Category Archives: Updates

Andy Street and 5 West Midlands MPs challenge ONS figures for Coventry population

Mayor of West Midlands and 5 local MPs challenge ONS population estimates for Coventry
CPRE calls on Coventry to suspend damaging planning decisions.


Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, 5 local MPs (Zarah Sultana (L), Tai Owatemi,(L) Craig Tracey (C), Jeremy Wright (C), and Mark Pawsey (C)’, and CPRE Warwickshire have sent a letter of complaint to the UK Statistics Authority, which regulates official stats in the UK and supervises ONS.

They are challenging the population estimates and projections for Coventry and asking the UKSA to carry out an independent review. They say that bad planning decisions are being made on the back of bad data. They do not believe that there is any evidence, that Coventry population is growing twice as fast as Birmingham, three times as fast as Solihull, or four times as fast as Warwick – as the ONS mid year estimates and projections claim,

Sir Andrew Watson chair of CPRE Warwickshire, said that planning decisions about the green belt in and around Coventry, should be deferred until the UKSA can respond to overwhelming evidence, endorsed by 4 international demographic experts, that exceptional population growth in Coventry is not happening. That evidence is summarised in the letter. He said, “It would be tragic if the historic and beautiful forest of arden landscape, one of Warwickshire’s treasures, was sacrificed for homes that are not needed in this place at this time.

As an example, he cites the fact that births in Coventry have been far below the levels predicted by ONS, by more than 1000/yr – the population is just not growing in the way that they projected. Other data, such as the numbers of voters, school admissions , amount of gas and electricity used, pensions claimed, jobs growth, house prices, house completions & starts, all show that population growth in Coventry is just average for the region – that it is not launching into some rocket propelled expansion.

On Thursday 26 November, Coventry Council Planning Committee, is going to consider an application for 2500 homes at Eastern Green, in the so called Meriden Gap between Coventry and Birmingham. Over many years multiple planning inspectors have emphasised the importance of keeping this rural green landscape -o prevent Coventry from merging into Birmingham and to protect the separate identities of the two cities. CPRE feels that this land was unnecessarily removed from Green Belt by the latest Coventry Local Plan and that Coventry Council should review its local plan, in the light of new evidence, and return it to green belt.

Sir Andrew said that Coventry needs to look at all the evidence, and not be blinded by blind faith in the Office of National Statistics. They can and do make mistakes. In 2017, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee said “Many of the available measures [of migration] are wholly inadequate. ….. the International Passenger Survey …..cannot bear the burden placed upon it and cannot be relied upon to provide accurate estimates of net migration.” Student migration is a “significant challenge”2. CPRE points out that miscounting international students – of whom there are 16,000 in the city – can account for a very large part of the error in the numbers. ONS counts them in, but fails to count them out when they go home.

CPRE believe that inaccurate population projections and estimates are likely a national problem and would welcome contact from others who feel that the numbers in their area are inflated and unwarranted housing growth is being forced upon them .

Taylor Wimpey Phase 2 Development (RM/2020/2399)

The closing date for objections for this development is 30th November 2020.
 
On the 23rd November we shall be listing our suggestions for legitimate objections to help you respond to this application.
 
Please refer to our Facebook/Website pages.
 
Submissions can be by e-mail or post. All details will be displayed on 23rd November.
 

Petition Presentation

Save our Green Belt
Come to the old Council House, Tuesday 8 Sept, 13.15
We will present petitions with 6,300 signatures

Please come to the old Council House on Tuesday 8 Sept, at 13.15. We are going to hand over our petitions, calling for a review of the local plan, with more than 6000 signatures to Gary Ridley, at 13.30. The press will be coming so it would be good to have lots of people, socially distanced of course.

We are asking for an immediate review of the local plan and a moratorium on planning permissions on former green belt land (it is possible, there is plenty of brownfield land still, and there was a moratorium in Warwick District from 2005-2009).

Gary will present the petitions (2 of them) to the full Council that day, with a very brief speech. There will be a live feed if you wish to watch Gary’s presentation (link to be provided shortly).

Please wear your mask, and keep social distance. Bring placards and banners.

At a later date, Gary and a residents’ spokesperson will get a chance to make a longer presentation to either the Cabinet or the Cabinet Member for Development’s committee – we will let you know later the date and time of that event when we have the details.

Coventry Air Quality Action Plan

Please comment on the proposed Coventry air quality action plan, even if you only have the time to do it briefly. The consultation closes on Sunday so please try and get comments in this weekend (although late submissions will be still be accepted) – https://www.coventry.gov.uk/airquality

Please find attached the background information from Coventry City Council, which is very minimal to say the least. The information provided is pitiful and the ambition is to scrape under the legal limits for nitrogen dioxide, mainly by pushing pollutants from one area to another (dump on thy neighbour plan). The plan is disgraceful because a) it fails to monitor pollution in large areas of the city and b) where it does monitor, it is only for NOx, and it ignores particulates, now recognised as a major cause of strokes, dementia, heart attack, asthma, and Covid 19 deaths.

Please also see attached response and presentation from the Coventry and Warwickshire Air Quality People’s Chamber – note especially slides 12- 15 which shows a steady rise in respiratory admissions to the local hospital as NOx concentrations have also gone up.