Plans for more than 350 homes rejected
PLANS to build more than 350 homes in Sileby have been turned down by Charnwood Borough Council.
Two separate applications; one to build 170 homes at Peashill Farm, and the another to build 195 homes on land to the east of Seagrave Road were both heard at the planning committee meeting on Thursday, November 7.
The application for Seagrave Road by Hallam Land Management and Trustees of the Sketchly Trust is set to be reviewed as part of a public inquiry by the Planning Inspectorate in February next year - so permission to build the homes may still be granted, if the inspector decides that the council’s reasons for refusal aren’t strong enough.
At this stage of the process the borough council is obliged to consider how it would be minded to determine the application had it the opportunity to do so, and for this decision to then be reported back to the Planning Inspectorate.
The council first refused the application in July 2016 after objections that the development would not provide housing for older people, the impact on noise, air and visual pollution, and that it is not sustainable - and the council refused the application again for the same reasons.
At the meeting Philip Crawley, managing director of Sunrise Farms - a large poultry business with a site 350m from the proposed new homes - said that if granted it could put his business at risk, and likewise the jobs of 40 others.
He was also concerned that the smell and the noise from his poultry factory would be “detrimental” to those who bought homes on the site.
Guy Longley speaking on behalf of the applicant said that he felt because the council’s current five year housing supply is below what is needed, then he said it would be “strongly in the council’s favour” to approve the application.
The application at Peashill Farm by developers Barwood Land was also refused - councillors refused the application on the basis of the Highway Impact on the Mountsorrel Lane/Barrow Road junction because of cumulative growth in Sileby.
Barwood Land sought to transform farm buildings into new business space and said that if it had been approved that there would be land allocated for potential expansion of the cemetery.
Speaking at the meeting in objection to the application Coun David Snartt said that he “found it hard to find reasons to be able to support” it, and other councillors were concerned about the level of traffic extra homes would bring to Sileby, if either application was passed.