The Coventry Society has objected to two proposals for self-build housing at Watery Lane, Keresley. The two sites are part of the Keresley Jubilee Wood, created in 2012 and protected in the current Coventry Local Plan of 2017.
Jubilee Wood was created to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, being the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. When the woodland was being established in 2012, some of the Parish Councillors along with parishioners worked with the Council’s Trees and Woodlands Officer to plant the saplings for the woodland.
In November 2016 an Oak tree was planted within the woodland by Keresley Parish Council to honour the 90th birthday celebration of Queen Elizabeth II. A site was chosen in agreement with the Council’s Urban Forestry Officer.
For many years Keresley Parish Council has helped to maintain the Jubilee Wood. In December 2023 two memorial trees were planted by the then Lord Mayor Cllr Birdi and the Lady Mayoress, commemorating the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of King Charles III, in the meadow area now proposed for housing.
The two planning applications, made by the City Council, are each for the erection of between 6 and 9 self-build dwellings and upgrading of the existing vehicular access off Watery Lane and the creation of new roads and accesses into the proposed sites.
The Coventry Society supports the principal of the designation of land for self-build housing. There are too few of such sites available in Coventry. However, we feel that these should be built on allocated sites in the current Local Plan and its proposed update.
Such self-build sites should and could have been within the housing allocations of the Sustainable Urban Extensions (SUEs) currently under development in Keresley and Eastern Green.
These two proposals are on land identified in the Local Plan as being protected, and would take 25% of Jubilee Woodland including the locations of the commemorative trees planted so recently by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress.
Development of the Watery Lane frontage to the woodland would significantly reduce the amenity of the remainder of the wood and could increase the risk of nuisance arising.
The Keresley Urban Extension Design Guide of 2019, which provides the policy basis for the current major urban extension shows the Jubilee Wood as protected and was followed in 2020 by a Jubilee Wood Management Programme produced by the City Council. The current, 2025, Local Plan update again refers to the protection of the Jubilee Woodland.
Trevor Cornfoot, Chair of the Coventry Society stated that “Following the adoption of the Urban Extension Design Guide SPD in 2019, residents of Keresley and the Keresley Parish Council were assured by Coventry City Council that the housing allocation contained within the document was final, and that no more land would be taken from within the Keresley Parish for housing.
“Yet, only six years later, it is Coventry City Council now wanting to grab even more land for housing. This is not just any greenfield site, but part of the Jubilee Woodland, specifically detailed within the Local Plan as one of the protected woodlands within Coventry.
“It would appear that the 3100 houses already detailed within the SPD were not enough, and that Coventry City Council now wants 25% the Jubilee Woodland to be sacrificed for a further 18 dwellings!! We call on the City Council to withdraw these two planning applications, and if not, that the Planning Committee unanimously refuse them”.
The two planning applications are PL/2025/0000826/PIP and PL/2025/0000828/PIP They can be viewed on the Council’s Planning Portal by following these links. The Coventry Society would recommend that residents look at the applications and make their own comments on the applications. If five people object, then the application will be considered by Planning Committee.
