Villagers feel helpless as new homes flood in

Three local villages have been targeted by developers in the latest batch of new estate plans to arrive at the Harborough District Council offices.

At Kibworth, a spokesman for a village campagn group said locals felt “helpless” at the speed and scale of new home plans for the village.

At Great Bowden, one villager has said out-of-control development has turned 
Harborough into a “Wild West” for builders.

And at Great Glen, the parish council chairman said: “Our village has already expanded too quickly.”

Mulberry Property Developments Ltd has proposed a scheme for 56 new houses at a site off Wistow Road in Kibworth. The scheme alread has outline approval from Harborough District Council.

Stefan Richter of the campaign group Hands Off Kibworth said: “We’ve already got a new estate of 600 or so homes which is still in progress.

“We hoped that would be it for a few years at least, but the applications still flood in.

“A lot of people have given up objecting to be honest - they feel helpless at the speed and scale of expansion.

“Even the district councilcan’t stop it, because its objections are overturned on appeal.Everything is in favour of the developers - and they have deep pockets.”

At Great Bowden, Mulberry Property Developments Ltd has also put in a scheme for 50 homes off Welhan Road.

The outline permission for this new estaste was given by the district council in March last year.

One objector, Great Bowden villager Peter Mitchell, said the village felt like a “community under attack” in a district that was a planning “Wild West”.

Mr Mitchell said too many developments were being green-lighted by Harborough District Council because it has no five-year housing plan.

Great Glen faces a new Bovis homes scheme for up to 100 homes on land south of London Road.

Parish council chairman Bill Glasper said: “We’re still coming to terms with 300 new houses in the village.

“Even before this latest scheme, we feel our village has already expanded too quickly.”

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