Another funding boost for Long Marston Garden Village

This article is 5 years old

Press Release

Published on 13 February 2019
Archived on 13 March 2019


Stratford-on-Avon District Council has been successful in its bid to secure £300,000 from the Government's Homes & Communities Agency to continue to support the successful delivery of Long Marston Garden Airfield as a Garden Village.

The Government has announced today, Wednesday 13 February, the Long Marston Garden Village development is to get a £300,000 cash injection to boost assessment work by the District Council and Warwickshire County Council.  This brings the total investment in this element of the project to £530,000.

The funding will go towards specialists working for the District Council on matters including Urban Design, Public Transport and Environmental Health.  The funding will also boost capacity within the District Council's Legal Team and within the team of Highway Engineers at the County Council, all of which will increase the robustness of the assessment of planning applications for the Garden Village and associated infrastructure.

Cllr Daren Pemberton, Planning and Building Services Portfolio says: "The capacity funding will help fund dedicated staff, studies and assessments that are vital to the delivery of a successful garden village.  This is key to ensure we have the right resources to deliver high quality new communities where residents will enjoy a high quality of life."

Background Information

Long Marston Garden Village will deliver around 3,500 dwellings, a village centre, two primary schools, a secondary school and around 13ha of employment land.

Outline planning permission was granted for the first 400 homes in February 2017.  Beyond the first 400 homes, the delivery of the scheme is dependent on the provision of a South-Western Relief Road (SWRR) for the town of Stratford-upon-Avon.  A route for this road is safeguarded in the Core Strategy.

A Supplementary Planning Document for the site was adopted by the District Council in February 2018.  The document sets out a vision and design principles for how the Garden Village will look and it will also be used by the District Council as a guide to determine planning applications and ensure that its overall aims and vision for the site is achieved.  

A reserved matters application was made valid in October 2017 and was resolved to be approved by Planning Committee in November 2018.

The planning application for 3,100 dwellings and all elements of the allocation not covered by the outline permission for 400 homes together with the planning application for the SWRR were submitted in June 2018.

Remediation work, for the first 400 homes, is due to start on site in 2019.  A Steering Group and Working Group were set up to act as a framework to ensure that all key stakeholders are fully involved in the pre-application processes for the South Western Relief Road (SWRR) and Garden Village.  Through these groups, the District Council has worked with the developer, CALA Homes and key stakeholders including Warwickshire County Council.

The District Council has already allocated £100,000 within the Planning department's annual budget towards an 'Implementation Team' which is tasked with securing the delivery of all of the strategic sites allocated within its Core Strategy, residential and employment.  Long Marston Garden Village; the similar sized new settlement at Gaydon Lighthorne Heath; and the Stratford Canal Quarter regeneration project are the largest schemes within the team's remit.

The District Council is working collaboratively with Warwickshire County Council and CALA Homes on a HIF Forward Funding Bid to support the construction of the SWRR by CALA.  

The District Council was allocated marginal funding of £13.4m in February 2018 to go towards contamination and infrastructure costs associated with the development of the first 400 homes on site.


Contact details

Stratford-on-Avon District Council
Elizabeth House, Church Street,
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire,
CV37 6HX
Tel: 01789 267575

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Last updated on 13/02/2019