Plans for up to 500 new homes to the south of Warwick and Leamington Spa have been handed a boost by council planners.

HarperCrewe first revealed the plans for Mallory Road in Bishop's Tachbrook in April.

The developer asked Warwick District Council whether it needed to conduct a major environmental study - an Environmental Impact Assessment - before it submitted a full planning application for the estate.

The local authority's planning team has this week said the assessment is not needed.

"Based on the information provided having regard to the specific characterises of the development, its location and potential impacts, it is considered that an Environmental Statement will not be required on this basis," a council report said.

At this early stage, few details of the proposed new estate have been revealed.

But council documents do state the 500 homes would be built across 29.6 hectares of agricultural land.

The site is made up of three parcels of land which were all put forward in the early stages of the South Warwickshire Local Plan.

The developer wrote: "The proposals are for a comprehensively planned residential community of up to 500 dwellings on a net developable area of some 15.4ha.

"The proposals would be set within an extensive network of green infrastructure extending to some 14.2ha. In terms of vehicular access, it is currently proposed to access the three land parcels separately with access to be taken from Banbury Road to the west (to access Land Parcel C), Mallory Road to the south (to access Land Parcel B) and Anchitel Green (to access Land Parcel A).

"There is also an opportunity to provide a further access through the adjacent site to the north-west should this come forward for residential uses."

Before the district council made a decision on the environmental assessment, Bishop's Tachbrook Parish Council said this should be "mandatory" given the "scale of the proposal and its potential for significant environmental effects".

The parish council wrote: "The assessment must not look at these 500 homes in a vacuum.

"The ES needs to assess the cumulative impact of this site alongside other nearby developments and those sites being brought forward in the emerging South Warwickshire Local Plan (SWLP).

"This application cannot stand in isolation from the significant scale of development that has already occurred or is proposed in the immediate vicinity.

"We wish to prevent 'death by a thousand cuts,' where the local environment is eroded piece by piece by multiple disconnected projects."

The developer will now submit a full application for the development.