The human version (we wrote this, not the council)
This section introduces the South Warwickshire Local Plan, prepared jointly by Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick District Councils to guide where and how new homes, jobs and infrastructure are built up to 2050. It describes an area of 488 square miles, mostly open countryside, containing towns such as Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick and Royal Leamington Spa. Nearly a third of the area lies in the West Midlands Green Belt and 8% falls within the Cotswolds National Landscape. The area is a gateway to the West Midlands, with its strongest links to Coventry.
An unofficial plain English summary. The official wording below is
what counts at examination; check it before you rely on anything here.
What the plan says
The text below is extracted automatically from the official PDF and may
contain artefacts; the PDF is authoritative.
1 Planning Positively for Change
1.1 The South Warwickshire Local Plan (SWLP)
1.1.1 This Local Plan has been prepared jointly by Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick
District Councils and will become a statutory Development Plan Document upon
adoption. Once adopted it will set out the strategic vision, objectives and spatial
strategy for the South Warwickshire area as well as the planning policies which
will determine the future location, scale, type and design of new development in
the SWLP area up to 2050.
1.1.2 This new local plan is about where and how new jobs, infrastructure and housing
are all delivered in the context of place shaping and addressing climate change. The
SWLP will also seek to ensure local development is built in accordance with the
principles of sustainable development as set out in the National Planning Policy
Framework (NPPF).
1.2 South Warwickshire Today
1.2.1 South Warwickshire covers 488 square miles of predominately open countryside
and comprises the Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick District Council Areas including the
towns of Alcester, Henley-in-Arden, Kenilworth, Royal Leamington Spa, Shipston-on-
Stour, Stratford-upon-Avon, Southam, Warwick and Whitnash.
1.2.2 With good motorway and rail connections between London and Birmingham,
South Warwickshire is a gateway to the West Midlands. South Warwickshire has a
varying landscape and includes parts of 5 national landscape character areas, of which
the Cotswolds National Landscape is one, with 8% of the total area of South
Warwickshire falling into this specific national landscape designation. Nearly a third of
South Warwickshire is part of the West Midlands Green Belt, which is designed to
prevent the unrestricted sprawl of urban areas.
1.2.3 Located to the south of the West Midlands conurbation, South Warwickshire
acts as a transition between the Midlands and the southeast regional economies,
including the Oxford-Cambridge growth arc, comprising a gateway to Birmingham,
Coventry and the Black Country. As such, South Warwickshire is not tied to one
particular centre, but has links with housing market areas that overlap not just with
Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry but with Worcestershire, Cheltenham, Rugby and
Banbury, albeit of varying strengths. Indeed, the functional relationships with
Birmingham and the Black Country are far weaker than those with Coventry and South
Warwickshire is part of a much stronger Coventry Warwickshire sub-region. Figure 1
below sets out the subregional context of South Warwickshire.
1.2.4 Figure 2 (overpage) provides a snapshot of South Warwickshire and forms the
baseline for the issues that the SWLP seeks to address, including housing affordability
and diversifying the economy.