The climate change emergency will be central to the new planning document being drawn up to cover South Warwickshire.

Councillors from Warwick and Stratford District Councils met this week to discuss their ongoing work to develop a joint local plan.

Cllr Andrew Day (Con, Bishops Tachbrook), the leader of Warwick District Council, chaired the meeting and highlighted the importance of climate policies for generations to come.

He said: "Both councils have very clear objectives on this matter and the importance of this matter. I see it sits centrally in our work on this local plan and in my view that's absolutely right – it's what our residents would expect and more particularly it is what our children and grandchildren would demand and nothing less.

"This is a major undertaking and an historic undertaking. In coming together, our two district councils are recognising that there is a distinct and particular place in South Warwickshire that is reflected by not only the lives of our residents but by the way in which our business is done and the way in which we relate as communities.

"This local plan is going to be historic, informally setting out our shared ambitions for the future. It will require us to work very hard to find common ground and to remember those things that bring us together and not just those things that are just parochial to our own wards or parts of the greater South Warwickshire area."

The chairs of each council's overview and scrutiny committees spoke at the meeting to outline various recommendations including one suggesting that all new housing should be carbon neutral.

Cllr Jonathan Nicholls (Lab, Leamington Clarendon), said: "We do really need to make sure that this is promoted as a consultation of great significance. This, after all, may set the skeletal framework for how the whole of South Warwickshire will be developed until 2050."

And Cllr John Cooke (Con, Kenilworth Abbey and Arden) added: "We have to remember that documents relating to this very important subject need to be tailored to the audience. We are doing this for the people of South Warwickshire and we need to make sure that the documentation engages them."

The document, which will also incorporate a 'call for sites' exercise inviting site suggestions for development and land use, will now go out to consultation online from May 10.

Philip Clarke, head of development services at Warwick District Council, said: "This consultation is very much the first stage as we plan the future of South Warwickshire and we would encourage everybody to become involved in helping us to do this and to have their say."

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