Relief road decision pushed back to September 2021
A decision on Stratford’s most divisive planning application has been kicked further down the road, with a verdict on the town’s South Western Relief Road project now not expected until September 2021.
A related 3,100 home housing application at Long Marston Airfield has also had its determination date pushed back as developer CALA Homes and Stratford District Council see the road as key to mitigating traffic from the housing project.
The road plan has sparked a determined campaign by residents close to the proposed route, opposed to the project declaring it as the ‘wrong road in the wrong place’.
Decisions on the applications were originally expected to have been made in September 2019.
There has been some speculation about the future of the road proposal, after the project failed to win funding from the Housing Infrastructure Fund earlier this year.
However despite the latest delay, the road does not appear to have been dropped with Warwickshire County Council confirming this week that the project remains ‘an option’.
Explaining the delay, a spokesperson for Stratford District Council, said: “The extended timescales for the determination of the planning applications for the South Western Relief Road and 3,100 dwellings at Long Marston Airfield are to allow time for the submission of the additional information that has been requested by the District Council in order to progress both planning applications.
“They reflect the complex nature of the additional information that needs to first be prepared and thereafter fully assessed by the District Council, consultees and third parties before formal recommendations can made. The timeframes also allow for full submissions in the context of Central Government funding options and wider economic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
A Warwickshire County Council spokesperson added: "The South Western Relief Road is required to support the development of the Long Marston Garden Village and remains an option despite not being awarded funding from the Housing Infrastructure Fund in the round of announcements made at the time of the national Budget in March.
"The County Council is continuing to work with the District Council to deliver the highway infrastructure needed within Stratford District and review funding opportunities as they become available."
CALA Homes confirmed that the delay the 3,100 homes application had been put back because of the uncertainty surrounding the funding for the relief road.
Marion Homer, chair of the Stratford Residents Action Group, which is strongly opposed to the relief road, said: “We will continue to put pressure on Stratford District Council and Warwickshire County Council to make the clear the situation on the relief road. We still think the road is bad for the town as a whole and we’re disappointed that the application has not simply been removed from the council’s planning portal, rather than just pushed back.”
She added that she would be seeking further information about the road and the future of the project from the relevant portfolio holder at Stratford District Council.
