Object

Representation ID: 67455

Received: 12/12/2014

Respondent: Warwickshire County Council [Physical Assets Business Unit]

Agent: Savills

Legally compliant? Yes

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Yes

WCC acknowledges the potential for accommodating a community stadium within the area of 'Land West of Europa Way' marked on the amended Policies Map 2 with black shading (reference DS14), and will be taking this into account in its planning application proposals for the Land North of Gallows Hill.
However, following on from concerns expressed by WCC in its previous representations to Publication Draft Local Plan Policies DS11 and DS14, WCC still considers that the proposed community stadium allocation is still not supported by sufficient evidence base justification to assess whether there are alternative locations for accommodating the stadium, or to demonstrate that the proposals are technically feasible within the demarked area on amended Policies Map 2, or whether sufficient funding is available to viably deliver the facility, or even whether Leamington Town FC (who will ultimately have responsibility for the stadium) is fully supportive of the relocation site. On this basis the proposed community stadium element of the allocation is not currently considered to be justified or positively-prepared and therefore not sound. WCC understands that work is underway to address these concerns and WCC accordingly wishes to reserve the right to comment further as and when the various outcomes become available.
As an additional minor point, WDC needs to adopt consistent terminology within the Local Plan. PMA2 refers to "Community Stadium and other uses", PMA3 refers to "Community Stadium and associated uses" and PMA7 refers to "Sports stadium and associated facilities". Without consistency in referencing and without clarity being expressed as to what WDC is seeking and how this can be applied in practice, then the Local Plan is not considered to be effective in this regard.