Developers will pick off villages if we don’t plan says leader

VILLAGES will be “picked off” by developers if there is no plan saying where 180,000 homes should be built in Leicestershire, a senior Tory politician has warned.

County council leader Nick Rushton made the comment while defending the county’s draft strategic growth plan (SGP), a document which says where development ought to take place in the city and county over the next 30 years.

The Government has told Leicestershire it must build the homes to cope with a predicted growth in population.

Six of Leicestershire’s Conservative MPs have written to County Hall stressing the need for “thorough scrutiny” of the draft plan, after their constituents raised concerns about its contents.

Councillor Rushton said he was “disappointed” to receive the letter.

He said: “We are going to have this housing growth. The Government has said so. It’s coming.

“What we are trying to do is be strategic, to direct the growth towards areas where we can secure the infrastructure (to support the new homes).

“If we don’t do that, we will get picked off with developments of 200 or 300 homes on the edge of villages where the infrastructure will not follow.

“That would be disastrous. We want to protect our villages so we must think strategically.

“We don’t want the housing growth without the infrastructure – the roads, the schools, the health services.

“That’s why we need this SGP. The worse thing than having it will not be having it.

“Without it, our villages will be fair game for developers.

“We need stand-alone new communities – garden villages, you might say – which come with their own infrastructure.”

The draft plan relies on the construction of a new A46 Expressway running from Syston, round the east and south of Leicester, and meeting the M1 between the existing junctions 20, at Lutterworth, and 21, at Fosse Park and the M69.

Some 40,000 homes are proposed along the corridor it would create.

A further 10,000 houses are earmarked for land near East Midlands Airport, and 5,000 between Lutterworth and Hinckley in an area designated by the plan as a “southern gateway”.

Coun Rushton said he had scheduled meetings with Harborough MP Neil O’Brien and South Leicestershire MP Alberto Costa, whose constituencies would be most affected by the A46 Expressway.

“They will get a hefty number of homes in their areas and that creates concern, but they are team players,” said Coun Rushton.

“The A46 Expressway has generated more heat than light but we need it.”

He said it might be that the Government decides not to give Leicestershire the money for the new road, “but we have to show that we are thinking strategically” to give the county the best chance of getting the investment.

“The A46 Expressway will be part of a major national transport project,” said Coun Rushton. “I think we have a good chance.”

More than 500 groups and individuals responded to a 17-week consultation on the draft SGP. The consultation finished earlier this month.

Coun Rushton said it was hoped the plan would be finalised by the end of the year. He said: “There will be changes to the draft – you don’t carry out a consultation and not listen to what people say.”

The county council, Leicester City Council and the seven district councils in Leicestershire will now consider the consultation responses before honing the draft SGP into firm proposals.