Coventry City Council, in their Core Strategy Proposed Submission Document, are proposing that planning permission be given for 3,750 new homes to be built on greenbelt land between Keresley Green, Holbrooks and Keresley Village (Core Strategy Para. 5.12 ....allocations to provide for a further 3 750 dwellings are proposed at an Eco-suburb at Keresley,....).

The area for development is shown on a map ( Map 1 Keresley Eco Suburb) prepared by the council. The extract from the Coventry plan below shows the ten plots (marked A to J) for the proposed Eco-Suburb, a total of 130Ha, earmarked for this development.

Also shown is the greenbelt land between Keresley Village and Ash Green, threatened with accomodating an overspill of 3,500 houses as a part of an agreement between Coventry City Council and Nuneaton and Bedworth Council. (Core Strategy Para. 5.13 .....it will be necessary for Warwick District Council and Nuneaton and Bedworth District Council to make provision on the boundaries of Coventry in their respective Core Strategies to accommodate approximately 7 000 dwellings.). These to be built on the Nuneaton side of the border between Nuneaton & Bedworth and Coventry.

The RSS requires Nuneaton and Bedworth District Council, as part of its' "Core Strategy - Issues & Options", to build 10,800 houses within the borough, making a total of 14,300.

However at a council meeting on 16th October the plan for Nuneaton & Bedworth to build these houses was rejected. Speaking to the Coventry Evening Telegraph Councilor Andrew Burtonshaw stated:

"We do not accept that taking housing from Coventry will be a good thing for the residents of Nuneaton & Bedworth. We were initially told it would be the last resort if it wasn't possible to accommodate Coventry's housing requirements within the Coventry boundary. But that has now changed. That number of homes would destroy the character of Keresley as a village and the green belt.

A similar threat exists at Kings Hill near Finham where the Core Strategy of Warwick District Council shows a similar plan to build 3,500 new homes on behalf of Coventry City Council. Finham Residents Association are fighting this plan.

A consortium - consisting of landowner Queen's College Oxford, and developers Bluemark Developments Limited and Cala Homes (Midlands) Limited - have commissioned the Pegusus Planning Group to produce a framework plan for this eco-suberb. This plan proposes the use of even more greenbelt land for housing than that provided for in the Coventry Core Strategy!