Council gets new Garden Village for Long Marston Airfield

Plans for a new Garden Village have been given the backing and funding from Government in an announcement yesterday, Monday 2 January 2017.

Stratford-on-Avon District Council's application for Long Marston Airfield, working with the site promoter CALA Homes in July 2016, has been selected by the Government as one of 14 new Garden Villages across the country.

The scheme will now benefit from access to a £6million fund and resources to help support delivery of this 3,500 home scheme which also includes 13ha of employment land, a village centre, community facilities, two primary schools and a secondary school, 77ha of open space including Country Park, as well as a western relief road to Stratford-upon-Avon town itself.

Councillor Chris Saint, Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Planning Policy said: “This is fantastic news for Stratford District and for the Council. Not only will it support the delivery of this important site identified in the adopted Core Strategy, but it will ensure that the development itself is of the highest quality built to garden village principles consistent with the rural nature of the District.

“Garden Village status will help ensure a vibrant new community at Long Marston Airfield that balances the need for new homes with the provision of necessary infrastructure in a green setting. The success of this bid is a credit to the Council and I would like to thank our Planning Policy Officers involved in putting this bid together."

 Background Information 

A garden village is defined by the government as settlements of between 1,500 and 10,000 homes.

The other 13 garden villages are:

• Oxfordshire Cotswold in West Oxfordshire
• Deenethorpe in East Northants
• Culm in Mid Devon
• Welborne near Fareham in Hampshire
• West Carclaze in Cornwall
• Dunton Hills near Brentwood, Essex
• Spitalgate Heath in South Kesteven, Lincolnshire
• Halsnead in Knowsley, Merseyside
• Longcross in Runnymede and Surrey Heath
• Bailrigg in Lancaster
• Infinity Garden Village in South Derbyshire and Derby City area
• St Cuthberts near Carlisle City, Cumbria
• North Cheshire in Cheshire East