News

Work was completed last week on the replacement of the sails at Chesterton windmill in Warwickshire. The tower, which can be seen from the M40 motorway near Warwick Services, has stood on a hilltop overlooking the village of Chesterton, just off the Fosse Way, for almost 400 years. The windmill was built in about 1633,… Read more: New Sails for Landmark Windmill

Coventry City Council looks set to adopt a planning policy which will manage the construction or conversion of homes into Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO). A report will go to Council later in March when it is hoped a HMO Development Plan Document (DPD) will be formally adopted. It will provide the necessary policy basis… Read more: HMO Planning Policy

BBC Coventry and Warwickshire has reported that a new hospital has been approved in the Walsgrave Triangle. Ellie Brown, the Local Democracy reporter writes…. Plans to convert empty offices into a new hospital in Coventry have taken a major step forward. The offices in Walsgrave Triangle Business Park can be converted into a medical centre,… Read more: New Hospital in Walsgrave

With the former Rover Showroom in Warwick Road on the cusp of demolition, an interesting little bit of its history has been revealed from an archive at an American University. The Rover Showroom, which ended its life as the Litten Tree Building, is shortly to be demolished to make way for the City Centre South… Read more: Recording our History

Coventry Society member, Peter James, tells us what happened after the failure of the silk weaving industry and celebrates the only Elastic Inn in the country! Peter writes…… The signing of the Cobden Treaty in 1859 removed the tariffs on French and Swiss imported silk ribbons. The Americans also put a 50% duty on English… Read more: Elastic – the new Silk

Midlands Connect has renewed the strategic case for a direct rail service between Coventry and Leicester and Nottingham. Historically there were direct rail services between Coventry and Leicester, but these services were stopped in the early 21st Century when the West Coast Mainline was upgraded and it wasn’t safe to have trains cross this line.… Read more: The Return of Direct Trains to Leicester?

Coventry is set to introduce food waste collections within the next year. At present Coventry Council provides a bi-weekly food waste collection and recycling service for those who pay for green waste collections. Those who do not pay have to put their food waste into their rubbish bins, where it is burnt but not recycled.… Read more: New Food Waste Collections

Following a number of difficulties, the plans for a major cultural project at the Ikea building seem to be back on track. The plans to transform Coventry’s old IKEA into a cultural hub have been given a £5m boost. The project is one of several across the country to receive a slice of over £47… Read more: Ikea Project Re-Starts

Coventry University’s Delia Derbyshire Building has been shortlisted as a potential RIBA prize winner. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) unveiled nine projects that have been nominated across the West Midlands and said it was “heartwarming” to see the “imaginative reuse” of buildings across the region. Tim Collett, chair of the West Midlands RIBA… Read more: Delia Shortlisted

A planning application has been submitted to Nuneaton Council for a solar farm between Bulkington and Coventry. The site is at Hollyhurst Farm on Mile Tree Lane (B4109) between Alderman’s Green and Bulkington. The site is currently greenbelt land. Planning permission is being sought for the construction and operation of a solar PV farm as… Read more: Solar Farm Planned for Site north of Coventry