Not long left to have a say on future of housing in Charnwood

Residents only have two weeks to have their say on the Borough Council’s vision for economic growth over the next 16 years.

The Charnwood Local Plan guides strategic development in the borough and identifies locations for housing and employment land.

During the last four weeks, the Council has been consulting residents, businesses and other interested parties both online and offline ahead of the submission of the plan for 2020-37.

One of the headline features of the plan is the proposal to build 1,111 new homes every year until 2037, as per Government targets.

The plan also includes:

• Identification of 154 hectares of employment land to support the creation of 8,900 jobs in the borough
• Focuses development towards intensifying and extending existing urban and suburban areas and larger villages, thereby protecting nearly 279 square kilometres of open countryside
• Plans for the critical mass of development needed to secure infrastructure - including five new schools at Loughborough, Shepshed, Barrow, Anstey and Syston - as well as health services, roads and public transport networks#
• Will bring in an estimated £200 million in Section 106 money to pay for other improvements to facilities and amenities
• Reflects the importance of the environment and conserving biodiversity, protecting heritage sites, creating open leisure spaces and supporting healthier communities
• Carefully considers of the effects of climate change and how to reduce its impacts, including flooding
• Makes effective use of the borough’s strategic infrastructure, including Loughborough University, the urban edge of Leicester and the International Gateway connection to the M1 motorway and East Midlands Airport
   

The consultation concludes at 5pm on August 23 and the Council is encouraging all interested parties to send in their responses before this cut-off to ensure their comments are submitted to the Secretary of State later this year. The Council will collate and submit representations alongside the Local Plan. The Council is keen to guide interested parties on how to make effective representations to be considered by a Government-appointed Planning Inspector.

Cllr Richard Bailey, the lead member for planning, said: “This is the fourth public consultation we have led in relation to this Local Plan and we continue to encourage people to have their say.

“Hundreds of representations were received during the third consultation, relating to the draft plan in 2019, as we considered how to deliver future growth, healthy communities and environmental safeguards while ensuring housing need was met.

“Although we won’t be considering the representations ourselves this time, we are very keen that people who want to have their say know how to do so in an effective way which will meet the requirements of the Planning Inspector. Our planning officers can help with that.”