Land east of Station Lane, Kingswood

Warwick District Council have been working with Stratford-on-Avon District Council on a South Warwickshire Local Plan, to identify sites across both districts to meet the area’s housing needs.

 

We submitted the land east of Station Lane to Warwick District Council a few years ago for possible inclusion in the new Local Plan.  The site has subsequently been assessed by the council as part of its ‘Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment’ (HELAA), one of the reports that forms the underlying evidence base for the Local Plan, which finds that the site is ‘deemed to make a weak contribution to GB [Green Belt] purposes‘.  The HELAA goes on to state that the site constitutes ‘grey belt’, which is a new term describing Green Belt land that makes little contribution to 1) checking unrestricted sprawl, 2) preventing neighbouring towns from merging, and 3) preserving the setting of historic towns.  The HELAA also notes the site’s ‘good proximity to Lapworth Station’ and its availability for development in the short term.

 

With that assessment in mind, in May 2026 a draft of the South Warwickshire Local Plan was published, proposing to allocate the land east of Station Lane for the development of approximately 251 homes, along with two other sites in Kingswood including the neighbouring Kingswood Farmhouse site.  However, it was subsequently decided to remove all three Kingswood sites from the draft Local Plan, as part of a reduction in the number of Green Belt sites proposed for allocation.

 

Despite the site’s removal from the draft Local Plan, we have sought pre-application advice from officers at Warwick District Council, confirming that in their view the site still constitutes grey belt land and its development could be considered acceptable in principle.  Prompted by this advice, we have decided to submit an outline planning application to Warwick District Council this autumn, following a period of public consultation.  An outline application only seeks approval from the local planning authority for the principle of development on a site – it does not seek approval for a specific layout or specific building designs.