An environmental impact assessment (EIA) must be completed before plans for a major new industrial site near Jaguar Land Rover's Gaydon base can progress.

Construction firm Deeley Group revealed the scheme to turn 11 hectares of farmland into a distribution centre earlier this year.

Having reviewed the outline for the development, Stratford-on-Avon District Council has now decided an EIA must be conducted before a detailed proposal is put forward.

A council report said while the development's impact would be "localised", it's scale meant the project is likely to have "significant effects" on the local environment.

Therefore, any forthcoming planning application would have to include an EIA.

The plans state the scheme at Swallowfields Farm, on Banbury Road, would include offices, car parking, service yards and boundary landscaping.

"Deeley Group has recently secured an option to acquire the site and is in the early stages of preparing a planning application to bring it forward for employment development," the application said.

It added: "The proposed development will also result in some very positive effects. 

"During construction this will arise through job creation and capital investment, with further jobs being created during the operational stage and for the life of the development. 

"In addition to this, the proposals seek to deliver a net gain in biodiversity of new habitats."

See the full plans here.

(Image by Bill Nicholls via geograph.org.uk)