Land row continues in Warwickshire village as councillor resigns

LAND ownership and parish council membership are proving to be a toxic blend in one south Warwickshire village – especially when councillors could make a fortune from a potential housing development.

In fact, tempers have become so frayed in the village of Wilmcote that attempts were made last week to get the whole of its parish council to resign. (The move was blocked on technical grounds.) Nevertheless, one councillor resigned and walked out of a parish council meeting packed with about 100 residents, around half of whom were chanting “resign, resign”.

On top of this, the three remaining councillors who’d declared a vested interest were told they were being reported to Stratford District Council’s monitoring officer over claims they made their declarations too late. The councillors have refused to succumb to demands that they should resign.

The row hinged on the fact that four of Wilmcote Parish Council’s seven councillors own plots of land that could be sold to developers as part of the suggestion – contained in the options of the draft South Warwickshire Local Plan – to build up to 6,700 homes between Wilmcote and Bearley.

The Local Plan is due to run from 2027 to 2050. During that period Stratford District Council is required to supply enough land to provide 27,000 new homes, and Warwick District Council will need to make land available for 27,400.

An additional factor enraging Wilmcote residents is that a development of more than 6,000 homes would impinge upon Mary Arden’s Farm in the village, the place where Shakespeare’s mother grew up.

But tensions over the size of the development that residents of Wilm-cote and Bearley might be facing have been overshadowed in Wilmcote by the furore over land holdings by parish council members.

The four councillors – James Boyes, Karl McMillan, Leo Mahon and Kate Shilvock – initially registered their interests as “non-pecuniary”. They’ve now all changed that to “pecuniary”. However, Mr Boyes is no longer a councillor as he resigned at last week’s parish council meeting.

The three with no interests to declare are chairman Colin Ray, Sarah Hession and Gavin Stewart. (Cllr Ray was not at last week’s meeting).

But the row over land ownership has now moved on from anger over the fact that councillors have land interests to dismay over their failure to declare their interests earlier. This has been intensified by the emergence – via a Freedom of Information request – of a letter from lawyers acting on behalf of David Wilson Homes (DWH) to Stratford District Council, dated 26th July last year, promoting the availability of land between Bearley and Wilmcote “for mixed use residential led development through the emerging South Warwickshire Local Plan”.

Critics of the Wilmcote councillors – and of the parish council as a whole – argue that they must have known about the inclusion of this land in the Local Plan months before they declared an interest.

“That’s the thing people are upset about – that they haven’t had the decency to do the right thing,” Janine Lee, chair of the recently launched Wilmcote Action Group told the Herald this week.

Not surprisingly, the intrigue mounted as a result of the contents of another letter produced by the FOI from the lawyers representing David Wilson Homes – this time to Warwick District Council and dated 9th October last year. After suggesting that two sites could be “jointly promoted to create a single larger development”, the letter states: “A key point for you to consider is that the masterplan as currently proposed is wholly on land within DWH’s control, and in just three ownerships, which has a number of benefits when considering delivery of a site of this scale.”

Apart from implying that the new settlement idea came from developers, rather than planners, residents are left wondering who the three owners are who’re mentioned in the letter.

Ms Lee said: “It makes us think it’s been driven by commercial pressure rather than sound planning considerations.”

Meanwhile Wilmcote resident Cai Remrod – who initiated the move to get the whole council to resign – told the Herald he’s calling for an extraordinary meeting of the council to be held so that a proper vote can take place on whether they should all step down for fresh elections.

Things have been further complicated in Wilmcote by the fact that Cllr Ray has announced that he’s retiring as chairman in May and Cllr Shilvock has resigned as deputy chair because of her vested interest. The scene is looking set for a complete re-vamp…