Warwick clears infrastructure package at Greenpower Park

With Coventry Airport having now informed the Civil Aviation Authority of its 2026 closure, long-held plans for a gigafactory at the site are being ramped up.

A planning committee last night voted through a reserved matters application for enabling works at the Baginton site.

Outline consent has been in place for Greenpower Park, a joint venture between Coventry City Council and airport owner Rigby Group, for three years now, while a £23m funding package from West Midlands Combined Authority was confirmed this year.

The over-arching intent is to secure major international investment to attract battery manufacturers along with other electric vehicle and energy storage supply chain businesses to a 5.7m sq ft site, which has investment zone status.

A package of enabling works has now been rubber-stamped by Warwick – under whose jurisdiction most of the site falls – including the formation of development plateaux, earthworks, strategic drainage features, a primary substation, strategic landscaping, and the demolition of existing structures, plus the formation of the main spine road within the site.

Coventry Airport as it stands. Credit: planning documents

Last week saw Rigby Group, which earlier this year sold off the other regional airports in its ownership, tell the UK Civil Aviation Authority that it would close next year.

A spokesperson from the UK Civil Aviation Authority told Place Midlands: “Coventry Aerodrome has given formal notice to us of its plan to close the airport permanently with effect from 11 June 2026.”

Warwick Council’s planning committee took around an hour to consider the main application, approving it with just one abstention, and also gave the go-ahead to a single application covering the scheme’s sub-station, isolated in planning terms to give the project team flexibility.

At the meeting, Cllr Bill Gifford said: “We are where we are, the region and country needs a gigafactory. I can see no reason in planning terms for refusal.”

So, the project team may proceed – should the market buy in to its ambitions.

Cllr Jim O’Boyle, cabinet member for jobs, regeneration and climate change at Coventry City Council, told Place: “Our ambitions for Greenpower Park are simple, in that we believe this can be a project of significance not just for Coventry and the region, but the whole country.

“Coventry as an airport never really fulfilled its potential, but locationally the big advantage is that immediately next to it we’ve got the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, which in itself is one of a kind. Add to that the strength of the automotive sector in this region, and you see that now we have the opportunity to deliver something of national significance.”

The main objective now is bringing on board major investment. On such large-scale projects, this is far from easy, and a variety of global factors have added doses of caution, with US auto trade tariffs, the buy-in of central government, and the strength of diplomatic relations with China all factors in play.

SGP is the architect for Greenpower Park. Credit: Coventry City Council

Cllr O’Boyle told Place: “There are irons in the fire. The Department for Business & Trade and ourselves have been over to China, which is the world’s superpower in battery technology, and we have good links now.

“If the UK is going to maximise its potential, we need to build batteries here, and we need to invest in that now. This is critical infrastructure for our country and along with a whole range of benefits can play a major part in the government’s drive for energy independence.”

West Midlands Combined Authority signed off a £23m investment into Greenpower Park in January 2025.

The professional team includes architect Stephen George + Partners,  Planning Prospects, FPCR Environment & Design, and PJA.

Scheduled passenger flights have not taken place at Coventry since 2008, after a bid for a permanent passenger terminal under a previous ownership faltered. The site has remained in use since by the Air Ambulance Service, for cargo and flight training and for private aviation. A number of businesses at the site have ben given notice.

Documents relating to the reserved matters application, covering the enabling works, can be viewed on Warwick’s planning portal, reference W 25 / 0125.