Warwick District Council and Stratford upon Avon District Council have come together to produce a South Warwickshire Plan that manages development proposals in the area, up until 2050, in a sustainable way. This means building more homes and providing more land for employment. It also means addressing issues around infrastructure and tackling climate change. The Plan has to be submitted to the Secretary of State by September 2026 and finally be adopted by the end of 2027.
As part of the process, residents, businesses and other stakeholders are now invited to have their say on the Preferred Options version of the Plan. This consultation opened on January 8th and will run until March 7th. Physical copies of the document are available at all libraries in the Districts and on-line at:-www.southwarwickshire.org.uk/swlp/preferred-options, where you can also make your comments on-line.
Remaining opportunities in February to get involved in the consultation process are as follows:
- Saturday 8th February from 10am – 3.30pm “face-to-face” in Warwick Library.
- Wednesday 12th February an on-line Teams webinar 10am – 12pm.
- Saturday 15th February from 10am – 4pm “face-to-face” at the Maybird Shopping Park.
- Monday 24th February an on-line Teams webinar 6pm – 7.30pm
The Preferred Options document identifies 12 potential New Settlement locations, (from some 736 sites which were submitted for inclusion in the Plan), where the councils consider large-scale strategic growth may be located and large enough to provide facilities to maximise internal traffic movement. The Plan identifies a housing need of some 28000 houses, in addition to existing commitments, in the South Warwickshire area.
Land at Hatton, just North of Norton Lindsey Parish, in the ownership of the Arkwright family, is ranked as the second most sustainable of the of the 12 sites identified as a potential New Settlement. The area is bordered by Hatton Station to the west, Birmingham Road to the north, Hatton Country World to the east and the M6 to the south – see the area marked as B1 on the map below. To put this into context, the site could accommodate 8000 new dwellings and require 4 new primary schools and 1 new secondary school. This would mean a population of 19k – compare this with Warwick (37k), Leamington (51k) and Stratford (30k). Development would not be expected until 2037.
There is another potential New Settlement location on land either side of the Birmingham road from Stratford to Henley, joining the villages of Bearley and Wilmcote- see map BW below. Like the Hatton site, both locations are attractive for sustainability due to their proximity to rail stations.
You can comment on either of these two proposed developments at https://southwarwickshire.oc2.uk/document/148/4584#d4596
Norton Lindsey Parish Council is aware, in particular, of the road infrastructure and traffic implications for the village e.g. Lower Norton, Dark Lane, the junction with the Henley road and the likelihood of traffic using Norton Lindsey to access surrounding villages and Stratford itself. Representations will be made on behalf of residents, but if anyone has any comments they wish to make, please make use of the online consultation or speak to any parish Councillor.
Useful Links
- South Warwickshire Local Plan
- South Warwickshire Local Plan – Preferred Options Consultation launched
- Interactive map published for SWLP Preferred Options Consultation
- Preferred Options Consultation
Potential New Settlement Location – B1 – Land At Hatton
Potential New Settlement Location – BW – Land at Bearley and Wilmcote
