs in Wellesbourne ensures that the benefits of delivering
development at SG19 outweigh those of SG18.
Looking more broadly, Table 5.2 of the Interim SA demonstrates that SG19 performs strongly in relation to Flood
Risk and Landscape in relation to many of the other SGLs. SG19 compares less strongly with other SGLs in relation
to Cultural Heritage and Biodiversity and is also considered likely to raise minor negative effects (although no
more so than many other SGLs) in relation to Landscape and Pollution. The detailed masterplanning of the layout,
design and landscaping of a scheme on land controlled by CEG and Mixed Farms in isolation ensure that impacts
can be suitably mitigated.
In considering the scoring of SG19 in regard to Biodiversity, it is noted that major negative effects are envisaged
on Local Wildlife Sites and Appendix B of the Interim SA at paragraph 4.6.3 outlines that this is generally the case
where substantial loss or degradation of the LWS is envisaged.
However, CEG and Mixed Farms’ land interest does not directly coincide with a LWS and it appears the major
negative effects are likely to be associated with the parcel of SG19 lying to the west of Banbury Road. CEG and
Mixed Farms’ parcel of SG19 can therefore come forward without negative effects on Biodiversity and nor is it
reliant on the parcel of SG19 to the west of Banbury Road – it can be delivered with or without this land.
The Site Constraints and Opportunities Plan and Conceptual Framework at Appendix 2 demonstrate how such
impacts could be mitigated against.
Based on the findings of the Interim SA, SG19 is the least constrained option for growth at Stratford-upon-Avon
and this is supported by CEG and Mixed Farms.