Appeal Decision – Land South of the Recreation Ground
The planning appeal has been allowed.
The Inspector made it very clear that the deciding factor was the Borough’s severe housing land supply shortfall. He concluded that North Warwickshire cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing land — estimating it at around 0.8 years rather than the Council’s claimed 2.2 years.
Because of this, national policy requires planning inspectors to give substantial weight to new housing. Although he accepted there would be harm to the countryside edge and conflict with local planning policies, he described that harm as “limited” and said it did not outweigh the housing need.
In simple terms: we lost primarily because the Borough is not delivering enough housing sites elsewhere.
We know this will be disappointing news.