Agenda item

Peter Heath and Lisa Chevallereau from the Council’s Planning Policy provided an input with respect to the Local Plan.

Residents were advised that the Council are required to provide a Local Plan as per Central Government and this is to be reviewed every 5 years. The last review having taken place in 2019.

If the Local Plan is up to date with a 5 year supply of housing, the Council are in a position of power to determine future development sites. If however, the Council does not have a 5 year supply of housing or the Plan is not up to date, planning framework will have to be relied upon which is looser and may allow development in certain sites which are not recommended.

The Local Plan is being developed with a public consultation having finished on 15^th May. Peter advised he will take further comments from those attending the Forum however if done in a timely fashion.

A further version of the Plan will be completed in February/March 2025. After this, an independent Planning Inspector will review and host a hearing for the public to raise further comments. The report provided by the Planning Inspector will be binding.

The Local Plan contains sites that have been allocated from growth and various planning policies to guide the development of sites. Policies include climate change, water development and affordable housing.

A study has been completed with Oadby and Wigston’s population expected to grow, gain in wealth with retailing need grossing slightly. With regards to retail, utilising existing vacant premises should cover this growth need. There will also need to be more land identified for employment, however the Council do have some sites located. The number may change based on evidence.

A standard method is used to determine how many houses are needed. This is a consistent approach across the country. As a result, Oadby and Wigston will need to provide 190 houses per year. There is also a duty to cooperate with neighbouring Councils. As such, with Leicester City being unable to comply with their growth, Oadby and Wigston have taken a further 50 houses per year. Total number being 240 houses.

Landowners have been written to find suitable land for development with certain sites being identified. The sites do not yet have Council support but this will be reviewed after relevant evidence is gathered though several methods, including a traffic and flood surveys.

Once the relevant evidence has been gathered, the Council will engage with Members to decide on recommended sites. The next version of the plan will contain these.

Feedback from the consultation thus far raises concerns that the current infrastructure cannot cope as well as green areas being identified.

A resident raised concerns that she resides on a newly developed site where residents have to pay a managing agent to maintain the land, including a balancing pond. It was asked if attempts to avoid this can be considered.

A further query was raised regarding considerations for better access for construction vehicles to sites. Peter advised that the transport study that is due to be conducted will support making decisions concerning this.

Introducing a by-pass was raised by a resident to reduce the already heavy traffic footfall on Blaby Road. Peter advised that National Highways will consider roads and any adaptions.

The traffic lights were raised opposite the swimming pool in Wigston and suggestions were made that this causes traffic issues. Cllr Boulter advised that Leicestershire County Council have checked the lights.

Cllr Boulter raised that should there be sites in the town centres for development, there will be no loss of car parking.

A resident advised that although flats have been built near his address, there has been no extra parking provided.

Mary Ray and Tony Sumpter who are volunteer tree wardens gave a short speech regarding local green spaces and the Local Plan. Below is a summary of what was said:

The current Local Plan includes 12 sites that are called Local Green Spaces:

Railway triangle, Paragon and Defra sites on Saffron Road, Territorial Army and office frontages on Tigers Road, the rear of the Territorial Army, Crete Avenue green, two frontages  on Ladysmith Road, two sites at the top of Namur Road the frontage of the Salvation Army of Saffron Road.

They have some protection from being built on. It isn’t full protection, but it’s the best we can get. It took 20 years and masses of evidence provided to the Council, including unanimous votes by this Forum and residents letters of support.

In 2018, the Planning Inspector agreed all 12 sites and the Council adopted the current plan in 2019.

Ed Morgan of the Council Planning Policy Team said at this time, no further evidence of community support is needed. If the time were to arise, Ed will advise Mary and Tony where a further presentation will be provided to the Forum.

It is believed two items within the draft Plan should be changed.

Local Spaces with the draft Plan are in a chapter called, ‘Protected Places’. Praise was given to this title. In the latest version of the Plan, the title in ‘Natural Environment’ which is not as well supported.

It is also believed that all the Environmental Policies should be labelled as ‘Strategic’. Concerns were raised that id 5 of the 7 policies were left as ‘Non-Strategic’, a developer may have more scope to build on them.

Peter highlighted that the term ‘Strategic’, are full more general information. ‘Non-Strategic’ policies are still important with more specific information detailed.