Council ‘leak’ angers Gateway campaigners

Suspicions have been aroused that council officials have already decided to approve plans for a major development around Coventry Airport, following the accidental publication of a document.



Campaigners against an application for a network of highways on green belt land near the Baginton-based airport are furious after spotting a paper on Warwick District Council’s website in which planning officers appear to recommend that the plan should be approved - despite the fact that the period for people to submit their views on the proposal has not yet ended.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Development Partnership, a joint venture between the airport’s owners Rigby Family Holdings and Roxhill Properties, put forward the proposal in September, stating that the highways would support a technology and distribution park - which they say will create 14,000 jobs.

Stoneleigh villager Diane Francis, who read the document - which was published on and then removed from the council’s website last Thursday - said: “A lot of people are very concerned. Coventry City Council is obviously going to say yes to this because it will get a lot of money. It seems as if Warwick District Council feels that it has got to say yes because Coventry is going to.

“Officials are saying that it should be approved - but we are supposed to have until November 23 to submit our views. It’s just awful.”

Rod Wheat, who also lives in Stoneleigh and is among campaigners from villages around the site who are against the proposal, said: “I have asked the council if there is another report that recommends that the proposal is refused. If not, the only conclusion you can reach is that they have already decided what to do, which would be pretty horrendous.”

Philip Clarke, senior projects co-ordinator at Warwick District Council; “The report was a very early draft and the text within the recommendation section was standard text in the template that was used. This has no bearing on the council’s assessment of the application, which will not be completed until at least late November, when a full report is scheduled to be completed for the committee meeting on December 18. Only then will the recommendation be decided.”

Gateway scheme deferred by Warwick District Council



WARWICK District Council planning committee last night voiced major concerns and deferred a decision over controversial plans for up to 14,000 jobs mainly on green belt around Coventry Airport.

Its ten-strong planning committee of councillors was split after being invited by officers to approve the parts of the £250million project within Warwickshire’s boundary.

Deliberations continued late into the night after more than four hours. It eventually decided more information was needed to make a decision.

Planning committee chairman George Illingworth said there was enough suitable employment land already designated in Coventry and Warwick district, and the plan clearly contravened government green belt policy.

More than 150 objectors, many crammed into an overflow room at Leamington town hall, cheered loudly as opponents of airport owner Sir Peter Rigby’s plans described them as a “five-card trick” and a “Trojan horse for airport development.”

Those claims came from Richard Hancocks, of Stoneleigh and Ashow joint parish councils, who questioned why the plans included an “airport hotel” - despite developers’ claims the manufacturing and logistics park is not directly linked to airport expansion.

He called for the “rushed” planning application to be shelved until the airport gave details of plans for increased flights.

Last night’s discussion followed planning approval granted last week from Coventry’s planners for the part of the “Coventry and Warwickshire Gateway” scheme within the city’s boundary.

The application attracted more than 770 objections, and could still be taken to a lengthy planning inquiry by the government.

Tracey Darke, a planning officer for both councils whose leaders support the scheme, said council-hired consultants backed the applicants’ claims for up to 14,000 jobs - including 4,000 at nearby Whitley Jaguar business park; and 4,000 manufacturing jobs and 6,000 warehouse/logistics jobs by the airport.

She was challenged by Mr Illingworth, who said the consultants report was anything but independent, and only concluded there was the “capacity” to create those jobs.

She said: “The green belt should be protected unless there are very special circumstances, but officers feel this is a very exciting project coming forward in very difficult economic times.”

Protesting parish councils at Bubbenhall and Baginton, and Kenilworth and Southam Tory MP Jeremy Wright, have questioned the jobs figures.

The committee heard from ex-Warwick University economist Alan Roe, whose report accuses developers of producing “politically seductive” jobs figures “lacking credibility” to obtain green belt land.

National planning policy forces councils to only allow otherwise inappropriate building on green belt in “very special circumstances”.

Mr Roe said planning officers routinely got job forecasts wrong. He said even the council consultants’ report accepted “inherent uncertainty”, and that they would not all be new jobs - with firms relocating from within Coventry and Warwickshire.

He added: “Nobody has checked to see if it (the scheme) is financially viable.”

He said the jobs figures were “supply side” estimates, and pointed to nearby Whitley business park’s failure to demonstrate demand for the thousands of technology jobs predicted 10 years ago.

Objectors also say more suitable brownfield sites such as Ansty Park and Ryton are already available.

Planners insist the Gateway could complement such sites, on south Warwickshire land attractive to investors.

Baginton Parish Council objected on the grounds of noise and pollution to its “ancient rural village”.

Gateway plan gets go-ahead



A £250million plan for thousands of jobs on green belt around Coventry Airport finally won planning permission last night.

But the row over the controversial Coventry and Warwickshire Gateway scheme advanced by airport tycoon owner Sir Peter Rigby is set to rumble on – possibly at a public inquiry.

Communities secretary Eric Pickles will decide whether to call in the application for determination after Warwick District Council planning committee’s approval.

It follows Coventry City Council planners’ backing in December.

Last night’s vote by seven votes to three comes after Warwick district’s planning committee in December was split, and voted to defer a decision pending more information on developers and council officers’ claims it could create “up to 14,000” manufacturing and logistics/warehousing jobs.

A new independent report by G.L. Hearn found it could create a maximum of 6,370 around the airport.

Opposing councillors in December had argued more suitable brownfields sites were available, and the scheme contravened national planning policy that green belt should only be developed in “very special circumstances”.

The full council last month removed three councillors who voted against the Gateway in December, on the recommendations of party leaders including pro-Gateway Conservative council leader Michael Doody.

Richard Hancocks, of Stoneleigh and Ashow Parish Council - among 900 objectors – told the committee the public would not easily forgive “Machiavellian practices”.

He added: “The planning committee of December should have been left in place. It’s akin to changing members of a jury half-way through a trial.”

He said new members had been given just three weeks to read thousands of documents.

He added: “It is an impossible task, and the secretary of state and/or a judicial review would agree.”

He said the development was a “trojan horse” for airport expansion which could include a return to commercial passenger flights.

Joan Shattock, of Bubbenhall Parish Council, said the independent report concluded there was no “synergy” or connection between the separately located manufacturing park and logistics/warehouse park – which could each fit on brownfield sites.

Opponents also claimed promised high jobs numbers had never materialised at other large sites such as Ansty park, arguing they were typically calculated on “flawed methodology” assessing potential use of space, not actual demand.

For the developers, John Holmes argued there were “very special circumstances” for using green belt, included “prevailing economic circumstances” which had particularly hit the West Midlands region.

He said there was a particular need for engineering and manufacturing to support supply chain jobs.

Mr Holmes added £30million investment in local road junctions to support the scheme would also “unlock” delayed development at nearby Jaguar Whitley Business Park.