Local Politics
Eventually, CBC's 52 councillors will decide what is to be done with Charnwood 2026.
A central feature of BABTAG's work will be to help them with their vote. You can help too.
Contact details for some key councillors are listed in Councillors Details and other names will be added as events unfold.
Please do not hesitate to tell them what you want.
During 2009, Owen Bentley, BABTAG Chairman, wrote twice to each of CBC's 52 councillors. His letters follow.
During 2010, before decisions are due to be taken, BABTAG will write again reminding councillors, among other points, that they face elections in 2011.
Replies from councillors follow his letters.
SECOND LETTER TO CHARNWOOD COUNCILLORS
STOP THE 5000 HOUSES
(emailed 6/6/09)
This autumn it is likely that as a Charnwood councillor you will be voting on adopting or rejecting the planners' proposal to build 5000 dwellings on productive farmland to the east of Thurmaston and to the north
of Hamilton (the Thurmaston SUE).
BABTAG (Barkby and Barkby Thorpe Parishes Action Group) together with the Thurmaston Unite Group is fiercely opposing this development and has contacted you earlier this year setting out our reasons why this
grandiose scheme should be voted down.
Our purpose in writing to you again is to let you read our comments sent to the Director of Development on 31st May on two key reports on transport and on infrastructure costs which were commissioned by the borough council and which provide ample evidence to show
that the Thurmaston SUE is not a sensible option.
Last weekend we leafleted Syston, Queniborough, Thurmaston and Barkby to draw to the attention of residents the escalating scale of the development. A copy of the leaflet is attached and we would respectfully draw you attention
to the maps on side 2.
We are hoping that such evidence will convince you to vote against this proposal and to tell the planners to come up with more modest schemes appropriate to the real need for housing and the limited financial resources
available in these straitened times.
Owen Bentley.
BARKBY AND BARKBY THORPE PARISHES
ACTION GROUP
Comments on recent documents relating to the Charnwood 2026 Plan from the Barkby and
Barkby Thorpe Parishes Action Group
Two recent local government reports cast doubts upon the viability of the Charnwood plan to build 5000 houses on productive farmland to the east of
Thurmaston and the north of Hamilton.
Infrastructure
Both the "Southern Charnwood Transport Assessments" and the "Leicester and Leicestershire HMA (housing market area) authorities Growth Infrastructure Assessment", published in March and April this year point up the huge cost of building the infrastructure (in particular roads ands schools) to support the new town and the massive funding gap to be bridged before development can take place.
Across the county in the period to 2026 new infrastructure costs are put at GBP2016 millions with only GBP522 millions of mainstream funding and GBP150 millions of developer funding to pay for them leaving a
funding gap of GBP1344 millions.
In the past developers have paid for infrastructure including link roads and schools. In these harsh economic times this is no longer the case. According to the Growth Infrastructure Assessment "it means that Sustainable Urban Extensions (like the Thurmaston 5000 houses proposal) and other strategic sites will not be able to fund infrastructure from developer contributions to any great extent. The pre-credit crunch approach of giving away development rights with a planning contributions
price ticket attached will not work any more."
The report reveals that Charnwood can only expect GBP2.3millions in developer contributions for all its projects throughout the borough between now and 2026 yet the transport infrastructure alone of the Thurmaston proposal is estimated at GBP11 millions. Even if Charnwood manages to attract some new sources of government funding there is still
likely to be a huge deficit.
Given this deficit questions must be asked about the sense
of proceeding with such a grandiose scheme when smaller
scale developments partly using existing infrastructure
must be an alternative. One such scheme, considered by the
Transport Assessments for 2,500 dwellings at Anstey
(GBP6 millions) is
half the price of Thurmaston.
Transport
Ever-expanding development area to cope with transport
problems
The Southern Charnwood Transport Assessments published in
April calls for a bigger area to be developed than the one
Charnwood based all its public consultations on in 2008
with extensions in the north joining on to Syston and in
the south-east to Hamilton. If Charnwood borough council
accepts this report BABTAG will call for the consultation
process to start again from scratch as the development
area is so different from that proposed in widely
distributed glossy booklets such as "Charnwood 2026
Planning for Our Next Generation".
