Plans for hundreds of homes debated at meeting

Villages were the main target for developers at this week's Harborough District Council planning meeting, as builders aimed 572 homes at one town and nine village sites.

With 27 members of the public allowed to speak as well as officers and councillors, time ran out.

But in the packed three-hour meeting on Tuesday:

*Plans for 94 new homes on four sites were approved by councillors.

They were for 22 new homes off Station Road in North Kilworth, 41 and potentially a doctor’s surgery east of Welford Road in Husbands Bosworth, 28 off Main Street in Lubenham and three on a central ‘infill’ site at The Paddock in Arnesby.

* Plans for 60 new homes on two sites were refused.

They were for 16 homes on a site north of Tymecrosse Gardens in Market Harborough and 44 off Winckley Close in Houghton the Hill.

*Decisions on 418 homes on another four sites had to be deferred to another planning meeting in January, after time ran out.

The deferred plans involved 204 homes east of Broughton Way in Broughton Astley, 178 east of Beeby Road in Scraptoft, another 32 in Husbands Bosworth, adjacent to Knight’s Close, and another four off Main Street in Broughton Astley.

With Harborough District Council struggling to meet a Government-imposed minmum house building target, it’s more tricky for them to refuse planning applications.

Cllr Barry Champion told the committee he suspected the “whimsical” Market Harborough proposal was put forward simply to raise the value of the land.

And Cllr Simon Galton said the Houghton on the Hill scheme was “a significant intrusion into countryside”.