Testun llawn:
It has been submitted in representations under Policies DS6, DS7, DS19 and DS20 that further land is required to be allocated for housing. Nurton Developments and the Forrester Family wish to highlight the availability and suitability for development of land at Loes Farm, Warwick. This is a site measuring approximately 27.3ha, as shown in the attached plan.
Approximately 10ha of this site was allocated as a 'preferred option' for development of 180 dwellings in the May 2012 iteration of the draft Local Plan. However the site allocation was not pursued by the Council in the subsequent iteration of the draft Local Plan - the Revised Development Strategy (June 2013). The reasons given were that (1) updated landscape and transport evidence suggested that there is scope to locate development outside the Green Belt, therefore exceptional circumstances do not exist to release the land from the Green Belt; and (2) the potential impact upon heritage assets would be difficult to mitigate.
Given the additional need for housing, both to meet the district's Objectively Assessed Need over an appropriate plan period and the likely significant additional need to be accommodated from other districts, it is considered that exceptional circumstances do exist to justify removing further land from the Green Belt. Furthermore, as has been previously submitted in response to earlier consultation, the land at Loes Farm is suitable for the provision of housing, subject to an appropriate strategy to mitigate impact upon heritage assets.
The Council's own evidence in the Considerations for Sustainable Landscape Planning (2012) report set out a strategy to develop the site whilst having regard to heritage assets. This report considered the potential for a different and larger part of the 27.3ha site to be developed for housing. Therefore at various stages the Council has considered the potential for most of the land to be developed.
In response to previous consultation on the Revised Development Strategy (2013), Barlow Associates submitted a report on behalf of the Forrester Family, prepared by Pleydell Smithyman, which considered the Landscape, Visual and Heritage setting of the site further and put forward a conceptual diagram illustrating how the development of the whole site could be pursued with appropriate landscape mitigation and enhancement. Nurton Developments and the Forrester Family intend to commission further evidence to demonstrate that the site could be developed without significant harm to heritage assets; indeed there is an opportunity to enhance the setting of heritage assets.
The Council's Joint Green Belt Review (2009) also identified the site at Loes Farm as one of the few 'least constrained' parcels of Green Belt land in the district. This lends support for the site to be considered as a high priority for development to meet the increased OAN. It is considered that the site should be removed from the Green Belt and allocated for residential development, or at the very least the site should be safeguarded to make provision for housing in response to a review of the Local Plan.