Letter: Harborough will drown in a building frenzy!

Cllr King’s letter in the Harborough Mail indicates that, despite spending hundreds of thousand pounds to ascertain Harborough District’s housing needs till 2031, it is really central Government that dictates how many houses are built.

This confirms many peoples views that local democracy is dead.

The A46 Expressway will clearly make matters much worse and our district seems doomed to drown in a mass house-building frenzy not seen since Victorian times.

Cllr King and his colleges should stop blaming the Government and accept their complicity in these disastrous policies.

Perhaps they might consider how to ameliorate some of the damage they are causing

Firstly, to offset the increased pollution, caused by more people commuting to work, the council should fully implement it’s statutory duty to protect the environment.

They know South Leicestershire has one of the lowest percentages of tree-cover in the country (source: Forestry Commission) and “local access to woodland is very poor” (source: Open Spaces Strategy 2016-2021).

Trees are good for the environment.

Current council policy is to ask house-builders to plant some trees but this is not good enough.

The council needs to implement a mass tree-planting scheme and if this means using compulsory purchase powers to get land then so be it; perhaps using the £155m “infrastructure money” and in partnership with Woodland Trust.

Secondly, money should be spent improving the deteriorating traffic congestion in Market Harborough.

Leicestershire County Council has approved plans for this, “when finances are available”.

The £2m obtained from house-builders should be used to make the most urgent improvements now and pressure applied to complete the rest of the improvements as soon as possible.

If our councillors spent more time improving life for local people, we may appreciate them better.

Michael Hitchcox, Market Harborough