The proposed Whitley Pumping Station housing development
adequately meets the housing targets set for the area of land east
of London Road in the Local Plan. There is no need to add to this
by building on the Coventry City Council area land. On the contrary
the Council have a duty of care to ensure the health and well-being
of its residents. The Allard Way site, if sympathetically
landscaped, planted with trees and provisioned with play equipment
would provide a quality green space (as per Coventry’s Green
Space Strategy) and would extend the use of an already important
publicly accessible area to Whitley families and children. It would
encourage outdoor activity and promote health and well-being in
times of Covid and beyond, providing an outdoor communal meeting
place for local people, particularly flat dwellers who have no back
gardens. It would also continue to act as important green space to
mitigate against climate change and loss of habitat and
biodiversity (retention of green space is a stated policy in
Coventry’s Climate Change Strategy) as well as providing
vital outdoor educational opportunities to local school children
from Ernesford Grange and Whitley schools. The area connects to the
Sowe Valley footpath which offers a route to areas further afield,
encouraging active travel.
Whitley has never had the good fortune to have family friendly
areas that encourage children outdoors as the Council has never
seen it as a priority. With a cycle path the area would provide
safe off-road access to the Alan Higgs Sports Centre and the Allard
Way cycle path for the local population. We believe the retention
of this green space is absolutely vital to the community, and would
offer at least some mitigation against burgeoning road traffic in
the area, brought about by numerous large-scale developments in
recent years - Whitley South, Middlemarch Business Park, Gateway,
the MRF, Charterhouse Heritage Park, the Airport Retail and Pilot
Business Parks to name but a few.
This ePetition ran from 28/01/2021 to 01/04/2021 and has now finished.
78 people signed this ePetition.