Last week we reported on the controversial plan to bring forward a site at Pinkett’s Booth for employment use. This article explains the background to the issue.
The Coventry Local Plan Inquiry and a current planning application have identified a threat to Coventry’s economy – a shortage of land for local economic development, and an immediate threat to our current supply of land for jobs.
A shortage of land for job-creation?
The draft Coventry Local Plan and the Inquiry into it have revealed a worrying situation.
The Coventry Local Plan 2021-41 has been unable – in written word and in discussion at the Local Plan inquiry – to identify sufficient land for its assessed local employment needs. As a result, the Council is reliant on surrounding Warwickshire councils designating and providing employment land to meet some of Coventry’s needs.
The Local Authorities in the Coventry and Warwickshire sub-region have been working together using external consultants to decide how many new homes are needed, and how much new employment land is required to meet employment and economic growth in the sub-region. This work indicates that Coventry’s new Local Plan 2021-41 should deliver a total of 189ha of new land for employment. This is made up of 84ha towards the Coventry and Warwickshire area’s needs on strategic sites for large-scale logistics/distribution uses and a minimum 105 hectares of new employment land to meet Coventry’s own general, local employment needs to 2041. In response Coventry’s proposed draft Local Plan 2021-41 while meeting the strategic site needs, says it can only identify 60 hectares of new local employment land in the city as opposed to the ‘minimum’ 105 ha., an immediate shortfall of 45 ha. It has suggested that sites in adjacent Warwickshire can meet some of the shortfall.
Also, two sites additional to the draft Local Plan proposals have been made to ‘meet the gap’ in local employment land provision. These are a City Council proposal for a further 25 ha. of employment land at Baginton Fields (north of the A45 including JLR land and King Henry VIII playing fields) while developers have proposed 20ha of land north of the A45 and west of Brickhill Lane (near Pinkett’s Booth).
These two sites were the subject of debate at the Local Plan Inquiry hearing on 9 June. The suggestion that Baginton Fields could deliver the 25 ha. was roundly challenged by local residents. Similarly, at the same inquiry on 9 June the Pinkett’s Booth site was challenged by the CPRE and a objector on Green Belt grounds, the site being part of the long-established Meriden Gap, to preserve the separation of Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry, as well as a lack of any previous public consultation.
Thus there is considerable doubt as to whether the City Council has a sufficiency of local employment land to meet its assessed employment needs to 2041. The Inquiry inspectors will pronounce on this in their recommendations later this year.
A threat to current employment land?
A current planning application, for 100 houses on the site of the E.ON offices and car park at Westwood Business Park brings this issue of land available for local employment firmly into the present. The Westwood Business Park was developed as Coventry’s premier business park in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s attracting many businesses and their jobs from London and significantly strengthening the city’s economy. This included E.ON. In recent years the Park’s premier status has been diminished by the City Council’s granting of planning permission for a series of student housing projects serving the adjacent Warwick University and replacing business premises.
The E.ON premises are currently vacant. A developer wishes to demolish them and replace them with 100 houses. The Coventry Society has objected to the application on four grounds.
Firstly, that there is no need for these houses. The Council’s own analysis for the Coventry Local Plan 2021-41 identifies land to deliver 29,100 homes by 2041. The application site (E.ON site) is not one of the many dozens of sites identified in that Plan, and recently defended by the City Council at the Local Plan inquiry. If all of Coventry’s new housing needs in the twenty years to 2041 can be met by identified sites providing for a target of 29,100 homes then additional housing on the E.ON site is neither needed nor justified.
Secondly, as indicated in the section above there is a shortage of land for local employment. The Coventry Society is seriously concerned over the potential loss of these office buildings and this site from employment use.
Thirdly, because of the acknowledged shortfall of employment land to meet the City’s requirements the proposed Local Plan 2021-41 seeks to reinforce and strengthen the existing Local Plan’s commitment that says that non-employment use will not be approved on employment land except in exceptional circumstances. We contend that there are no exceptional circumstances in this case – indeed the evidence above shows that the buildings and land should be retained for employment uses.
Fourthly, the Coventry Society thinks that a decision on this application is premature given that the Coventry Local Plan is currently the subject of a public Inquiry by independent inspectors. This has examined the issues above i.e. sufficiency of local employment land identified in the Local Plan to 2041, the contribution made to the employment land portfolio by two late-added sites, and the strength of policies to protect existing employment land from alternative development. The two Inspectors will, in the coming months, pronounce on the soundness of the Plan, and if so proved, may recommend any modifications following the Inquiry hearings. Until the inspectors pass judgement on the soundness of the Coventry Local Plan 2021-41 and its policies then we believe that any decision to approve the planning application for the development of the E.ON employment site for housing is premature.
Conclusion
Given that the City Council is unable to meet its identified employment need in full, it should be seeking to protect existing employment sites that remain suitable to employment use, rather than seek to allocate them for alternative uses. The Coventry Society contends that the retention of all remaining employment land in Westwood Business Park remains hugely important for the City’s economy.