Land South East Of Shilton Lane And South And South East Of Lentons Lane, Coventry Data via plota.co.uk

Approved PL/2025/0001922/FULM
Date received
week of 6 Oct 2025
Decision date
week of 5 Jan 2026

Description

Solar farm development including solar arrays, control buildings and associated infrastructure, internal access roads, landscaping and associated development Data via plota.co.uk

Last checked

Planning committee

Decided by Coventry Planning Committee on 18 Dec 2025.

Approved

As officers recommended.

  • Officers advised approval because renewable-energy and carbon benefits outweighed Green Belt and other limited harm.
  • Objectors raised concerns about Green Belt loss, farmland, visual effects, flooding, ecology, traffic and residential amenity.
  • The committee granted permission for the Coventry part, with conditions and additional community-benefit and security measures.
Read how the committee decided The proposal, site history, officers’ assessment, objections, speakers, debate, vote and decision conditions.

Source: Plota analysis of Coventry's committee minutes of 18 Dec 2025.

Site constraints 4

Green belt: Birmingham
Inappropriate development needs very special circumstances.
Green belt policy allows a short list of exceptions, such as limited extensions and replacement buildings. Anything else needs very special circumstances that clearly outweigh the harm.
Agricultural land, grade 3a
Best and most versatile land (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Source: the Predictive Agricultural Land Classification Map (Defra and Natural England, 2025; the Welsh Government's Predictive ALC Map 2 in Wales), a model rather than a site survey. Natural England's Provisional ALC map (1:250,000, 1970s) agrees.
Where development of farmland is needed, policy prefers poorer land over the best and most versatile (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Three sources: Natural England's post-1988 field surveys, which are definitive where they exist; the Defra predictive map for England (2025) and the Welsh Government predictive map, modelled from the soil map with 3a and 3b split; and the 1970s provisional map, which planners and other services still show, coarser and with grade 3 undivided. Where the provisional and predicted grades disagree, treat the predicted grade as the current estimate and expect an application to carry its own survey.
Air quality management area: Coventry City-Wide AQMA
The council has declared the area as failing an air quality objective.
Schemes that add traffic, parking or combustion plant are assessed against the area's action plan and may need an air quality assessment.
Council record ↗
Also on the record
Priority habitat about 15 m away: Deciduous woodland.
Not affected
Outside flood zones 2 and 3 · No scheduled monument at the site

Checked on 25 September 2026. The pin for this application is the centre of its postcode rather than the building, so distances to nearby designations are measured from the postcode and can be out by the width of the postcode area. Historic England, the Environment Agency, Natural England and council datasets, Open Government Licence. A boundary can run through a site and the council holds the definitive record: confirm with the council before relying on this.

Work with planning data?

Every application in Coventry - and every UK council - as a live feed, an API, or a bulk CSV export.

About Plota's data service
Coventry
Planning Authority Score
7.7/10
Good
#35 of 296 councils
Relevant to this application:
Householder decisions

Coventry is one of the fastest councils in England for householder decisions, ranking #13 out of 296. Only 13% of applications have the time limit extended, well below the 41% national average - the council usually decides on time. Householder applications are slightly more likely to be approved here (90%) than the national average (90%).

Among the fastest councils in England
for householder decisions
These figures are council-wide context, not a prediction for this application. View full council performance
Coventry decision statistics
Based on MHCLG data, the year to March 2026
84%
Overall approval rate
Below avg (87%) #219 of 296
90%
Householder approved
Above avg (90%) #189 of 296
91%
Decided in 8 weeks
Above avg (63%) #13 of 296
13%
Extended time limit
Below avg (41%) #7 of 296
72%
Minor dwellings approved
114 decided (1-9 homes)
89%
Major dwellings approved
28 decided (10+ homes)
74%
Change of use approved
100 decided
1,131
Total decisions
186 refused in the year to March 2026