New parish in the pipeline for estate
A NEW parish for the Garendon Park planned houses, five new Shepshed town councillors and boundary changes across the area have all been proposed by Charnwood Borough Council as part of its community governance review.
The proposed changes come following two public consulations carried out by the council.
One of the most significant changes is the introduction of a new parish called Stonebow Village to the west of Loughborough, which will cover the planned 3,200 Garendon Park housing development.
The new parish will combine areas of Shepshed and Hathern, and also an unparished area of Loughborough.
Shepshed Town Council is also set to increase its number of members from 15 to 20 following the consultation - despite the council not wanting any more councillors.
The borough council said that this change is to bring the ratio of electors per town councillor to a more “comparable level” with other similar sized local councils, and to reflect the significant projected increase in the electorate of Shepshed over the next five years.
However it was discussed by Shepshed town councillors in August last year, where they decided that they didn’t want this to happen as it would have an increase in existing financial costs.
Other parish councils including Quorn and Hoton could also see changes to the number of councillors - with Quorn’s council set to increase from 11 members to 13 and Hoton reduced from seven to six.
At the full council meeting on Monday, January 22, councillors will also discuss a number of proposed parish boundary changes affecting Cotes, Prestwold, Burton on the Wolds, Birstall, Mountsorrel, Newtown Linford, Rothley, Woodhouse, Thurcaston and Cropston.
With regards to the boundary review for Rothley, more than 100 people have signed a petition against the changes that would see the Primrose Hill housing estate move to the Mountsorrel parish.
Of the 86 people that live in the Charles Church estate, 83 of them have signed the petition according to Rothley resident Steve Mitchell.
He said that residents are angry for a number of reasons, and that a lot of them feel that although a public consultation was carried out by the borough council, that they weren’t told enough information about the changes.
Concerns from residents include a rise in council tax, how it might affect the schools their children can attend, and changes to house prices.
In response a spokesperson from Charnwood Borough Council said: “One of the key aims of a community governance review is to make sure that parish areas and electoral arrangements reflect the changes in our borough in recent years, including those arising from new housing developments which can result in boundaries becoming out of date.
“The recommendations to full council on January 22 have been made by a community governance review member reference group.
“A proposal to amend the Rothley and Mountsorrel boundary was originally put forward by Mountsorrel Parish Council during the first phase of public consultation, and was raised again by them during the second phase of consultation.
“As a result the member reference group reconsidered the points raised, and decided that there was justification to amend the current boundary to move the new Primrose Hill housing development from Rothley parish into Mountsorrel.
“As the Charnwood community governance review must be legally completed by January 31, 2018, the group decided there was insufficient time to carry out another consultation, but it did agree to meet again on December 20 when it considered representations from Rothley parish council and from residents of the development who had emailed their views to the council.
“Having carefully considered all the issues raised, the group decided to continue with the proposal to address the boundary issue created by the new development, which appears to be a natural extension to the settlement of Mountsorrel.
“The group felt that amending the parish boundary would reflect the geographical area of separation between the settlements of Mountsorrel and Rothley, and facilitate effective and convenient local government.
“The group also took into account that the development has been marketed as being in Mountsorrel and has been given a Mountsorrel postal address, and that school catchment areas, which were an issue raised by several of the residents, were not a matter for the community governance review to consider.”
A final decision on the community governance review proposals will be made at full council on Monday, January 22, and any changes would take effect from the local elections in May 2019.