Last week Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government ended months of waiting when he finally rejected the Coventry and Warwickshire Gateway proposal and refused planning permission for the scheme. The application provided for the construction of a technology park, a storage and logistics park and other buildings such as hotel accommodation and replacement airport buildings on 740 acres of land to the south of Coventry. Whilst straddling two local authority areas, the majority of the development was in Kenilworth and Southam.
The plans, which purported to create 10,000 jobs were unveiled in 2011 and have proven to be hugely controversial with over 1000 objections received by the local authority. I have expressed concerns about the governance of this application and scepticism about the future job numbers used to support it, but my main worry has centred on the development of 160 acres of Green Belt land in the area I represent. This could have resulted in one urban area stretching between Coventry and Bubbenhall, an amalgamation that has, to date been fiercely resisted and in my view for good reason. The impact of this development on the local surrounding communities would also have been very significant, including on the rural village of Baginton and its conservation area. The character of Bubbenhall and Stoneleigh, two other villages with conservation area status would have been damaged too.
In the absence of an agreed Local Plan, the number of enquiries I receive about planning applications on Green Belt land are numerous. Constituents are worried about our open spaces that seem to be increasingly under threat from speculative developers. The Government’s commitment to safeguarding the Green Belt remains strong and I think the Secretary of State’s decision to reject the Gateway application because it would give rise to substantial Green Belt harm, is a clear indication of the serious weight he attaches to the issue.