‘Sword of Damocles is hanging over us’: Criticism over delay of document outlining where homes will be built in Harborough district

The deadline for Harborough district’s new draft Local Plan has been extended by around six weeks.

The authority originally planned to publish the draft, it has been working on for the past year, in early January 2025.

But now the plan, which allocates provisional sites to deliver increased housing targets, will be delayed until mid-February. The draft plan would then go out for public consultation.

The authority has been accused of a lack of transparency by Kibworth councillor Phil King.

He said: “At a confidential briefing last week, councillors were told that the council is delaying the publication of the long-awaited Local Plan draft. Yet again, there is a lack of transparency for residents in the Kibworths and Langtons, who will wonder if our south Leicestershire countryside is about to be carpeted over with concrete.

"Meanwhile, neighbouring Oadby and Wigston council have published their draft Local Plan. Communities in the neighbouring council area know what their council’s plans are. Meanwhile, residents here are being kept in the dark."

Among sites which are thought to be proposed is land near Stretton Hall, near Great Glen. The site, owned by government agency Homes England, has been promoted for development for a number of years, and the council has been assessing the site as part of its draft Local Plan.

Cllr King added: “We know that Stretton Hall is being proposed as a location for thousands of new houses, which will have a massive impact on local roads and infrastructure in our area. But we have no idea where the houses will be built. They have the Sword of Damocles hanging over them.”

Despite criticism, Cabinet members remain optimistic about the controversial decision to push through a new Local Plan after agreeing to take on a portion of Leicester’s housing need and during uncertainty over changes to national planning policies by the new government.

They claim that to do otherwise, would have meant the district would be vulnerable to speculative planning by developers.

Council leader Phil Knowles said: “We have invested significant resources to get the job done against significant challenge, but we firmly believe we have done the right thing for the district by sticking to our plan. If we had allowed our process to be de-railed, we would be having to plan for approximately 1,800 more houses under the new methodology and would risk having no plan in place and be open to years of unwanted speculative development in places our parishes and residents do not want."

He says the extension to the publishing deadline is due to his successful lobbying of the government to extend the transitional period between the current and new planning policy frameworks from one to three months.

He added: “We were pleased to see that the government listened and due to this we now have more time to develop the draft local plan further, discuss it with elected members and finesse the document. As such we will now undertake that work and will be sharing the new draft plan early in the new year.”

No decisions have yet been taken by the council.