Village delight as estate plan is rejected

Villagers from Dunton Bassett, north of Lutterworth, were celebrating this week, after a new estate planned for their village was turned down.

About 70 villagers attended Tuesday night’s Harborough District Council planning meeting, urging councillors to reject the scheme for up to 50 new homes on land south-west of Church Lane in the village.

After a long debate, the estate plan was refused.

Dunton Bassett parish council’s Lizzie Kennedy said after the meeting: “It’s brilliant and the right decision.

“The village was against it, and we’re happy that the committee went along with the council officer’s recommendation.”

Councillors had been recommended to turn down the scheme because it was out of scale with the village and badly sited.

An officer’s report also said they had not been convinced that the developers had addressed a local flooding risk.

Agents for developers Davidsons had argued that the benefits of extra housing outweighed any harm.

But one villager told councillors “our village is united in opposing this application”.