Problems for Prodrive
15/04/2006 David Richards' plans for a new state-of-the-art facility to house his proposed F1 team, have run into trouble, with the threat of planning permission being refused. According to The Birmingham Post, Solihull Council objects to the construction of the proposed facility on 'green belt' land. ''We believe it will encourage car travel, which conflicts with policies for less reliance on cars,'' a council spokeswoman told the newspaper, the irony of the fact that the factory is to build F1 cars clearly lost on her. "We have objected because we feel it is an inappropriate development on green belt land," she added. "Developments on green belt land need to meet special circumstances and we do not believe this meets that criteria." Meanwhile, a group of local residents, calling themselves 'Fulcrum Prodrive Action Group' (FPAC), is lobbying Warwick Council, calling on the council to reject Prodrive's planning application. Prodrive argues that the new factory will create "hundreds of jobs". However, Chris Lewis, a parish councillor with Beausale, Haseley, Honiley and Wroxall Parish Council, is concerned at the loss of green belt land, the inevitable increase in traffic, and worried that the proposed facility will destroy wildlife and set a precedent for other developments. "The one redeeming factor with this scheme is the claim that it will create 800 jobs," said Lewis. "But most of those jobs will be for people with specialist and specific skills that we do not have in this location. We also have full employment in our community so the opportunities would not be beneficial for us." "There will be more traffic created because there will be hundreds more jobs created," argued Prodrive PR Manager Ben Sayer. "It is one of those clouds with a silver lining. "But certainly we have looked at minimising the impact of traffic," he added. "It is a shame that we have these objections, especially as a lot of the new jobs will go to people from Solihull." |
