By 
Plans have gone in for 99 homes on farmland off School Road in Salford Priors, about eight miles from Stratford-upon-Avon. The application, 26/02478/FUL, comes from Lone Star Land and Sherbourne Investments, and includes 35 affordable homes. The first four public comments on the file all raise concerns, three of them formal objections.
On this page
What’s planned
The site is about 6.27 hectares of cropland next to the village, with homes covering 2.8 hectares and the rest given to open space, a children’s play area, swales and a drainage pond. An existing private drive off School Road, which also serves the neighbouring fruit business, would be upgraded to take the traffic. The applicants’ transport work estimates about 49 trips in the morning peak and 46 in the evening peak.
The applicants’ case
The site isn’t allocated for housing in the Core Strategy or the village’s neighbourhood plan, and it wasn’t chosen for the draft South Warwickshire Local Plan. The planning statement rests on the district’s housing land shortage: at 2.43 years’ supply against the five expected, it argues national policy means permission should be given unless the harm substantially outweighs the benefits.
It lists the harm as limited: the loss of ordinary countryside and of good quality farmland (grades 2 and 3a), low or very low harm to the setting of nearby listed buildings and the conservation area, and a minor to moderate visual effect. It says the primary school has room, the site isn’t at risk of river flooding, and the scheme would deliver an 18% gain in biodiversity.
What people have said
When we checked on 3 November, the comments raised traffic on School Road alongside lorries to the fruit business and school runs, the position of the new entrance, drainage and sewage, flooding, the strain on local services and the loss of farmland. The applicants’ own leaflet consultation in February and March drew about 33 responses on similar themes, and they met the parish council on 9 February. No replies from the parish council or the county’s highways team are on the file yet.
Who would run the affordable homes?
That is still open. A report for the applicants dated 28 October says 11 housing associations with homes in the district were asked and none has shown interest so far, with one yet to reply. Most said they weren’t buying here or that 35 homes was too few. The report suggests a fallback if none comes forward; the applicants’ statement mentions discounted sale homes instead. The papers also differ slightly on the mix: two passages give 60% social rent, as council policy expects, while one gives 60% affordable rent.
What happens next
Neighbour letters run until 18 November and the newspaper advert until 26 November, and the council’s target date for a decision is 1 January 2027. You can read the documents and comment on the application page, and see other plans near you with our Planning near me tool. Lone Star Land is also behind a separate plan for 70 homes in Kineton.
Know more about this, or got another story? Send us a story, a photo or a press release. We read everything.
Alex Harrington
Alex Harrington grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon and runs What's up, Stratford? as an independent guide to the town.
