Officers from the Planning Department will be in attendance to present the Local Plan for public consultation.
Minutes:
The Planning Team introduced the item on the Local Plan and delivered a presentation outlining the government initiative to address the housing need in the city and expectation to deliver 40,000 extra housing over a 15 year period which the districts around the city will be developing 50% of.
It was further noted that:
· The consultation on phase 4 and the various stages of the consultation that began in 2014 was explained
· 70% of sites were brownfield sites around the city centre which included land developed for the purpose of employment
· As part of the consultation 4 sites in the ward had been proposed for partial developments for residential use
· At this current stage of consultation there were 2 sites being proposed on the ward and both sites were for partial developments including improvements to the green spaces
· The consultation process includes comments from all including the local residents before it goes to the government inspector and everyone was urged to participate and fill in the response forms to have their voices heard
· During the engagement process 3500 responses had been received to the consultation to date across the city
· Currently the government were consulting on additional changes which could see the city in a worse position.
As part of the discussions local residents raised their concerns with the earlier phase of the consultation that had taken place during 2020 and felt this was fundamentally flawed and irresponsible, to hold a consultation at a time when the city was in a lockdown. In response it was noted that, notices of the consultation had been distributed to all areas where there were proposals for development, 44 responses from local residents, including a petition from Sunbury Green had been received and all of this would be included as part of the report on the consultation process, including the equalities impact assessment for the government inspector, who would ultimately make the decision.
Local residents noted that the Thurnby Lodge Estate was built in the 1950’s following the war, some of the green space on Thurnby Lodge was donated to the local people as part of that development, before which there were very limited houses in the area. In more recent times the green spaces around the estate had proven to be a safe space and had beneficial health impacts for a range of local residents including the young. The impact 21 houses being built on the green spaces outweighed what the impact of not building on these greenspaces would be and this should be considered. Officers noted that any large development proposal would carry out a health impact assessment prior to development as was the case with the proposals at Western Park in Leicester.
In further discussions, residents noted that the current proposals suggested development on 50% of the sites being considered and this would open the doors for future developments on the other half. The number of dwellings being proposed in the area were not a significant amount and could be accommodated as part of other larger developments or in the city centre. The health impacts on what the developments would do should be considered and the local authority should be investing to improve the green spaces rather than developing on them. Residents were reminded that this was a part of the consultation process and no decision had been made. Residents were urged to ensure that the response forms provided were submitted before the cut-off date.
The Ward Community Engagement Officer noted that the forms were available this evening and support would be provided to residents who wanted to fill the forms out this evening after the meeting. Additionally, the copy of the forms would also be held at the reception of the venue, should anyone want to fill the form out at a later date.
Local Ward Councillors voiced their support for the local concerns that had been raised and further requested all participants at the meeting to participate in filling out the forms before they left the meeting venue.