Pressure on services, schools and other infrastructure already mounting in towns and villages across Stratford district as more homes planned
PRESSURE on services, schools and other infrastructure is already mounting in towns and villages across the district.
And that’s before the area starts to feel the impact of a planning inquiry decision that, at its core, will allow developers almost a free hand on where they build new homes.
Planning applications for hundreds of homes are currently in the system with the likelihood that most will get the permissions needed for spades to be slammed into the earth.
Shipston, Bidford and Wellesbourne could see significant expansion while Stratford, always a favourite location for the large-scale developers, will again be a prime target. The town already has 130 homes allowed by Bordon Hill following the planning inquiry which has tied Stratford District Council’s hands when it comes to deciding some applications.
As previously reported by the Herald, the Labour government, keen to hit its promised housing targets, changed the goalposts for areas like Stratford and left them unable to show they had enough new housing planned for a five-year period.
Without that vital evidence, developers can plan homes on land knowing SDC would be likely to lose an appeal if it refuses the scheme planning permission.
The impact of the situation could be felt across the district, with just a few areas being protected by their envelope of green belt land.
Cllr Anne Parry (Con, Wellesbourne), who sits on the SDC planning committee, said she has “serious concerns” about the planning applications from “predatory” developers.
This includes the application for 300 homes just off Kineton Road in Wellesbourne.
She said: “We’ve had a lot of housebuilding in Wellesbourne, and as a result have got people moving into the town, who can't get their children into the local primary school and are having to go elsewhere, so there’s a major infrastructure concern in terms of education.
“I understand Kineton High School is full, and Stratford is also pretty full, despite the huge extensions they’ve done.”
Cllr Parry, who is also a parish councillor for Moreton Morrell said Moreton Morrell and Hampton Lucy primary schools are at capacity.
“There are people living in Wellesbourne who have had to look at going to Hampton Lucy, Loxley or Moreton Morrell but part of the fun of being able to go to your local school is you've got local friends who live nearby.”
She also expressed worries about medical facilities not being able to meet the needs of future housing.
“Whilst we have the fantastic state-of-the-art Hastings House Medical Centre in Wellesbourne, they’re pretty much at capacity, particularly because the new GP facility at Lighthorne Heath is slow in coming forward, so all the people moving into the Gaydon/Lighthorne Heath development are registering at Hastings House, so that's another big issue,” she explained.
Cllr Parry also highlighted two separate proposals for housing presented by developers at a Wellesbourne & Walton Parish Council meeting earlier this month.
One is just off Warwick Road while the other is next to the River Dene on the other side of Kineton Road. Together, these total 170 homes.
“If you add that to the 300 [off the Kineton Road] then you’re talking of developers being like predators for an additional 500 homes in Wellesbourne,” she added.
Cllr Parry also shared her concerns for Wellesbourne Airfield.
She pointed out: “Whilst the core strategy protects the airfield at the moment, one worries what's coming down the line in terms of the South Warwickshire Local Plan with strategic growth areas. It's very worrying because we haven't got the infrastructure to support it in terms of educational and health facilities.”
She added: “We're all very concerned because it puts pressure on us as councillors.
“We're going to be under a huge pressure to approve a number of these planning applications, because we need to get the five year housing land supply back up.
“And if it goes to appeal and we haven't got the material planning reasons to refuse it because we don't have a five year housing land supply, the district council gets landed with huge costs - we're in a no-win situation.”
Cllr Malcom Littlewood (Con, Tysoe) sees the Bordon Hill appeal decision as “the worst possible outcome for SDC from the point of view of planning control and localism”.
He said: “It is true the district needs new homes, specifically, social housing, homes for rent and affordable starter homes, not executive properties.
“The government has deliberately moved the goalposts on housing numbers and perversely thinks fewer homes should be built in cities while increasing rural development.
“At a stroke the Labour government has taken control of development away from Stratford district, making us find an extra 3,000 homes over and above the 1,000 we build each year.
“This is a Labour-made free-for-all. It means that rather than being able to focus on new settlements where we can build in infrastructure from the start, our villages and Stratford face more expansion at the edges where developers can shortchange communities on infrastructure.”
Cllr Littlewood warned that everywhere in the district is now vulnerable to unplanned development, giving the example of Shipston, where “a location near the river and subject to flooding, served by what is little more than a single-track road, is now being actively proposed”.
He pointed out Bidford has already seen applications for another 250 homes, Shipston faces up to 1,800 homes and Wellesbourne another 500.
“In short, nowhere is safe from predatory developers," he concluded.
Graham Coombs, chairman of Midlands-based developer Grevayne which is working with Orbit to build 70 affordable homes at the field between Alcester Road and existing homes - a site that was previously refused planning permission.
He said the Bordon Hill appeal decision “will inevitably make the district more vulnerable to future planning applications”, but will help more with appeals, particularly for larger sites.
Mr Coombs, who lives near Henley, added: “We do smaller, one-off, architect designed developments and don't tend to have standard products, so the aesthetics and the quality of the environment in a place like Stratford matters a lot to us. Unfortunately, that's not recognised in any way by the local authority who make no distinction between the quality of design.
“They ought to at least make a distinction between the mass house builders just producing boxes, which is virtually what they do, and the smaller house builders.
"You’re more likely to get planning permission for 1,500-2,000 houses, than for five or six because there's a bigger payoff for the local authority.”
He added: “In my view, there has been an over-allocation of housing supply for Stratford [district]. “I think they were talking about 12,000 extra houses in the period to 2035 which always struck me as unrealistic but they seem to have dealt with this by building outside Stratford [town], building in Gaydon and Long Marston and those sorts of places.
“But then you just end up with mass housing developments and those discredit development as much as they promote it.”
The Lib Dems, as reported by the Herald last week, are trying to plug the housing gap by solving the transport issues that have helped back the massive housing scheme to be built at Long Marston.
But plans for 3,000-plus homes at Long Marston are dependent on the government agreeing to the idea but also coughing up large sums of money to finance the road and transport changes necessary to make it possible.
Cllr Susan Juned (Lib Dem, Alcester East), the leader of the council, said attempts have been made to organise a meeting with the new housing minister, Steve Reed, to try to get the government to ease the pressure on councils like Stratford.
However, just last week Mr Reed promised more measures to speed up the rate of house building across the country.
It followed a year-on-year downturn in the number of housing applications received and decided by councils. Some 80,400 applications were received in the period between April and June 2025, down 5 per cent from the previous year.
Planning authorities across the nation decided 80,800 applications, down 1 per cent.
Mr Reed described the figures as “unacceptable” and said: “I will leave no stone unturned to build 1.5 million homes, so families have the key to home ownership in their hands.
“Fixing the archaic planning system won’t happen overnight. But because of the reforms we have introduced, we will see the biggest era of house building in our country’s history.
“With my leadership, the government will go further and faster to get Britain building. It’s time to build, baby, build.”