Statement from Rugby Borough Council Leader, Seb Lowe, and Portfolio Holder for Growth and Investment, Jill Simpson-Vince, regarding the council's decision to approve the South West Rugby Supplementary Planning Document:

Cllr Seb Lowe, Conservative Leader of Rugby Borough Council, explained following the approval of the SW Rugby SPD, "The Liberal Democrats may be opportunists who will jump on any bandwagon and mislead the public if they think there are a couple of votes in, but at least they are consistent. The behaviour of the Labour group last Thursday night was genuinely shocking - they have all voted for 5000 houses to be built in South West Rugby, and then last night deliberately voted to try and block environmental safeguards and infrastructure to go with the very development they voted for."

Cllr. Jill Simpson-Vince, Rugby Borough Council Portfolio Holder for Growth and Investment, explained the importance of the SW Rugby SPD in her statement to full council last night, "Our local plan was adopted in June 2019 and included an allocation for 5,000 homes and 35 hectares of employment land, these homes are already planned within our allocation of 12,400 in the local plan.

The principle of development for South West Rugby was established with the adoption of the local plan. The Local plan went through a rigorous process and a public hearing by the Planning Inspector. The SPDs cannot affect the principle of development, they cannot introduce new policy, they cannot change Local Plan policy, they expand on it by providing the framework.

This SPD for South West Rugby began its journey in summer 2019. This plan has been through its regulatory journey, including two public consultations rather than the usual one and now is the time to approve this SPD."