Redevelopment
work in the north of Coventry is set to go into overdrive after the Secretary of State
decided not to intervene in plans for the Coventry Colliery site.
It is the second time that the Foleshill area of Coventry has received the green light
for ambitious plans in a matter of months after Coventry City Football Club’s Arena
2000 proposal was given the go-ahead.
Although
Coventry’s Director of City Development John McGuigan believes the two schemes will
bring new opportunities to that area of the city, he admits that the Arena 2000 proposals
were more straightforward.
He said:
"The Coventry Colliery plans are similar in some regards to Arena 2000 as far as
regeneration of an area is concerned, but the main points are different.
"Whereas with the arena, the biggest issue was the creation of retail facilities,
with this one it was the fact that some green belt land had to be included in the proposal
to make it economically viable."
The plans will now be passed by a combination of three councils - Coventry, Nuneaton
& Bedworth and Warwickshire - as the 300 acre site spills into all three areas.
The development plans 150 acres for business space – which will be serviced by a
freight railway-line – 400 new homes and a countryside park created on some of the
greenbelt land.
At an estimated cost of £42 million the scheme is expected to create around 2500 new
jobs in the area and David Keir from developers Prologis Kingspark believes it is exciting
times for Coventry.
He said:
"This will be an unusual development in the fact that we will be building houses
on the same site as the employment buildings and we very much hope that they will be
purchased by people working on site.
"This will cut down on any transportation costs and also help enormously with the
Government's drive to cut down on people commuting to work by car.
"We will also be running shuttle services from the new bus and railway terminals
that are to be created at the Arena 2000 site, and with the opportunity for businesses to
link into the freight railway line it will all be very user-friendly."
Prologis had first put forward proposals that included the development of 70 acres of
Green Belt land but after extensive discussions with the councils involved this has now
been reduced to 50 acres.
