e South Warwickshire Local Plan Preferred Options Consultation is now live and will run for a period of 8 weeks, until Friday 7 March 2025. Residents, businesses and other stakeholders are now invited to have their say on the Preferred Options version of the South Warwickshire Local Plan (2050) for the combined areas of Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon District Councils for the next 25 years.

This Preferred Options Document follows on from the previous two rounds of consultations: A Scoping and Call for sites consultation in 2021, and an Issues and Options consultation in early 2023. This Preferred Options document addresses a number of topics such as housing, economy, climate change, environment etc. and then presents the preferred approach to addressing them. In this consultation document there are a range of draft policies and draft policy directions. Draft policies contain details of the subject matter and clearly set out the requirements of what the policy would like to achieve. The draft policy directions are an indication of the direction of travel the final policy will take and set out the broad aspirations of the future policy.

The Preferred Options document identifies 24 potential Strategic Growth Locations and 12 potential New Settlement locations, which are an indication of where we consider large-scale strategic growth may best be located. In addition, smaller scale growth is likely to be appropriate in other locations; these locations are not indicated in the Preferred Options document. Overall, the growth locations identified would accommodate significantly more than South Warwickshire’s identified housing and employment needs, and therefore not all these locations will be allocated as a part of the plan making process. The SWLP team will be undertaking further analysis of the Growth Locations and potential New Settlements to conclude which locations, and specific sites will be most suitable locations for the South Warwickshire's growth strategy. 

How to Comment
The simplest way to respond is via the online consultation portal. You can respond to each part of the consultation document using the following four questions:

• Do you agree with the approach laid out in the draft policy/policy direction?
• Do you have any further comments on this section?
• Do you have any comments on this Strategic Growth Location/New Settlement?
• Do you have any comments on a specific site proposal or the Housing Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) results?

Each question can be answered with either ‘Yes/No/Other’ and there is the opportunity to add further comments.

Residents without access the portal have the option to submit their response to ONE of the Councils below, using the comment form.

[email protected]                     [email protected]
Stratford on Avon District Council          Warwick District Council
Elizabeth House                                  Town Hall
Church Street                                     Parade
Stratford-upon-Avon                            Royal Leamington Spa
CV37 6HX                                          CV32 4AT

Hard copies of the documents are available to view at Brunswick Healthy Living Centre, Libraries across the two districts, and the Royal Pump Rooms, Leamington Spa.

Call for Sites
A further targeted Call for Sites is also being run alongside the Preferred Options consultation. This Call for Sites exercise is only for sites that meet at least one of the purposes below:  

• A site that falls within or adjacent to one of the 12 proposed New Settlement Locations  
• A Gypsy and Traveller / Travelling Showpeople Site 
• A site for commercial or community-led renewable energy generation 

We will not be accepting any other sites at this time. Submissions can be made using the interactive form which is available on the SWLP website. 

Comments on the ‘Preferred Options’ consultation, and submissions to the call for sites must be received by 11:59pm on Friday 7 March 2025.

Events

In addition to the consultation material, which includes videos, posters, and an interactive navigation pane, officers will also be hosting a number of consultation events. These events are available both online and in person and are an opportunity to ask questions on the consultation, and to go through how to respond to the consultation. Details on the events are available on the SWLP website.   

You can find out more information about the South Warwickshire Local Plan at: https://www.southwarwickshire.org.uk/swlp/
 
Further contact information for the South Warwickshire Local Plan.
Stratford-on-Avon District Council          Warwick District Council
Email: [email protected]             Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01789 267575                           Phone: 01926 456525

NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) have today launched a public consultation into the future locations of 35 community rehabilitation beds in South Warwickshire.  

The public consultation will run from Monday 6th January 2025 to Friday 14th February 2025 - residents are being asked to give their views on two potential options for the locations of the community rehabilitation beds.
The two options being consulted on are:

• Option A – Three sites: Distribute all 35 beds across three sites: Ellen Badger Hospital, Leamington Spa Hospital, and Stratford Hospital. This would reduce the number of beds currently at Stratford Hospital and Leamington Spa Hospital and return up to 12 beds to the Ellen Badger site

• Option B – Two sites: Provide all 35 beds at two sites, Leamington Spa Hospital and Stratford Hospital. The wards would remain the same current size at Leamington Spa Hospital and Stratford Hospital and there would no longer be any beds at the Ellen Badger site.

 
You can participate in the consultation via a survey, by attending one of the four in-person or online consultation events, or by making a written submission, with more information on each available on the ICB website.

Any extra recycling that won’t fit in your blue bin can be put in a sturdy box or container and placed next to the bin for collection. You can also recycle batteries in a sandwich bag or bread bag, and small electrical items that fit inside a standard carrier bag. Just place them on top of your bin for collection.
 
WDC will also collect real Christmas trees free of charge between 9th-21st January even if you don’t have a garden waste subscription. Any tree over 5ft tall must be cut in half. Just leave your tree outside in a visible place that’s not obstructing the highway and WDC will collect it between those dates.

The University of Warwick Campus Framework Masterplan Supplementary Planning Document was adopted on Tuesday 3 December 2024.
Warwick District Council, in partnership with Coventry City Council, has prepared the University of Warwick Campus Framework Masterplan Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).
The purpose of the SPD is to provide a framework for guiding the level and broad location of growth on the main University of Warwick campus as well as formalising design principles. The SPD provides supplementary guidance to Policy MS1 – University of Warwick - of the adopted Warwick District Local Plan 2011-2029 and is intended to assist with the determination of future planning applications.
​
The adopted SPD and associated documents are available below.

• University of Warwick Campus Framework Masterplan SPD - Adoption Version
• Adoption Statement
• Schedule of Proposed Amendments to the SPD
• Consultation Statement