Local residents object to new student accommodation plans

A recent plan to develop a 100 bedroom student accommodation complex on green belt land between Leamington and Kenilworth has been met with outrage from local residents.

The outline proposal, which has been submitted to Warwick District Council, puts forward the development on land at Chesford Bridge House, next to the roundabout where Kenilworth Road meets Bericote Lane.

However, residents in the nearby Blackdown, Ashow and Hill Wootton are in disbelief over the plans.

One said: “This is a wholly inappropriate proposal which would spoil one of the last remaining pieces of attractive open countryside in the Leamington and Kenilworth areas.

“Local roads are quite unsuited to any significant increase in traffic, and the countryside is not the right place for large numbers of students to make their home, when every day to day requirement – whether commuting to university, shopping, working or socialising – would involve a journey, almost certainly to Leamington or Coventry.”

Michael Jeff from the Warwickshire Branch of CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) added: “The site sits in the narrow green belt between Leamington and Kenilworth and we believe it must be protected for generations to come.

“There are no exceptional circumstances in this application to justify building student accommodation on this site.”