The 3.6M SF Coventry Gateway logistics and industrial development, rejected by the government in 2015, is making a second attempt at takeoff, now that green belt objections have been quashed.
The 200-acre site, south of Coventry Airport, was denied planning permission by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in February 2015 after a residents' campaign. Both Coventry and Warwick councils had granted approval.
The chances of success this time are higher because the site has been allocated for development in the Warwick local plan, which was adopted in September 2017. The plan — amended after examination by a government inspector — focused growth on the southern edge of Coventry, including the Gateway site. The Warwick plan extends the site into green belt.
The site — to be developed by Roxhill in conjunction with the Coventry & Warwickshire Development Partnership — is next to the Middlemarch Business Park, 6 miles from the M6 motorway.
The original Gateway scheme dating from 2012 included a new technology hub on land north of Coventry Airport and a manufacturing/logistics hub to the south as well as carrying out major road improvements to ease congestion and improve access around Jaguar Land Rover’s premises at Whitley Business Park.
A new planning application has now been submitted to Warwick council, The Coventry Telegraph reports.
The application comes soon after Birmingham City Council selected IM Properties as developer of the 160-acre Peddimore logistics site, Sutton Coldfield.