No real solution to mitigating traffic congestion
The report also makes it clear that traffic congestion will be a problem in the new town. Despite new roads and bus and train options congestion is likely to increase from today's barely tolerable levels and could be running at 24% more than today. At the same time the Infrastructure Assessments warn that journeys out of the new development are likely to be higher than first thought. (By comparison the traffic mitigation measures proposed for a 2,500 dwelling development in Anstey projected real improvements (18%) to current congestion there.)
To keep traffic levels down in the Thurmaston SUE a bus corridor and a half-hour rail service to Leicester City Centre are seen as key mitigation factors but they have not been fully costed or fully checked with the city
and rail authorities.
Reducing traffic flows through Barkby Thorpe is an acknowledged aim of the Transport Assessments but the current rat-run through Barkby Thorpe Lane and Barkby Thorpe to Tesco at Hamilton and to Scraptoft and thence to the A47. and via Stoughton to the A6 gets no mention. Traffic on this route will inevitably increase with 15,000 people living in the vicinity and there can be no prospect of reduced traffic flow on this route until
the problem is addressed.
BABTAG believes that the Transport Assessments through its findings and its omissions weaken rather than strengthen the case
for the South Charnwood SUE.
Owen Bentley
Chairman BABTAG
15 Queen St., Barkby Thorpe, Leicester LE7 3QH
0116 2692847
0788 788 1733
FIRST LETTER TO CHARNWOOD COUNCILLORS
STOP THE 5000 HOUSES
BARKBY AND BARKBY THORPE PARISHES ACTION GROUP
15 Queen Street, Barkby Thorpe Leicester LE7 3QH
29 January 2009
Cllr ------
Charnwood Borough Council
Dear Councillor,
At some point this year you will be taking part in a crucial vote at Charnwood Borough Council which will determine the
future of south Charnwood, Your vote may well decide whether the area remains a collection
of villages in a rural environment or whether it is consumed in a huge urban extension to the Leicester conurbation.
The Barkby and Barkby Thorpe Action Group (BABTAG) which opposes the proposal to build 5000 new homes to the East
of Thurmaston and to the North
of Hamilton asks you to consider the following 10 points before you cast your vote.
- HOUSING FIGURES
Why has Charnwood Borough Council not challenged the Government's contentious figure of 19,300 dwellings required in the
borough?
Are you aware that both Government and Opposition are revising their policies towards top-down diktats and there are moves
at Leicestershire County Council to challenge the figures emanating from the Government office in Nottingham? Why should you
vote on a major development based on a top-down regional spatial strategy that within six months could be abolished and
decisions on the real number of dwellings required could be handed back to local authorities? This could happen if there is
a change of Government in 2010.
- BUILDING FOR LEICESTER IN SOUTH CHARNWOOD
Why has Charnwood in its glossy "Charnwood 2026" booklets not made it
clear that the figure of 19,300 dwellings it has accepted from the Government Office in the
East Midlands includes 6780 for Leicester City's needs? At best it has been economical with the truth
in this matter and one wonders what the reaction of Charnwood citizens will be when they realise their borough
is planning not only for its own population growth but that of the City of Leicester as well.
- GROWING SCALE OF DEVELOPMENT
Do not think that development in south Charnwood will affect only the villages of Thurmaston and Barkby and
the settlements at Barkby Thorpe and Hamilton Grounds. BABTAG has seen documents submitted to the CBC by developers
which reveal an appetite to develop an arc of land from Hamilton through the environs of Thurmaston, Barkby and Barkby
Thorpe to the edge of Syston to the approaches of Queniborough. How much do Syston and Queniborough residents know of these
plans? BABTAG intends to alert them to the threat.
- SUSTAINABLE URBAN EXTENSIONS
Why is Charnwood Borough Council wedded totally to the idea of "Sustainable Urban Extensions" (SUEs) when doubts are
being expressed over the council's capacity to deliver what are in effect new towns within the desired time frame. Why do
the planners believe that SUEs with 30% social housing and obligations towards travellers and showmen can deliver vibrant
communities where people wish to live when the evidence of previous attempts, witness Beaumont Leys, points in the opposite
direction? Is it not time to re-evaluate all brownfield sites and truly sustainable village developments rather than putting
all Charnwood's eggs in the SUE basket?
