Barkby & Barkby Thorpe Parish Council

The Council's current Local Plan guides development in the borough up until 2028. It sets out a strategy that delivers the homes, jobs and infrastructure needed while protecting the environment.

The Council has published a discussion paper called 'Towards a Local Plan for Charnwood' which explores the scale of development needed in the borough up until 2036.

The discussion paper does not identify specific sites for new development as that will come later in the process, but it does ask for views on the key issues and options for delivering growth.

Cllr Eric Vardy, lead member for planning, said: "Charnwood is a great place to live and has fantastic commercial and employment prospects for the future but with that comes a certain amount of pressure to accommodate development.

"Latest figures show that just under 1,000 homes a year need to be built up until 2036 and we are required by national policies to meet that need.

"The planning system is there to protect our most important assets by making sure we plan new development in the best locations and that they bring with them the infrastructure our communities need. That's why we have a Local Plan.

"We are already working on our next Local Plan and this is a very early chance to have a say on the some of the issues that will influence it. We're not talking about locations yet and that will be further down the line. "

For more information or to have a say, please visit: www.charnwood.gov.uk/local_plan_review

The deadline for responses is June 7, 2018. The Council has already contacted people and organisations who expressed an interest in being kept informed about the process.

There will be further consultations later this year and next as the new Local Plan takes shape. The new plan is expected to be completed in 2020

This is Barkby & Barkby Thorpe Parish Councils response:-

Comments from Barkby & Barkby Thorpe Parish Council on the discussion paper "Towards a New Local Plan"

1) For the villages of Barkby and Barkby Thorpe and the eastern edge of Thurmaston none of the options for locating the houses purported to be needed by 2036 is in anyway attractive. The villages face a future of encroaching housing estates which will downgrade the rural nature of the community, deal a blow to the farming community, add to congestion on local roads and put pressure on local services.

2) In the many meetings with planners and Charnwood councillors over the existing Local Plan the huge housing scheme of the North East of Leicester SUE was sold to local residents on the premise that the green fields around their villages would be spared piecemeal development. The expectation was that the planners and the council would reject opportunistic planning applications because the SUE would meet local housing needs. This "contract" has already been broken with permissions for hundreds of houses being granted in nearby Queniborough since the adoption of the current Local Plan and appears to have been forgotten in the thrust of the new Local Plan particularly with regard to the inclusion of the SHLAA options of PHS7 (land west of Barkby 111 houses) PSH8 (land east of Barkby 690 houses) and PSH 69 (land SE of Syston (1200 house). Should any of these options be adopted in the Local Plan BABTAG will regard their inclusion as a breach of trust between the council and the local community.

3) Option 5 and 6 of the discussion paper's so-called "reasonable development strategy options" propose concentrating development in four new stand-alone settlement areas in Charnwood, one of which may well be the 690 houses either side of Holt Lane (PSH8 land east of Barkby). If indeed this land has been identified as one of the four new settlements BABTAG vehemently opposes it. The intrusion of a large new urban settlement on a ridge visible for miles would degrade the landscape of this quiet rural area. Moreover the traffic generated by its up to 2000 residents would add to congestion of traffic through Barkby as the only obvious access would be via Holt Lane to the Beeby Road.

4) A more positive aspect of the discussion paper are the proposals for amending areas of separation and green wedges. However, it seems a contradiction to be considering some of these very sites for new housing. The council cannot have its cake and eat it. Barkby & Barkby Thorpe Parish Council strongly supports retaining and enhancing all the areas of separation that maintain the integrity of Barkby and Barkby Thorpe as villages surrounded by countryside.

5) The discussion paper claims that it has taken into account the Leicester and Leicestershire Strategic Growth Plan but beyond this mention it is silent about the LSG. Seeing that the new A46 expressway will cut a swathe through the district's countryside as it skirts Syston, Barkby, Beeby and Keyham on its way south this omission is extraordinary as the four lane highway's impact on the landscape, the environment and the rural nature of these villages will be immense. And this is before any consideration of the proportion of the 40,000 new homes along its route that will fall within Charnwood.

6) The discussion paper is honest that there is as yet no agreed methodology for predicting population growth but then nearly doubles the doubtful number of houses (8100) needed to 15700 in case building delays cause a shortfall. Barkby & Barkby Thorpe Parish Council asks whether the despoiling of the landscape, the destruction of our countryside, the damage to our villages and the congestion of our roads should be permitted on such questionable premises. » Less