Other

ID sylw: 106629

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Mac Mic Group

Asiant : McLoughlin Planning

A comprehensive summary of the Site’s constraints and opportunities is set out in the accompanying Vision Document, which was previously provided in support of Representations submitted in respect of the Issues and Options consultation in March 2023. Whilst we do not intend to repeat in detail the details of the Vision Document, it is relevant to the Representations contained herein that this document demonstrates that the Site is both free from significant environmental constraint and visually generally well contained due to a combination of the surrounding mature vegetation and undulating topography.
it is considered that the Site to the south offers a more appropriate and logical opportunity for residential-led development, responding to the context of Henley-in Arden, including its heritage assets and allowing the delivery of a significant number of homes to respond to housing need. The Site to the south is more easily accessible from the existing settlement of Henley-in-Arden, offering a highly sustainable opportunity for development.
Furthermore, we are concerned that the delineation of the priority areas insofar as they relate to land to the north of Henley-in-Arden serve to artificially emphasise the positive attributes of Site SG23. This approach is, in our view, misleading and inappropriate.

Yes

ID sylw: 107193

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Mac Mic Group

Asiant : McLoughlin Planning

We support the identified Strategic Objectives at Section 3.2 of the PO Consultation. In particular, we support the identification of the delivery of homes to meet community needs at Strategic Objective 2. It is abundantly clear that housing delivery is of upmost importance to the Government, with the Deputy Prime Minister pointing to our being “in the middle of the most acute housing crisis in living memory”.

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.

No

ID sylw: 107199

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Mac Mic Group

Asiant : McLoughlin Planning

We do not support the inclusion of Table 2 within the draft SWLP, given that this sets out the housing calculation using the HEDNA method.
Table 3 (Housing calculation 2024 NPPF standard method) identifies a total housing need across the plan period of 54,700 for South Warwickshire, with assumed windfall allowance across the plan period contributing 9,375 to this figure, or 17.1% of the total need.
The reliance on windfall provision is even more marked when looking at Stratford-on-Avon in isolation, which has a housing need of 28,150 units over the plan period (as per the 2024 NPPF standard method) and an assumed windfall allowance of 6,850 or 24.3%.
Such an overreliance on windfall provision is simply unacceptable and would render the SWLP unsound.
Paragraph 15 of the NPPF requires the planning system to be ‘genuinely plan-led’. Leaving almost one quarter of housing land supply to future speculative development is not plan-led. As such, additional allocations are required to respond to housing need.

Other

ID sylw: 107200

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Mac Mic Group

Asiant : McLoughlin Planning

The Respondent does not intrinsically object to the inclusion of new settlements in the overall growth strategy as they can be an effective way, at least in theory, of delivering new housing where there are barriers to the sustainable delivery of sufficient housing elsewhere. However, in reality, the physical implementation of new settlements is often complex and costly, which can significantly hamper their delivery. The Respondent would therefore caution against over reliance on new settlements in the preferred growth strategy as this could render much of the Plan undeliverable and therefore, unsound.
We are of the view that the growth of existing settlements should be prioritised within the overall growth strategy for South Warwickshire, as opposed to the delivery of new settlements.

Yes

ID sylw: 107201

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Mac Mic Group

Asiant : McLoughlin Planning

We fully support the need for the SWLP to contribute to meeting unmet housing need from neighbouring authorities. In our view, sustainable sites, including the site off Station Road, Bishops Itchington, are likely to be very well placed to respond to such need, particularly where those sites are located in close proximity to key transport nodes.

Other

ID sylw: 107202

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Mac Mic Group

Asiant : McLoughlin Planning

Site Ref ID: 493
It is considered that the Site to the south offers a more appropriate and logical opportunity for residential-led development than proximate Potential New Settlements and Strategic Growth Locations, responding to the context of Bishop’s Itchington, allowing the delivery of a significant number of homes to respond to housing need and supporting an existing rural community in line with national planning policy.