PLAN FOR HUNDREDS OF NEW HOMES IN TOWN

VILLAGE-SIZED DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION ON LAND NEAR OLD STERLING METALS FOUNDRY

A VILLAGE-sized development could be created off a main route in Nuneaton.

Sterling Gate would comprise 575 houses, including a mixed use neighbourhood centre, public open space, footpaths, cycleways, water attenuation basins and associated infrastructure, including realignment of Gipsy Lane.

The application for the housing development off Maple Park has been submitted to Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and boasts a massive 28 documents, outlining the plans.

Its name is a nod to the former Sterling Metals foundry, on which the Maple Park estate now lies, as well as its location at an important gateway to Nuneaton from the south.

Within the design and planning statement, it states is mission is:

To deliver a residential-led sustainable urban extension to Nuneaton, helping to meet the town’s housing needs and to foster its prosperity on a site entirely suitable for large scale development.

To integrate the development effectively with the town, in particular by connecting with the existing high quality pedestrian and cycle routes along the canal towpath and the WemBrook Trail. To connect the development appropriately to the recently opened Bermuda Park railway station.

Within the development will be a “neighbourhood centre” which, according to the plans, will be prominent from Gipsy Lane, “thereby attracting custom to its potential local retail outlets”, and would boast appropriate parking space.

The design statement goes on to add: “The development would be served by two vehicular accesses on Gipsy Lane which would be overlooked by residential properties and the neighbourhood centre, resulting in a high level of natural surveillance. The MUGA (multiuse games area), children’s play area and the proposed movement routes through the site would also be well surveilled by active residential frontages. The detailed design of the development, including in particular boundary treatments and lighting design, would take full account of crime prevention principles.” Public open space extending to some 8.74 hectares and would include parkland, retained and new wildlife habitats, a MUGA, a children’s play area and potentially allotments if so required or desired. In terms of road and accessing the new development, the plan explains: “A primary route looping through the development between two proposed vehicular access points on Gipsy Lane, an east-west pedestrian and cycle route set within a green corridor linking the canal towpath and Marston Lane Meadows.”

Town Hall planners say that the target decision date for the application, submitted by Trenport Investments Limited, is October 30. It is not the first time that an application has been submitted for the section of land off Gipsy Lane.

In April 2014, plans to build up to 575 houses and a new neighbourhood centre on land north of Gipsy Lane and the west of Marston Lane were refused by members of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council’s planning committee. Anyone who would like details on the latest application or to have their say should log on to www.nuneatonandbedworth.gov.uk and search for application 035037 in the planning application section.

The development would be served by two vehicular accesses on Gipsy Lane which would be overlooked by residential properties.