Fivefield Road/Tamworth Road

There was a Council Planning Meeting on 4th March 2021. This meeting recommended approval for the development of 550 houses in Fivefield Road/Tamworth Road in Keresley.

There were eight Planning Committee Councillors present – three Conservative ward councillors and five Labour councillors.

The presentation did not include photographs of the area showing the landscape and Ancient Woods or the congested, dangerous country roads which will be expected to accommodate high volumes of traffic. There was no site inspection. Councillors were being asked to vote on this application, an area they were not familiar with.

A Planning Officer appraising the traffic situation stated “I am clutching at straws given my lack of geographical knowledge of the area”. A Coventry Council Ecologist in his report, objected to the application unless a survey of the Ancient Woods was forthcoming. Traffic surveys were conducted in 2016 prior to the opening of the Amazon site (2018) and subsequent developments in Lyons Park which has generated a huge amount of traffic in the area.

This was a complicated and extensive application. Four of the Planning Committee members did not ask one single question. The voting was 5 for and 3 against.

A petition was handed to the Council objecting to this development and further Keresley developments, totalling 7,000 signatures and endorsed by Andy Street who has long advocated a Brownfield First policy in his approach to housebuilding.

What has happened to our Democratic Society and the Council’s pledge to its residents of transparency? Clearly not in evidence concerning matters of Planning.