The Society first raised concerns about this site – together with several other sites along Alcester Road and in the Rother Triangle area – in late 2003/early 2004 during the regular meetings that took place between the Society’s Strategy Group and the District Council’s Head of Strategy. The Society argued that the proposed re-development of Stratford College, the Cattle Market, the Hospital site, the PCT site and the entire Rother Triangle required nothing less than a “framework to guide the future development” of the town. The Council appeared to agree and asked the Society to put this in writing, which we did on 26 August 2004.

The Strategy Group kept on raising this issue with the Council and, in early 2005, the Group wrote to the Council stating that they were “still awaiting answers about the need for a Strategic Framework to guide future development of the town” and referred specifically to the need for a mini-strategy to guide developments along Alcester Road.

Finally, in the fourth quarter of 2005, the Council went ahead and appointed Urban Practitioners to prepare an Urban Design Framework to guide the future development of the town. However, by then several planning applications relating to key sites along Alcester Road had been approved, including the Hospital and College sites and a design brief had been issued for the Cattle Market. In our view, having decided to seek professional advice on these important sites, the Council should have sought a moratorium on all relevant ongoing planning applications. Otherwise, what is the point of getting consultants to prepare an Urban Design Framework? If all key sites have been spoken for – including the Cattle Market site – why waste money on preparing a Framework that will not be used to inform the development of what is arguably the most important gateway site in the town?

We trust that, after all the effort we have put into getting the Council to understand that piecemeal development does not work in a historic town like Stratford, that the Council will find some way of ensuring that the Cattle Market site is developed in accordance with the guidelines that are now emerging from the work being undertaken by Urban Practitioners.

The application was refused.