Preferred Options Consultation

Preferred Options Consultation

On 10th January 2025 we launched our South Warwickshire Local Plan Preferred Options (Regulation 18) consultation. Thank you to all those who have made comments. We can confirm that the consultation ended on 7th March 2025 at 23:59pm.

The summaries of the representations have now been published following the Preferred Options consultation. These comments are available to view within the online consultation portal. Instructions on how to view these representations are available on the first page when opening this link.

Please note there are a small number of representations submitted to the online portal where a summary of the full submission has not been provided. These are being processed and will be added as soon as we are able. We will update all submitters that the rep summaries are available to view once this additional work is complete.

The delay in publishing these summaries was due to the sheer volume of representations that had to be checked before publishing them on the website. We will now start work on preparing a Consultation Statement that will be published on the website later this year. The use of AI in supporting the preparation of the consultation statement is currently being investigated. Once investigations are completed the use of AI will be clarified on this web page.

The Preferred Options Consultation was the third stage in the process for preparing the new South Warwickshire Local Plan (SWLP).

The Preferred Options Consultation document contains a number of draft policies and policy directions that cover issues identified and analysed at earlier stages of the South Warwickshire Local Plan preparation process: Scoping, Call for Sites and Issues and Options consultation (responses to these earlier consultations can be found on each of these pages). Additionally, the Preferred Options consultation sought views on the proposed Growth Strategy which sets out the proposals for how the development needs across the District are to be met.

The contents of the plan have been summarised below. An updated errata sheet was published on 24th January 2025.

Meeting South Warwickshire's Sustainable Development Requirements

Spatial Growth;  Potential New Settlements;  Small Scale Development;  Growth Needs Outside South Warwickshire;  Infrastructure Requirements and Delivery;  Funding for Infrastructure;  Viability and Deliverability;  Safeguarding land for transport proposals;  Green Belt;  Density;  Using Brownfield Land for Development; 

Ch.4

Delivering Homes that Meet the Needs of all our communities

Providing the Right Tenure and Type of Homes;  Providing the Right Size of Homes;  Providing Custom and Self-Building Housing Plots;  Meeting Accommodation Needs; 

Ch.5

Delivering South Warwickshire's Economic Needs

Locations for Employment Growth;  Core Opportunity Area;  Major Investment Sites;  Office Accommodation and Refurbishment;  Airfields;  A Low Carbon Economy;  Supporting Rural Employment;  Supporting Business Units;  Community Facilities;  Supporting Town Centres;  Arts and Culture;  Tourism; 

Ch.6

A Climate Resilient and Net Zero Carbon South Warwickshire

Large-Scale Renewable Energy generation and storage;  Existing Renewable Energy Infrastructure;  Decentralised Energy Systems;  Net Zero Carbon Buildings;  Reducing Energy Consumption;  Embodied Carbon;  Climate Resilient;  Water Efficiency;  Water Supply Infrastructure;  Reducing Flood Risk;  Sustainable Drainage Systems; 

Ch.7

A Well-Designed and Beautiful South Warwickshire

Strategic Design Principles;  Design Codes;  Heritage Assets the Historic Environment;  Waterways; 

Ch.8

A Healthy, Safe, and Inclusive South Warwickshire

Pollution;  Health Impact Assessment for Major Development; 

Ch.9

A Well-Connected South Warwickshire

Sustainable Transport Accessibility;  Electric Vehicle Infrastructure;  Road Travel, Employment, and Freight;  Vale of Evesham Control Zone;  Smart Cities; 

Ch.10

A Biodiverse and Environmentally Resilient South Warwickshire

Protection of Sites, Habitats and Species;  Local Nature Recovery;  Biodiversity Net Gain;  Environmental Net Gain;  Green and Blue Infrastructure;  Carbon Sinks and Sequestration;  Trees, Hedges, and Woodland;  Parks, Gardens, Food Growing, Open Space and Local Green Space;  Outdoor Sports and Leisure;  Areas of Restraint;  Cotswold National Landscape;  Special Landscape Areas;  Landscape Character;  Agricultural Land; 

Ch.11

A PDF version of the Preferred Options document can also be downloaded here.

Call for Sites

A targeted 'Call for Sites' ran alongside the Preferred Options consultation between Friday 10 January and Friday 7 March 2025. This targeted sites that were:

• within or adjacent to one of the 12 potential new settlement locations
• for Gypsies and Travellers/Travelling Showpeople
• for commercial or community-led renewable energy generation.

We are not accepting site submissions at this time. You only need to tell us if there is a change to the red line boundary or the proposed use, if you wish to withdraw the site, or if you wish to submit further information about the site.

Further information on sites submitted during the first and second Call for Sites exercises can be found on our Call for Sites page. This includes HELAA (Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment) results for each site and the ability to view an interactive map.

Accompanying Documents

The South Warwickshire Local Plan Preferred Options has been created alongside a number of pieces of Technical Evidence.

The full list of evidence documents is published on our Technical Evidence webpage.

Videos

Preferred Options Explainer Video

Growth Strategy Explainer Video

Consultation Events

During the course of the Preferred Options consultation, a number of online and in person events were held by Officers. These provided the opportunity for members of the public and other stakeholders to ask questions on the consultation document and the process of responding.

A presentation that accompanied the Online events can be found here. This contains a short summary of the SWLP, the work we have done so far and the purpose and aims of the Preferred Options stage.

Contact Us

If you wish to speak to an officer about the consultation, please contact The SWLP Team at one of the addresses below.