Stratford to get a 'garden village'

Published: 15:54, 02 January 2017

Long Marston Airfield where around 3,500 homes will eventually be built.

ONE of the country's first garden villages will be in Stratford-on-Avon, it has been announced today, Monday.

Long Marston Airfield is one of 14 locations that will be developed with a share of £6.5million of government money.

The money will be used to unlock the full capacity of sites, providing funding for additional resources and expertise to accelerate development and avoid delays, housing and planning minister, Gavin Barwell, said.

The building of houses at the former airfield has long been in the pipeline and the site is included in Stratford-on-Avon District Council's core strategy, which sets out the future growth of the district.

Cala Homes has already begun planning work on the first 400 homes, and has a masterplan in place for as many as 3,500 homes.

The council backed the bid for garden village status back in July. CLICK HERE to find out what the government's definition of a garden village is.

A garden villages is defined by the government as settlements of between 1,500 and 10,000 homes, while a garden town is a development of more than 10,000 homes.

The other 13 garden villages are:

Oxfordshire Cotswold in West Oxfordshire
Deenethorpe in East Northants
Culm in Mid Devon
Welborne near Fareham in Hampshire
West Carclaze in Cornwall
Dunton Hills near Brentwood, Essex
Spitalgate Heath in South Kesteven, Lincolnshire
Halsnead in Knowsley, Merseyside
Longcross in Runnymede and Surrey Heath
Bailrigg in Lancaster
Infinity Garden Village in South Derbyshire and Derby City area
St Cuthberts near Carlisle City, Cumbria
North Cheshire in Cheshire East

The three new garden towns are:

Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
Taunton, Somerset
Harlow & Gilston, Essex and Hertfordshire

Mr Barwell said: "Locally-led garden towns and villages have enormous potential to deliver the homes that communities need.

"New communities not only deliver homes, they also bring new jobs and facilities and a big boost to local economies. These places combined could provide almost 200,000 homes."

For more reaction see Thursday's Herald.

What do YOU think? E-mail your views to us: news@stratford-herald.com

Stratford-upon-Avon Chris Smith