Cllr Kevin Foster

Cllr Ken Taylor, Leader of Coventry Conservatives, has confirmed that Conservative Councillors will honour their election pledge to protect Coventry's Greenbelt by voting to scrap the current Coventry Core Strategy that detailed how the housing numbers demanded by the previous Labour Government could be delivered.

This follows a motion passed by the previous Conservative Council in December 2009 that stated that Coventry could accommodate 22,760 on Brownfield land and that at the moment there was no case to support building on greenbelt land in Coventry or the surrounding area. A Planning Inspector is due to report any day on their conclusions in relation to the current Coventry Core Strategy following a public examination earlier this year. Their conclusions are then likely to be voted on by Councillors at a Full Council meeting in June.

Coventry Conservatives are also making clear their belief that the former Jaguar site at Browns Lane should be retained for employment use as part of a major scheme to create jobs, not given entirely over to housing as the Labour Party indicated they wished to do during the recent General Election campaign.

Cllr Ken Taylor, said: "As part of their flawed approach to housing targets the previous government had put pressure on Councils across the West Midlands to plan for greenbelt development. This included the then Minister rejecting the draft Regional Spatial Strategy so that they could push for higher numbers more quickly to meet their own national policy goals."

He said: "Our belief is that the city should plan for a maximum of 22,760 new homes. This number strikes the balance between developing the affordable new homes local people need without requiring building on greenbelt, whilst at the same time protecting sites like Browns Lane for creating jobs. Given the welcome change of Government this policy can now be implemented by the City Council, rather than having to follow one designed to met the former Government's housing targets backed up by threats of overruling us."

He concluded: "Even if the Inspector endorses the previous strategy we will reject it on the basis that is was based on delivering the previous Government's policy, not the needs of Coventry."