Plan revealed for more homes off Ashlawn Road - The Rugby Observer

Plan revealed for more homes off Ashlawn Road

Rugby Editorial 2nd Jul, 2014 Updated: 27th Oct, 2016   0

EIGHTY-FIVE new homes have been proposed for land off Ashlawn Road – just over a mile from the site being eyed by developers for 1,000.

Richborough Estates will on Thursday (July 3) unveil plans to build between St Andrews Rugby Club and Ashlawn School.

Details of the scheme will be on display at a public exhibition at the rugby club between 4pm and 8pm.

The plans include starter homes to larger family homes with a new access road off the south side of Ashlawn Road leading to new streets and a landscaped open area. Some 40 per cent – around 34 homes – will be affordable housing in accordance with the borough council’s policy.




Although the sites for this new estate and for the huge development being proposed between Ashlawn Road and Norton Leys have not been earmarked for housing by the borough’s core strategy, the council may not be able to refuse the applications because it has not identified sites for five years’ worth of new homes – as required by national policy.

Jonathan Bloor, planning and land manager at Richborough Estates, said: “Hillmorton has been identified as a sustainable location where new housing can help meet the borough-wide housing shortage, as well as provide an excellent range of community services and facilities within walking and cycling distance of the proposed site.”


Coun Bill Lewis, whose campaign against the 1,000-home development helped him get elected to represent the Rokeby and Overslade ward in May and who now sits on the planning committee, said: “If the council had been able to show a five year land supply for house building, this proposal would not be coming forward, just like the one for the fields near Hillside.”

Hillmorton councillor Jim Buckley, who also sits on the planning committee, told us: “If you voted for Tony Blair in 1997 this is the result: a massive house-building programme for Rugby that we in this Conservative council can’t stop.

“The planning committee will look at this proposal if it is put forward. All we can do is try to try to control where development occurs.

“Nearly 25,000 houses have to be built by 2025.”

In May, council leader Craig Humphrey said a shortage of housing was a national problem.

“What we need to be doing is working with our residents here in Rugby to find how that best fits with our core strategy,” he said.

“The notion you can just throw your hands up, put your head in the sand and stop development isn’t one that any local authority can take.”

Representatives from Richborough Estates will be present at today’s exhibition to hear the opinions of residents, ahead of a planning application in the coming months.

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