Object

Representation ID: 67236

Received: 12/12/2014

Respondent: Mr David Ellwood

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

Considers that the SELS is neither objective or independent and that its function is to support the LEP's decision to make "Coventry and Warwickshire Gateway" its flagship development site in the LEP area and its statement that "Without it [the LEP] cannot achieve its purpose. The study was revised three times after the SEP was published and after the first of those the author changed. It seems that over six months was spent after publication of the SEP ensuring that the Study, a purpose of which was to assist in its preparation, had taken it into account. The treasury and BIS acknowledge that the Government's plan for Britain's sustainable, long-term economic growth is not to be done at the expense of the green belt. Atkins highlights this however overlooks this obvious constraint in taking into account the final choice. A fundamental reason why the Study's findings and conclusions have no credibility. the LEP has said that, if the proposed Gateway development does not go ahead, it (the LEP) cannot achieve its purpose. An Employment Land Review update by G L Hearn for North Warwickshire cited the Black Country and Southern Staffordshire - Regional Logistics Site Study. This recognises that the arising demand is capable of being satisfied by any location in the Midlands which is well served by road and rail. It need not be specifically satisfied within the Black Country/South Staffordshire area, let alone within a particular local authority. The proposed Gateway development site is not served at all by rail. Despite the claims made on behalf of the Applicant at the Public Inquiry, the majority of the deprivation and unemployment in Coventry and the surrounding area is in North and North East Coventry and in Nuneaton and Bedworth to the North East of Coventry. That is why the Coventry-Nuneaton Regeneration Zone was identified for that area in the now abolished Regional Spatial Policy. It is on the opposite side of Coventry from the Gateway site, with the consequent inconvenience, cost and carbon footprint of travel to work at Gateway.