Delays hit new town masterplan

DELAYS have hit a new version of the blueprint for all future housing across Nuneaton and Bedworth.

The borough council has admitted that it needs more time to look at preferred options draft version of a new Borough Plan, which it unveiled earlier this year.

The previous Borough Plan was highly contentious, most notably for having extra 4,000 homes, which are ‘overspill’ from neighbouring Coventry.

So a decision was made to re-look at it, create a new version and this was then put out to public consultation, with a view for it to being sent to an inspector as soon as possible.

However, the Town Hall has now said that this will not happen until August 2023, meaning the earliest the new plan could be adopted would be June 2024. The local authority says that the delay has come as a result of the feedback from the public consultation.

Both Sport England and English Heritage have raised objections to elements of the plan and these needs to be addressed before the plan can be put before the government inspector. Concerns have also been raised about how much employment land is needed in the borough and what is the right number of houses needed in the area to meet national targets.

In a statement, Councillor Richard Smith, planning and development cabinet member, explained why the timetable has been changed. “We very grateful for all the feedback we have received through this process,” he said.

“We said we wanted to hear the views in detail of local people, including other organisations and developers, and we were delighted to receive around 100 responses to the document we published in June setting out our ‘preferred options.’

“We heard from people who say we are allowing too many new homes as well as people who say we are not allowing enough. We have heard from businesses who want clarity about where investment is welcome and from residents concerned about important issues in their locality. We also have important matters from government that we need to resolve before we can go any further.

“As a result of all of this, officers have set out a revised timetable for the committee to consider. We will discuss this in the Borough Plan committee. We want the best possible future for our borough.

“The Borough Plan is an important document because it helps set the framework within which changes to the open space, roads, land and buildings in our borough can take place.”