Additional homes approved for Market Harborough’s Airfield Farm development

Councillors have approved more homes for a huge housing estate at the northern edge of Market Harborough.

The additional 20 homes will bring the total in this part of the development to 489 homes, 39 more than was originally approved when Davidsons Homes was granted outline approval in 2016.

Outline approval grants permission for a development in principle, with the precise number to be ironed out at a later date. The wider plan for the site will see more than 900 homes built there.

This year has also seen the final plans approved for a local centre, which will play host to shops, a café and a yoga studio, and for a 210-place school for the site. The additional 20 homes will be made up of five two-beds of which three would be bungalows, five three-beds, eight four-beds and two five-beds. Space has been created for the homes “by using the land more efficiently”, planning documents state.

Councillors on Harborough District Council’s planning committee voted unanimously to approve the additions, with councillor for Kibworths Phil King saying changes to the original plan do happen “on big sites”. He added he saw “no particular issue or problem with this”.

Councillors also unanimously approved a second application relating to this site which will see changes to Davidsons's 2019 plan for 315 of the homes. The new scheme will increase the number of smaller homes and reduce the number of four and five-beds. Councillor Simon Whelband, who also represents Kibworths ward, said he “welcomed” the extra smaller units, adding he felt they “are needed in the district”.

Speaking on behalf of the developer, Richard Henderson also gave an update on the link road that is included in the wider plan for the site. This was supposed to come into play when 150 homes were occupied on the site, according to the original conditions of the scheme’s planning approval.

However, the developers are talking to officers at both the district and county councils, as the planning and highways authorities respectively, to get that pushed back to 330 homes.

If approved, Davidsons estimates the link road would be in place for August or September next year. The delay would allow it to be put in “fully and safely”, Mr Henderson said.

The site of Airfield Farm estate was once home to a number of WWII bomber planes, and in 1943 became home to the Wellington Bombers of an RAF training unit. Flying ceased in August 1945, and it later became a British Army vehicle depot. It was turned over to agriculture when the Army left in the late 1950s.