Approval given to demolish WW2 air raid shelter

The entrance to the shelter which was built close to houses on Tamworth Road

A World War Two air raid shelter in Coventry is to be demolished to make way for a housing development despite a petition calling for it be saved.

The underground red brick structure off Tamworth Road, Keresley, was described by campaigners as a very good example of its kind.

Developers got the go-ahead to remove it as part of a 550-home development two years ago.

Dozens of residents had called for the shelter be protected ahead of final plans for 19 of the homes being agreed by councillors on 12 September.

Councilor Roger Bailey, who visited the structure, said it seemed sad to lose it, describing the shelter as substantial, undamaged and "really, really rare".

A petition to save it had been set up in August but he said it was a bit too late in the day to do anything about it and most people had been unaware of the shelter's existence.

The structure would have been in the garden of one of the new homes and the developers were not keen on keeping it despite efforts to look into retaining the building, said a council officer.

She also highlighted that the council could not insist on keeping the shelter due to the outline planning approval already given and in theory the petition should have come before the decision two years ago.

The underground shelter in Keresley is set to be demolished as part of work on a new housing estate

A representative for developers Bellway told the meeting the shelter was not a statutorily listed building and was assessed as having "relatively low historic sensitivity".

The position agreed with the council was that the public benefits of the new homes outweighed the relative significance of the war time structure, he said.

A condition of the outline planning permission had been a programme of historic building recording and analysis of the shelter, which had been checked and approved by a conservation officer, he added.

The final part of planning permission for the site, known as the reserved matters, were approved.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.