Coventry green spaces threatened by 20,000 new homes target

[dutchman]

Coventry council is set to be forced to allow the building of double the number of homes it wanted.



The new figures of between 21,000 and 24,000 homes by 2031 come after intervention from a government planning inspector.

Coventry City Council's Labour leaders had hoped to set a housing target of just 11,000 homes - after an election pledge that they would protect all green belt and green fields from housebuilding.

That plan was a third of the 33,000 target for Coventry and bordering land set under the last Tory council and Labour government prior to 2010 - based on national and regional targets.

But a planning inspector earlier this year ruled the council's 11,000 target was too low, and could unfairly disproportionately force more housebuilding in neighbouring council areas, including Warwickshire.

The new figures released today follow a joint study by councils in Coventry, Warwickshire and Solihull - which was ordered by the planning inspector.

They are set to inform the new "Core Strategy" local plan, which will set Coventry's housing targets for the next two decades.

The previous core strategy before 2010 planned 26,500 homes for the city and 33,000 once neighbouring land was included.

The plans included controversial plans to build hundreds of homes of green belt in Keresley, King's Hill near Finham and on land in Bedworth - prompting protests from residents.

Developers are eyeing up the land in Keresley once again, and have made a speculative application to Coventry's planning department.

The last local plan for the city has now expired, giving the council less legal power to reject development on the green belt.

Councillor Kevin Maton, chairman of Coventry City Council's planning committee, insisted the council could still protect all green fields under the new proposals.

He said: "We don't want to become a commuter city. Green space in crucial."

Defending the previous target of 11,000 homes, he said: "It was based on population and the amount of employment we could expect in Coventry."

[rebbonk]

Perhaps these houses could be built on the useless 'civic patios' that our hopeless council seem so keen on?