I recently submitted my consultation response to the Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council’s Borough Plan.
Residents had been asked to engage with the proposals for housing planning and development in the community, this latest consultation closed on 13th March.
The Borough Plan has been controversial for a number of reasons, but there are some very serious issues that the current plan raises and I will focus on just a few here.
Firstly the feedback I received from residents at my public information events (which support local people engage in the process) is that the consultation forms were putting off a lot of people from responding. I hope the Council will look to provide a more user-friendly form in the future.
I noted that in the proposals there is not much mood for optimism or ambition for our town centre. For example the Council have stated that they are aiming to: ‘Maintain the current standards of the town centres and seek to improve where necessary.’ – What about seeking to improve, regenerate, attract more businesses and shoppers…
The office space requirements for the town centres have been reduced to take into account, ‘the current economic climate and current impediments to delivery.’ This is a startling statement - the current economic climate is one in which other, similar small local towns are thriving because their Local Authorities are working far more effectively to attract businesses to their town centres. For example take a look at nearby Hinckley.
Additional office space in the town centres would be an excellent way in increase footfall. However, the high parking charges in the town centres and lack of meaningful engagement between the Council and business, continue to be major, ‘impediments to delivery.’
Furthermore I believe that unfortunately the council are treating residents of Bedworth and the surrounding villages as if they live in an extension of the urban sprawl from Coventry rather than an area with green belt protection.
Despite the 2016 report on the Updated Assessment of Housing Need (UAoHN) suggesting that the housing need for the Borough is 9,400, as the overall figure for the Coventry and Warwickshire Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) had not changed, the decision was taken to stick to the 10,040 figure. In light of this information I don’t consider it accurate to state that the 10,040 figure is an, ‘objectively assessed need.’ It seems at least in part a figure that has been negotiated as part of the wider SHMA.
The wide fluctuations in numbers coupled with the Council’s approach of sticking to the higher figure when a lower figure is presented to them, as the plan states that they did after the production of the 2014 review of the SHMA and the 2016 report on the UAoHN, does not inspire any confidence in the figures used to underpin the overall Plan.
These figures are significant because the Borough Plan is proposing Greenbelt sites for development. However, I am concerned that developers will naturally choose to build on the easiest to deliver sites first, which are likely to be the Greenbelt and green field areas as they will not have the costs associated with the redevelopment of brownfield sites. The addition of extra numbers could have the detrimental effect of both the loss of Greenbelt or greenfield sites and the disincentive for developers to re-use brownfield sites.
The Borough Plan is a complicated issue but it is one which is so important that the Council to get right for the future of our local community.
Finally, I really enjoyed my recent visit to the Gurdwara Sunday Service at the local Gurdwara Baba Vadbhag Singh Ji Temple. I was very impressed by the congregation's contribution and work in our community. It is always heartening to see people coming together to show a strong community spirit in our area. Thank you Gurdeep Sehra and the congregation for your invitation.