- TRANSPORT, TRAFFIC AND CONGESTION
One big flaw in the East of Thurmaston/North of Hamilton proposal is the lack of any meaningful transport study for south
Charnwood. BABTAG welcomes the news that a new study has been commissioned by Charnwood in partnership with Leicester City
Council. Current traffic already causes major congestion through Barkby and Barkby Thorpe, Thurmaston Lane and the
Thurmaston Shopping Centre. How can this area cope with the journeys of 15,000 more people? BABTAG insists that there should
be no vote on the East of Thurmaston/North of Hamilton proposal until the new study has been undertaken and evaluated.
- FLOOD AND RUN-OFF RISK
Putting an area of 284 hectares (this figure includes 50 hectares for employment land) under tarmac, brick and concrete is
likely to increase the risk of flooding. "The SUE development would increase the amount of hard standing which would
increase run- off rates." ref: p. 53 Leicestershire Sustainable Urban Extensions on potentially significant effect of an
SUE in PUA2. The Environment Agency warns "The impact and cost of developing in an area at risk from flooding should not be
underestimated. Assessing, planning and designing a development will cost more and the risk of flooding can never be fully
eliminated". Extreme weather patterns are forecast as a consequence of global warming. As a councillor are you satisfied
that the flood risk is being treated seriously?
- LOSS OF PRODUCTIVE HIGH GRADE FARMLAND
The new town will consume 284 hectares of precious productive farmland at a time when it is becoming clear that there will
be food shortages on a global scale and that prudence dictates that Britain becomes more self-sufficient in food production.
Moreover, the land in question is grade 2 and 3 prime agricultural land which Government circular after circular has said
should only in extremis be taken for housing. The CBC's cavalier attitude to the loss of quality agricultural land is clearly
demonstrated by totally ignoring it in its advocacy of the East of Thurmaston/North of Hamilton proposal.
- VILLAGE IDENTITY AT RISK
Charnwood's own 2026 document insists that village identity will be retained ("This proposal will need to take account of
the separate identities of Syston, Barkby and Barkby Thorpe") but the planners themselves at a public meeting in Barkby
have acknowledged that development could come within 200 yards of Barkby Thorpe. How can such villages retain their
character and integrity when development is so close and the farms which form their character go out of business through
losing their farmland? At the time of the Hamilton development assurances were given in the most solemn terms by the County
Council that "new development will not encroach upon Barkby, Barkby Thorpe and Beeby and they will retain their own
physically separate characters and identities" (Hamilton District Plan summary January 1982) Similarly the Leicestershire
Structural Plan of 2005 states that "development will be permitted only where it would not result in a material reduction
in the degree of separation between the neighbouring built-up areas ( p25 Strategy Policy 7 Separation of Settlements)
How
is that Charnwood can ignore such promises? The heart of any community and village identity is the village school. With
a huge development on its doorstep and with provision made for new
primary and secondary schools in the East of Thurmaston/North of Hamilton scheme there can be little chance of the Pochin School surviving in Barkby.
- LOSS OF HERITAGE AND ECOLOGICAL SITES
The area East of Thurmaston and North of Hamilton is a unique and much
valued haven of rural England with heritage sites and refuges for wildlife.
Barkby and Barkby Thorpe together make up a valued conservation area.
The land surrounding the villages "includes extensive areas of ridge and
furrow which form a significant component of the historic landscape"
"Protection of heritage and landscape assets is an important feature to be
considered when locating an SUE". Ref: Leicestershire Sustainable Area
Extensions 23/04/07.
- THIRTY YEAR URBAN CREEP INTO THIS RURAL HAVEN
In the past 30 years there have been major developments in Hamilton,
Thurmaston and Syston. The Barkby and Barkby Thorpe parishes area has
had more than its share of urban creep and cannot withstand and ought not
to be targeted for more development.
Please consider these points before you vote and let us know your views. Should you require further information
please visit the BABTAG website: www.babtag.co.uk
or contact me: owen.bentley@barkbythorpe.demon.co.uk or phone 0116 2692847.
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