Councillor calls for a multi-million pound bypass for Lutterworth, describing the level of air quality as 'unacceptable'

Calls for a new multi-million pound bypass for Lutterworth are being ramped up by a town councillor.

Cllr Dave Gair, 73, said Lutterworth is becoming increasingly choked as thousands of vehicles are funnelled through the town centre every week.

And he said the giant Lutterworth East blueprint, which is expected to be approved, would pile on the pressure and bring the whole town grinding to a halt.

The enormous scheme would build 2,750 homes, feature over 100 hectares of green space, two new primary schools, create 2,500 jobs and would take years to build.

Cllr Gair told the Harborough Mail: “We have been fighting for a proper bypass for Lutterworth year in year out for time immemorial.

“We simply can’t understand why we are still being forced to fight for this absolutely critical road.”

The retired teacher added: “As a town council we do support the Lutterworth East proposal.

“It will provide badly-needed housing and boost the entire town at this very difficult time.

“It’s also a magnificent opportunity for the county council backed by the district council to build us this bypass.

“Our town centre is supposed to be an Air Quality Management Area.

“But the sheer amount of cars, vans and lorries using the A426 through Lutterworth create so much pollution that the quality of our air is just unacceptable.”

Cllr Gair, who’s lived in the Lutterworth area for 38 years, said the bypass would run alongside the M1.

“We’d have a new bridge built over the motorway on the northern edge of the town.

“We have so much traffic battling their way through our town centre to get to other places,” said the Labour councillor.

“The bypass would take those motorists out of Lutterworth – making the town a much more pleasant, safer place to visit.

“We have Magna Park, the biggest logistics park in the whole of Europe, just outside town.

“A lot of the workers there come in from the north east of Leicester.

“You don’t want to be anywhere near when there’s a shift change because the queues are horrendous.

“A new bypass would give those workers a quicker, easier route to Magna Park and help to free up our town centre.”

Cllr Gair said they had an “excellent” Masterplan being drawn up to help transform their town centre.

“But we are amazed that the people behind the Masterplan haven’t spoken to the Lutterworth East team.

“Surely they have to get together to help us come with a new strategic overview for Lutterworth – with a new bypass right at its heart,” he insisted.

“We have missed out on vital infrastructure here over the last few years.

“We feel we have been the poor relations of Harborough district too long.

“Too often we seem to get forgotten about and ignored.

“All we are asking is that we are listened to and that our views and opinions on everything from new shops to new estates to new roads are taken into account.

“Building Lutterworth East will give the county and district councils a fantastic chance to breathe new life into our town and revitalise it.

“We needed a dramatic top to bottom transformation even before the Covid-19 crisis hit us – now we need it even more.”

But Cllr Phil King, leader of Harborough District Council, hit back as he told the Mail: “It’s out of order and absolute rubbish to accuse us of not listening to them.

“The district council has invested a lot of valuable time, energy and resources into working with our town and parish councils such as Lutterworth.

“They know they can come to me at any time – my door is always open to them.”

He added: “We have never treated Lutterworth as poor cousins.

“Lutterworth should set up their own neighbourhood plans and take control of their own destiny.

“As for the bypass, they already have one – it’s called the M1.

“And if Lutterworth East goes ahead a new spine road would be built reducing traffic going through the town centre.

“We have done our best for Lutterworth over the years as a district council and we’ll continue to do so.”

A Leicestershire County Council spokesperson said: “We are aware of requests for a bypass to be built as part of the Lutterworth East development and welcome all views and comments.

However, development proposals have always included a spine road as part of the package designed to mitigate the impact as well as provide suitable access to the proposed development.

“The spine road is also consistent with Harborough District Council’s Local Plan.”