Local plan review FAQs

What is the Preferred Option Consultation Document?

The Preferred Option Consultation Document sets out the development strategy and draft policies that are considered to present the best available option/combination to meet the plan objectives.  It draws upon the feedback provided to the ‘Issues and Options’ stage, where we identified key planning issues, and options for how they could be addressed.

The current consultation seeks your views on the preferred option, including the overall development strategy (see below for further information), draft policies, and proposed allocations.   

How can I have my say on the Preferred Option Consultation Document?

There is an online survey available on the webpage (rugby.gov.uk/localplan), and we encourage you to use this method to respond to the consultation.  

You can also respond by:
1)    email to localplan@rugby.gov.uk with ‘Preferred Option Consultation’ in the subject line, or

2)    by post to:
Preferred Option Consultation,
Development Strategy Team,
Town Hall,
Evreux Way
Rugby
CV21 2RR

If you choose to reply by email or post, please state explicitly which paragraph or policy your comments refer to, in order that we can fully understand and consider them.

Can I comment on an issue/topic not covered in the consultation?

Absolutely.  We are keen to hear of any issues you think we may have overlooked. 

What will happen to my response to this consultation?

Each representation will be read and carefully considered.  A summary of the feedback and how we are responding to comments will be published after the consultation.

Consultation responses will be made available for public inspection.  To view the council’s development strategy privacy notice please visit:
https://rugby.gov.uk/w/privacy#development-strategy
 

What is a development strategy?

A development strategy is the overarching strategy for achieving the vision and objectives of the plan.  It considers where new development of different types should be delivered.

What is the preferred development strategy?

Housing

Much of the housing needed for the new plan period up to 2045 already has planning permission or was allocated in the 2019 plan. This includes new homes at Houlton, South West Rugby and Eden Park. 

Additional land is needed for around a further 3500 homes.  The preferred strategy is to disperse these additional homes around the borough. Some are proposed on the edge of Rugby and others at ‘main rural settlements’/larger villages with existing facilities and services such as schools, shops, and businesses.  

The new housing we need to deliver will generate a requirement for an additional new secondary school.  A site has been identified in the northeast of Rugby to create a new secondary school.

Employment

The preferred option development strategy for employment can be summarised as:
•    To change land allocated at Coton Park for housing to employment uses
•    To deliver a research and development focused employment offer as an expansion to Ansty Park
•    To allocate the remaining land within the South West Rugby urban extension for employment use
•    To deliver employment uses and a new country park at Ryton-on-Dunsmore
•    To include the Frasers Campus which was recently granted planning permission

Why is this the preferred development strategy?

We think this is the best approach for additional new housing (i.e housing that does not already have planning permission and is not already allocated in the 2019 local plan) because:
•    It will support existing and improved local facilities and services, such as schools, shops and open spaces
•    It will provide homes in a wider range of locations for existing and future residents and will deliver more affordable housing
•    Smaller scale sites around the borough are likely to be built more quickly than larger sites, while creating opportunities for smaller and medium-sized builders  

We think this is the best approach for new employment land because:
•    The sites offer a range of employment types
•    Sites are generally well related to Rugby and Coventry where the potential workforce is concentrated

What other development strategies have been considered?

In reaching our preferred option plan, we have looked at two key alternative strategies for housing (based on land put forward to us):
•    A new settlement at Lodge Farm, south of Dunchurch and straddling the A45
•    Large scale expansion near Newbold-on-Avon, Rugby

Key reasons that we do not prefer these options are:
•    The potential impact on existing infrastructure, particularly (but not exclusively) the highway network
•    The known challenges of delivering schemes of this scale 

What about the infrastructure needed as part of the development strategy?

The development strategy has been developed taking into account evidence available with regard to existing infrastructure capacity.  The strategy seeks to locate new housing in areas where existing infrastructure can be supported or improved.

Advice received from Warwickshire County Council was that allocations would need to deliver a new secondary school to meet future anticipated needs, and this school should be located in the north of Rugby.  A draft allocation is included for this.

The scale of new housing proposed at villages has been limited to the projected future capacity of the village primary school, as advised by Warwickshire County Council. The potential to expand primary schools was also considered.  The largest rural allocations are proposed to be at Wolvey, Brinklow and Long Lawford because of the potential for the primary schools serving these villages to expand or accommodate additional spaces.

What is a call for sites?

A ‘call for sites’ gives landowners and agents the opportunity to let us know that they are interested in having some or all of their land considered for development or redevelopment. This is important to the plan making process as we need to identify land to tackle some of the issues we have highlighted before.

We ran a ‘call for sites’ alongside the ‘issues and options consultation’. All sites received, plus others identified by officers from other sources (as set out in the Planning Practice Guidance) have been assessed and considered – see below. 

How have submitted sites been considered?

261 sites were considered as part of the Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) which is published alongside the consultation.
 
Following the HELAA process - which eliminated sites that already have planning permission, are too small, are not available, or are subject to “showstopper” constraints - the number of sites under consideration was reduced to 112 potentially suitable sites.
 
