Agenda item

Planning Officers will be present to give an update on the latest draft of the Local Plan and its implications for Aylestone.

Grant Butterworth, Head of Planning, was present to give an update on the current consultation of the Draft Local Plan and its impact on Aylestone. It was noted that:

·         The Local Plan was a 15-year plan for housing growth in Leicester. The Plan had to meet targets and policies set out by the Government.

·         Leicester had already grown to the city boundary so development opportunity in the city itself was limited. Therefore, District Councils had agreed a Statement of Common Ground to help meet Leicester’s targets.

·         There had been 3 previous consultations on the Plan, with the last one being in 2020. The current stage of consultation would close on 27 February. The Plan would formally be submitted to Government in the summer.

·         With regards to Aylestone ward, the proposal for a large development site had been removed in this version of the plan. The only site for development in the ward now was at the Gilmorton Community Rooms. The allocation would allow  redevelopment of the facility into a mixed-use site, indicating 9 dwellings could be developed alongside a community and retail facility.

In response to questions from Councillors and residents it was noted that:

·         The Local Plan process would not determine the timeline for development at the Gilmorton Rooms. So, whilst there could be no guarantee that alternative community and retail provision would be available during the development this would be a matter for consideration and discussion with the tenants by the project promotor as part of the detailed project development plan.

·         Over 3k representations had been received on the previous Local Plan consultation.

·         The proposals were only to add 9 new homes on the site which was not considered significant enough to create highways issues.

·         The current consultation forms had to meet a Government specified design which was why they were more technically and procedurally  focused.

·         Even if the Local Plan was approved it would not mean that all proposals included would go ahead, there would still need to be a funding case to be made, a viable scheme to be developed and relevant Planning applications.

·         There would be a modification process with the Planning Inspector once the Pan was submitted. There would not necessarily need to be an alternative site allocation for the 9 new dwellings if the Gilmorton proposal was not to go ahead.

·         With regard to questions about the loss of shops in Aylestone local centre. the Council did not have over control over change of use for most businesses in the city.

·         Approval of the Local plan was a matter for council, a decision on whether to proceed to delivery of the development was a matter for

the Executive.

Local residents present expressed concerns about the Gilmorton proposal. Concerns were around the lack of community and retail provision in that area and that redevelopment of the site would mean that provision was not available during the construction process. It was noted that the proposal in the current published draft Plan was that the site would be purely residential with no community facility, but a formal modification proposal to amend this to a mixed-use site allocation had been submitted and this would be put to the Inspector as part of the Plan submission, and as such was not yet reflected in the current draft. Residents expressed frustration that they had not heard about the mixed-use change sooner.

Local business owners expressed frustration over the lack of Council engagement on issues with burglaries. Officers stated they would look into the issues.

Upon the request of the Chair, residents indicated that they were overwhelmingly opposed to the Gilmorton proposal and wanted to remove the allocation from the Plan all together.

ACTION:

1.    That Officers note and take into account the opinions and concerns raised by local residents through the consultation process.

2.    That Officers investigate burglary issues affecting local businesses.