The Campaign Against the Stoughton Co-op Eco-town (CASCET) has raised questions about the official response by Harborough District Council to the Government's consultation on their draft eco-town Planning Policy Statement (PPS).
Harborough District Council held a special full council meeting last Thursday to debate its response to the consultation which is due to close, after two extensions, this Thursday (Apr 30).
Harborough District Council should be the planning author
ity charged with making decisions on any future planning application by the Co-operative Group (Co-op) for the Pennbury location, which lies within the district boundaries.
It has received legal advice that it should not make any comments about the suitability of Pennbury until a planning application is received, but it can raise issues that it feels are important or which require clarification.
In its response to the consultation, Harborough District Council has criticised a number of points about the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG) planning policy; it is concerned that naming locations for eco-towns could give these sites added status because they will have been evaluated through the selection process.
The Council does not give views about the suitability of the Co-op proposals to develop 15,000 homes on, or adjacent, to a green wedge area of primarily agricultural land between Great Glen and Stoughton.
This, despite jointly commissioning an independent study by the Halcrow Group with three other local authorities, which concluded that the location was unsustainable given the lack of details provided by the developer.
CASCET has campaigned against the proposed location for 15 months and now has the support of Leicestershire County Council in condemning the Co-op's proposals after the county took on board the conclusions reached by the Halcrow study, its own traffic modelling and another independent report highlighting transport concerns about the capacity of commuter routes into Leicester City and the surrounding area should the eco-town be given a green light.
CASCET posed three questions for last week's District Council meeting including asking for an unequivocal statement that the Council considers that the present proposals for an eco-town are unsustainable and unviable, based on the information so far provided.
Dr Kevin Feltham, chairman of CASCET, said, "The Council has frequently raised concerns that, as the local planning authority, their objectivity could be compromised by any comments about the Co-op's MasterPlan proposals.
"Local planning authorities at other proposed eco-town sites have expressed critical views about the proposals in their areas, and the district's taxpayers will be surprised if their representatives do not use this opportunity to make a clear statement about whether the plans, as so far provided, are workable or not.
"It is good to know the Council are critical about the whole eco-town process to date and the unbudgeted extra costs to their local taxpayers, but exasperating that they remain firmly on the fence with regard to the actual proposals by the Co-op, which have been so comprehensively opposed by thousands of residents in the district and adjoining areas.
"CASCET wants a clear statement, as made by Oadby & Wigston Borough and Leicestershire County Councils, commenting on the actual eco-town proposal, even if couched in legal terms that protect the council's planning responsibilities."
