EAST MIDLANDS REGIONAL PLAN – PANEL REPORT
Date of Release: Tue 4th December, 2007
Last summer saw the Examination in Public into the draft regional Plan for the East Midlands which will play an important part in shaping the future of Charnwood over the next 20 years. The Examination was lead by Professor Stephen Crowe and his report, with recommendations, was published on 28th November.
The draft Regional Plan, published in September 2006, had recommended that 19,000 homes be built in Charnwood between 2001 and 2026. Many of those were to have been provided by redeveloping in existing built up areas. However, some “green field” development would also be needed and proposals were advanced for “sustainable urban extensions” of 4,785 homes, one at Loughborough and one adjoining Leicester, but within Charnwood. Arguments were made at the Examination that Loughborough’s allocation should be increased to 8,000 homes in order fund public transport and road building schemes in and around the town.
Professor Crowe’s report recommends the provision of an additional 1,625 homes across the whole of Leicestershire, which may result in a modest increase over and above the 19,000 homes already directed towards Charnwood. The report does not favour the increased allocation at Loughborough but does support strongly the principle of urban concentration as being the most sustainable approach to providing for future development needs. Accordingly the prospect of extensions at Loughborough and within Charnwood adjoining Leicester remain firmly part of the Regional Plan, but the distribution of new homes between those locations will be a matter for the Borough Council to decide.
The report also gives greater flexibility to district councils to decide, in partnership with regional agencies, the scale and location of land to be allocated for employment and to decide whether to retain, amend or create new areas of Green Wedge. Proposals for a Charnwood Forest Regional Park remain.
Councillor Hilary Fryer, Charnwood’s Cabinet Lead Member for Development, welcomed the report saying, “This is a major step forward in clarifying Charnwood’s role in the region’s future. The greater flexibility given to the people of the Borough to make important decisions about the scale and location of development is particularly welcome. However, we are concerned that the needs of rural communities for affordable housing and essential services should not be forgotten within a strategy which is so heavily concentrated on the urban areas. “
The report will now be considered by the Secretary of State and it is anticipated that she will publish her proposed changes to the Regional Plan in the spring which will then be the subject of a further round of public consultation before being finalised in September 2008.
