Community is in danger; HOUSING: MP says village would disappear.

Byline: Mike Malyon

THE village of Keresley End would be swallowed up by Coventry if proposals are accepted.

This is the view of Labour MP Mike O'Brien who says that the Ash Green area of Bedworth would also disappear as a community under plans to build more houses.

He has called on the borough council to drop the two options, which are part of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council's Core Strategy consultation., and would allow thousands of houses to swamp the areas and merge them into Coventry.

He said: "People are waking up to this. Coventry plans to build up to the boundary with Keresley End and wants to cross the boundary to build an additional 3,500 houses. The village of Keresley End would be swallowed up by Covent r y.

"These options are not caused by Whitehall.

The government only allocated a number of houses to the West Midlands as a whole. It is councillors on the Regional Assembly who decide what each area gets and last June the borough council cabinet agreed 10,400 homes by 2026, plus a potential further 3,500 from Coventry."

Mr O'Brien added: "A key issue is the impact that the Coventry Council Core Strategy will have on Nuneaton and Bedworth and the failure of the borough council to formally object to the city authority's plans. In March 2007 Coventry Council was initially allocated 24,400 homes by the Regional Assembly but following a review in January 2008 they accepted a higher allocation of 33,500 homes. Coventry Council then said they would not be able to accommodate the number of homes and sought the consent of Warwickshire Councils for 7,000 overspill homes. Nuneaton and Bedworth at the Regional Strategy meeting in July 2009 did not object to this. They raised some questions but failed to object as part of the consultation."

Peter Gilbert, leader of the Tory-controlled borough council, said: "The Sub Regional Forum has been meeting to consider Regional Spatial Strategy issues for more than three years. The meetings are held on Friday afternoons and that is to allow sub regional MPs to have a chance to attend. Every MP receives an agenda for every meeting. Mike O'Brien has not attended any of these meetings.

"Mr O'Brien has had every opportunity for the last three years to be aware of and take part in the discussions going on in Coventry, Warwickshire and Solihull to see how we collectively wanted to deal with the growth.