Plans to build 163 homes on site of old Coventry social club refused

[dutchman]

The bid was turned down by Coventry City Council for a range of reasons



A bid to build more than 160 homes on an old social club site in Coventry has been refused. The housing would have gone on the empty Highway Club site on Fletchamstead Highway.

Developers wanted to build three blocks of flats including 50 retirement flats, rows of terraced houses, and a cafe, providing 163 homes overall. The plans were re-submitted by Petra CV4 Limited in November after a previous application was not decided by the council or on appeal.

But a council officer said there were issues with the documents in the latest application, according to a report on the scheme. This, along with its overall design, would have resulted in sports and open space provision being lost without enough offsetting, a "contrived" layout and design and not enough consideration of its impact on the green environment, they said.

The officer concluded the development "remains unacceptable" despite a "tilted balance" in favour of approval. The plans were refused by the council last week (7 February.)

The club in Tile Hill appears to have been used until 2018 and had cricket and football pitches, bowling greens and netball courts, according to the officer's report. Losing sports facilities is a "significant" consideration, it added.

But the officer took issue with the justification given by developers for the loss of sports provision, calling it "fundamentally flawed." They pointed to a lack of a financial agreement with Sports England to offset the loss and a planned replacement pitch would be lower quality and for a school six miles away.

Another key issue was the access point to the site. Coventry City Council's highways team raised concerns it could lead to "potential conflict" with access for the Audi garage, the report said.

An audit with the plans also found four possible safety issues with it, the officer added. A lack of parking and cycle storage were also raised, along with a more general point about many details with the plans being out of date.

The council officer also hit out at the design of the scheme, saying it is "of a poor quality, which results in a contrived and awkward design and layout." Information on trees and the site's ecology was also lacking or out of date, the report added, and it noted objections from Sport England and the council's highways team.