Council is accused of ‘steamrolling’ through homes plans
CONCERNS THAT NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN IS BEING OVERLOOKED WITH TOO MANY PROPERTIES BEING BUILT
A PARISH council chairman has claimed the planning authority has “steamrolled” one new housing development through and is set to do the same with a second.
Charnwood Borough Council has approved plans for a 50-home development by David Wilson at Barley Fields in Queniborough and is now considering a bid to build a further 150 homes in Barkby Road.
Councillor Stephen Wright says neither area was earmarked as suitable for development in Queniborough’s neighbourhood plan, which took the parish around four years to compile and was even put to a public vote before it was adopted.
He is now questioning whether it’s worth the paper it’s written on.
Councillor Wright said: “The 50 houses passed for approval in February were not allocated in the neighborhood plan, which has set a precedent, and there is now an application from David Wilson Homes for a further 150 houses, together with a proposed junction ‘improvement,’ which intends to take down established trees with protection orders on them.
“We began the plan back in 2017 as we felt it was the best thing to do to safeguard our village in terms of housing and development.
“It took three or four years to get it to fruition and we believed it would carry weight when it came to planning applications.
“Then, when the Barley Fields development was approved, we were told our plan was not valid – even though it took 18 months to be approved.”
Councillor Wright believes other areas in the village could cope better with more homes.
He told the Mercury: “Frankly, it feels like we’re being steamrolled and we’re trying to see if we can fight this. There needs to be some exposure on what’s happening to our village.
“My belief is there should be definition between the villages – with a wedge of green to identify each one.
“If the plans for another 150 houses get approved, that means at least 200 more cars on the road and at the minute around school time and in the evening it’s already horrendous.
“The situation needs to be highlighted – we went to considerable lengths to do a neighbourhood plan. It took years of work and cost us a fair amount of money to achieve in terms of people’s time and approval.”
A Charnwood Borough Council spokesman said: “With regards to housing supply, the National Planning Policy Framework states that local planning authorities should identify and update annually a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide a minimum of five years’ worth of housing against their local housing need where the strategic policies are more than five years old.
“The local housing need figure for Charnwood borough is currently 1,160 homes per year... and its housing land supply is 3.04 years.
“The Queniborough Neighbourhood Plan was challenged by the applicant who was seeking to build homes off Boonton Meadow Way.
“Legal opinion sought by the council advised that the neighbourhood plan did not meet a requirement with regards to housing need as set out in national planning policies.
“The plans committee carefully considered a range of planning issues, including the Queniborough Neighbourhood Plan, before making a decision on the application.
“We appreciate this may be frustrating to the Queniborough community which developed the meighbourhood plan. However, when considering planning applications there are many factors to consider.”
My belief is there should be definition between the villages with a wedge of green to identify each one