These 112 sites were visited by officers and subject to more detailed transport, landscape, ecology, heritage and infrastructure analysis drawing on advice from Warwickshire County Council and external advisers. This process led to a shorter list of potential site options.

How have the proposed allocation sites been selected?

Following the assessment process outlined above, the final list of potential site options was then used to identify options for growth scenarios. The reasonable alternative growth scenarios are detailed in the Sustainability Appraisal report which is be published alongside the Preferred Option Consultation Document.

The proposed allocations are the sites we think best support the plan objectives and preferred development strategy.

Why is more housing not proposed on brownfield/previously developed land?

The use of brownfield land is given substantial weight in the National Planning Policy Framework, which encourages “..as much use as possible of previously developed or brownfield land” (paragraph 124).

The Preferred Option strategy does incorporate some brownfield housing allocations, such as two within the town centre boundary (see interactive map). However, there are not sufficient brownfield sites (based on the site assessment and selection outlined above) available to accommodate the amount of housing we must plan for up to 2045.

Why are sites in the Green Belt identified for housing allocations?

National policy advises that Green Belt boundaries should only be altered where exceptional circumstances are fully evidenced and justified. 

For housing, there were a relatively limited number of reasonable site options put forward/identified that could in combination deliver the necessary number of new homes. Advice received from Warwickshire County Council was that site allocations would need to be able to deliver a new secondary school to meet anticipated future needs. That school should be in the north of Rugby.

It would be possible to deliver the necessary additional housing land outside of the Green Belt if land promoted at Lodge Farm between Dunchurch and Daventry, which could deliver 2,680 homes overall with an estimated 1,800-2,000 by 2045, were to be allocated. This option is not favoured because of concerns about deliverability, infrastructure and risk that arises from allocating another large strategic site to meet the bulk of the residual housing need. It is also not favoured because it would not deliver a secondary school in north Rugby.

Furthermore, a pattern of concentrating housing on a further very large site, with no more housing allocated in the borough’s main rural settlements except for the non-Green Belt villages of Clifton upon Dunsmore and Dunchurch does not represent a sustainable pattern of development.

Overall, in combination these factors constitute exceptional circumstances which justify alterations to Green Belt boundaries.  

Why are sites in the Green Belt identified for employment allocations?

Site options were put forward which could deliver the requisite employment land without the need to release Green Belt land. In particular, land on the A5 north of Houlton, land accessed from the A5 opposite Magna Park and land around Thurlaston. 
 
Nonetheless exceptional circumstances are considered to exist justifying Green Belt release for the following reasons:
 
1)    The need for strategic employment land is regional in nature. The functional economic market area (FEMA) in which Rugby Borough lies is centred on Coventry, as detailed in the Housing and Economic Development Needs Assessment (HEDNA) 2022. Coventry is the largest population and economic centre in the FEMA and so provides the deepest labour pool. Coventry City Council itself, because of land constraints, is only able to allocate one strategic employment site for 25ha. Absent of Green Belt constraints, a sustainable approach would allocate employment land close to Coventry as the main population and economic centre in the FEMA. By contrast, avoiding the Green Belt would necessitate only allocations which would be distant from Coventry and its labour force. This does not represent a sustainable approach.
 
2)    The existing site at Ansty Park and the cluster of sites at Prologis Park Ryton, Middlemarch Industrial Estate, Coventry Gateway and Coventry Airport comprise regionally important mixed R&D, industrial and distribution locations. Allocating for expansion here has clustering and agglomeration benefits which would support more higher-skilled jobs and expansion in high value-added industries. These conditions are not replicable in more distribution-focussed locations along the A5 north of Rugby. 
 
3)    The site at Ryton could deliver a 55ha country park which is contiguous with the existing country park west of the Avon and would also link with Ryton Pools Country Park. No other site opportunity can deliver habitat creation on this scale. This supports the Corporate Strategy objective for a greener Rugby.
 
Changes to Green Belt boundaries are also proposed to remove the existing Ansty Park and Prologis Park, Ryton-on-Dunsmore from the Green Belt, for consistency.
 

Will an adopted neighbourhood plan need to be updated once the new local plan is in place?

There will not be a requirement to do so. However, if neighbourhood plan policies conflict with updated local plan policies they may become out of date for a neighbourhood plan area if they were adopted before the revised local plan is adopted. Where this is the case, the most recent adopted plan takes precedence. This would not necessarily mean that the whole of the neighbourhood plan is out of date but may impact specific policies that are superseded by local plan policies.

Can a new neighbourhood plan come forward during the local plan process?

A new neighbourhood plan can be developed during the preparation of the new local plan.  It is important that we work together closely with neighbourhood planning groups to ensure that there are no conflicts between neighbourhood plan policies and updated or additional policies in the revised local plan.

Existing neighbourhood plans could also be updated.
 

After the Preferred Options Consultation, we will review all the feedback we receive and consider what modifications to make to the draft plan.

The anticipated timescales for the remainder of the plan-making process are set out in the Local Development Scheme.