Windmill Green Planning Application

An application for up to 566 dwellings to be built on Windmill Green in Eastern Green will go before the planning committee next week. We would strongly advise residents to lodge objections to this, many of the issues raised with the applications covering the Keresley SUE are similar with the Eastern Green SUE. Please send your objections to planning@coventry.gov.uk and Owain Williams Owain.Williams@coventry.gov.uk quoting OUT/2020/2009 (Windmill Green) on or before Monday 02/08.

Please see below a list of suggested topics you can cover/include:

1) It is premature to make a decision until the outcome of the current legal challenge which would reverse the permission for Hallam because this site relies entirely on access and all other amenities enabled by the Hallam development scheme.

2) The Local Plan allocation for 2,250 dwellings in the Eastern Green SUE has already been substantially exceeded with recent consents for 2,579 (+14%). The proposed dwellings of this Application are not required to meet projected population growth.

3) The UKSA and current ONS Review is stated to “support the appropriate use of the existing data” and thereby does have an immediate implication for the Local Plan housing figures which is in direct contrast to the Council’s mis-interpretation.

4) Existing brownfield sites are capable of matching the present entire housing growth of Coventry for at least the next 5 years and this been disregarded by the Council in their calculations.

5) Crucially, completion of the Strategic Housing Needs Assessment recently commissioned is needed before any further large developments such as this site are approved.

6) All traffic modelling fails to take account of other major developments both in and around the Coventry area, for instance the HS2 Interchange and additional congestion on the A45 and other major routes through Coventry is inevitable.

7) The development proposal fails to reflect climate change and the new regularity for flooding affecting the numerous watercourses both on site and upstream/downstream.

8) There is immense support across Coventry for the retention of the golf course as supported by Sport England but their formal Objection has been simply dismissed. This sports facility is extremely popular and increasingly busy and at the Local Plan Examination a report instigated by the land owner that it is “surplus to requirements” was aimed entirely at the prospect of future development.

9) The adverse impact of losing an important and strategically located sports amenity demonstrably outweighs the benefit of granting consent for unnecessary dwellings. “Demonstrable harm” is a valid reason for refusal according to paragraph 11d of the NPPF.