Seems the borough council is impotent to ward off development

IT IS with disbelief, that I have read that two planning applications that were previously turned down by the Planning Department at Charnwood Borough Council have both been granted by a Government Inspector.

The Inspector has completely denigrated the decision by the council and dismissed their reasons for not granting them in the first place, inferring that the Core Strategy and Development Plan wasn’t fit for purpose.

The two applications I am referring to are:

1. Nine dwellings on Briscoe Lane, Woodhouse Eaves.

2. Two dwellings on Bradgate Road, Anstey.

Referring to Bradgate Road, this met all the criteria to refuse it. • Intrusion into open countryside • Narrowing of the space between settlements

• Extension into open countryside of the ribbon development. This was outlawed by an Act in the 1930’s to discourage this sort of thing.

How many years has the planning team been working on this Core Strategy etc.

It seems to me that it has been a complete waste of time and money

It looks like developers are targeting Charnwood and looking for opportunities to build individual houses and in turn destroying the very nature of the area we are trying to protect.

It must be quite easy for them knowing full well that Charnwood hasn’t got a robust plan in place.

Here we are living in or near to the forest in one of the nicest parts of Leicestershire, yet it seems the authority is quite impotent to ward off any chance developers who can see an opportunity for doing so.