Green light for track on part of battlefield site

£26m driverless track is on section of Bosworth Battlefield Over 2,000 jobs could be created 15,000 signed petition against plan

CAMPAIGNERS have lost their fight to stop a £26 million driverless vehicle testing track being built on part of Bosworth battlefield.

Last week councillors at Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council controversially gave the green light for the 83-acre testing facility that intrudes into a small portion of the historic battlefield.

The council’s planning committee voted by 12 to five to approve an application by Horiba MIRA to build the track next to its Technology Park off the A5 at Higham on the Hill.

Nearly 15,000 people had signed a petition against the proposal, saying the 2,664-acre battlefield where Richard III was slain by Henry Tudor’s forc- es in 1485 was a pivotal moment in English history.

The petitioners and a number of historians and battlefield experts have said allowing the track to encroach on the area will leave it vulnerable to further intrusive development.

They say it will also destroy a section of the battlefield which is important because it is where the Lancastrian army assembled prior to the fighting.

During a 75-minute debate, Horiba made its case for the track to be built, saying land ownership constraints and technical requirements made it impossible to rethink the original plan.

The firm has said the facility, called TIC-IT, will play an essential part in the UK leading the world in research into autonomous vehicle technology.

Horiba says the track will result in the creation of 2,000 direct and indirect jobs for the region.

The firm has also committed to carrying out a digital mapping of the area on top of archeological investigations already carried out which, it says, will better explain how the most famous clash in the War of the Roses unfolded.

MIRA spokesman Andy McDonald warned councillors about the economic impact of turning down the proposal.

He said: “To lose the opportunity to another part of the UK or Europe would have a damaging effect on local investment.”

Afterwards, Horiba MIRA said it was “delighted” to have gained planning consent.

However, Richard Smith, chairman of the Leicestershire branch of the Richard III Society, said: “I’m not going to advocate bloody rebellion, but there will be a lot of disappointment.

“We have our AGM in Leicester on Saturday. That should be interesting.”

Planning officers at the council had recommended the plan be approved by councillors, arguing it would cause “less than significant harm” to Bosworth battlefield.