Warwick District Council puts case for lengthy local plan suspension
Warwick District Council has spelled out its case for suspending examination of its local plan until May 2016 and is waiting to hear if the inspector considering the strategy is going to accept the arguments.
The inspector is on record as agreeing that “a suspension of the examination may be an appropriate way forward” but he has also made it clear he has reservations over the scale of additional site allocations required, the extent of change to the submitted plan and the realism over the timescales needed to carry out the additional work.
In a letter signed by councillor Andrew Mobbs, leader of the planning authority, Warwick points out it has signed the memorandum of understanding with its neighbouring authorities over the portion of Coventry’s unmet need Warwick will attempt to accommodate.
Warwick has also told the inspector that its officers estimate it needs to allocate land for approximately 5,200 additional dwellings over and above the submitted local plan allocations.
The letter insisted: “It is our intention to allocate sites. The process for doing this is already well under way.”
It added: “Whilst it is still too early to provide information on any specific site options, officers are looking at the potential of further green belt releases in the vicinity of Coventry as a way of providing at least some of the additional land that needs to be allocated.
“We are of the view that such an approach, if applied carefully, will be consistent with the local plan strategy.”
Roger Milne
Planning Portal Blog 
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