Leicestershire Parish Councils

Some film clips of the talks at the recent Oadby public meeting. Pleasespread the word about these clips on YouTube to our supporters. They can be found also by typing "Stop the Co-op" into the YouTube searchengine.

Evington meeting - 28th November
Lynda Shillaw, Managing Director of the Properties Division of the Co-operative Group, with Ruairdh Jackson, Co-op Head of Planning, gave a series of theme presentations about the Masterplan Vision for Pennbury this evening at Judgemeadow Community College before an audience of about 110 people. Keith Vaz' assistant indicated today that Keith was hoping to hold a referendum on the eco-town in his constituency or part of it - don't know when, but perhaps one of his constituents could contact his office and confirm that he is and when?

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Pennbury Parish Poll - Great Glen 14th January 99% say NO (34% turnout).

A reminder that the two previous "official" parish polls held in Thurnby & Bushby and Scraptoft in June this year, and based on the original Co-op proposals, saw over 98.8% voting against the eco-town as follows:
Thurnby and Bushby (5 June 2008) 888 votes (33% turnout); NO 877 (98.8%), YES 11 (1.2%).
Scraptoft (11 June 2008) 269 votes (22% turnout); NO 266 (98.88%), YES 3 (1.12%).
Two unofficial polls were also carried out in June, by visiting every household in Illston-on-the-Hill and King’s Norton, with overwhelming opposition to the eco-town.
Illston-on-the-Hill: 164 potential voters, 76 NO to eco-town (100%), 0 (zero) YES to eco-town (46% 4.14.18 turnout).
King’s Norton - 61 potential voters, 51 NO to eco-town (96%), 1 YES to eco-town, 1 Abstained (87% 4.14.19 turnout).

DVD on Youtube about last Saturday's Roadshow in Highcross - despite the restrictions on the media inside Highcross, CASCET have obtained a short 5 minute film of the events leading upto CASCET moving outside the Highcross Centre on Saturday 22 November for interviews and to hand out leaflets. At no time was there any disturbance or trouble; it was all very peaceful without any hassle. CASCET supporters agreed to move outside to be interviewed by the media, which was not permitted inside Highcross, as it is private property. You too can view this short film showing how peaceful the event was, by visiting YouTube at: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6cNovm3GI1U

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The new CASCET leaflets which explain, with maps, the bus and tram routes and the potential damage to London Road, are now available. Deliverers will be contacted soon. If you wish to help deliver some in Evington, Stoneygate, Knighton or Oadby (Leicester end) then please email Chris Mitchell on chris@chris-mitchell.co.uk

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Fantastic CASCET 2009 Calendar is now available for £5. It has superb photographic views of the area under threat and will be a really powerful reminder during the next year of what we could lose if this eco-town goes ahead. Copies are available from Great Glen Parish Office - ring 0116 259 3004 or email Liz Hawkes on clerk@greatglenpc.org.uk . Do you know of any other outlets we could use? If so, make sure the outlet will sell them for us, and let Liz know the contact details.

Many thanks for all your encouragement. We can defeat this eco-town proposal, but only with your support..

Latest eco-town design
As announced in the last News Update the Co-op have released their latest design version, which has moved a large number of homes from the top of the new town, away from Thunby & Bushby, and put them right next to Great Glen's Heron Close (120 metres away), Stretton Hall development (adjoining and surrounding) and Oadby's Copse Close with Manor High School (150 metres away).

I have written to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) complaining that this design is contrary to one of the original criteria in their eco-town prospectus published in 2007, that they be "separate and distinct" and "freestanding". Without further confirmation from the Co-op, the number of houses butting up to Great Glen at Stretton Hall and the Leicester Grammar School playing fields, look like about a fifth of the total i.e. around 3,000. I well remember some media attention five years ago when I first warned about rumours of the Government Agency, English Partnerships, land at Stretton Hall possibly being developed with around 3,000 homes. Many said I was scaremongering, but it looks like I was not far wrong, although the concept of an eco-town on this land was never contemplated then. The remaining 12,000 homes will be split between the parishes of Little Stretton, Houghton-on-the-Hill, Stoughton and a tiny piece of Oadby. Do you think that Thurnby & Bushby and Scraptoft parishes overwhelming rejection of the eco-town in their parish polls convinced the Co-op to remove any eco-homes from these parishes?

The town centre is still targeted for the Leicester Airport site, with a large industrial area just to the west straddling the Gartree Road. The Co-op are proposing seven primary schools (420 children each) and 2 upper schools (1,100 students each). In addition to the housing layouts which range in density from 30 per hectare nearest to Great Glen and Oadby, to 75 per hectare in the town centre, with an average of 60 per hectare overall, the other major infrastructure elements are to provide energy for the new town. The proposed wood chip burner will produce energy from biomass (mainly trees grown for the purpose of being chopped down and burnt) and located close by the railway line with a new access road off a new roundabout on the A6 bypass, and there is also a proposed anaerobic digestion waste plant near Stoughton for treating household waste and farm slurry. As I said last week, a series of wind turbines are also proposed along the northern edge and alongside the eastern side of the Sence stretching from above Little Stretton down, past Great Glen, to the wood chip burner south of the A6.

As said in the last News Update, the biggest single argument against the new town has always been the lack of transport infrastructure. To try to resolve this problem, the Co-op are proposing a number of measures including a bus rapid transit (BRT) system from "Pennbury" to Leicester running along Gartree Road, Stoughton Road (not "Lane" as I wrote last week, apologies) , Manor Road, Knighton Grange Road, and London Road. This will have a frequent service and is expected to be used by commuters working in Leicester. The Co-op are also proposing to limit residents to an average of one car between two homes i.e. an average of 0.5 car park space per home . This means a maximum of 7,500 resident cars, plus about a thousand for business users.

One outcome from the traffic modelling work undertaken with the County Council, with results agreed with the Co-op's specialist advisers, is that the measures designed to limit the number of vehicles on the road network, could also have a major social impact on Pennbury as a thriving mixed community. It appears (and this is included on pages 28 and 29 in the Co-op's Transport Assessment paper on their own website) that the modelling evidence indicates that the "imposition of very high levels of parking constraint ... will undermine the viability of the Pennbury development." Although the evidence is only in respect of the residential development, it "suggests lowish levels of residential take-up and a skills mix skewed towards the lower end of the skills range. PTOLEMY [the model] applies the imposed employment levels, but it seems reasonable to expect that similar (and perhaps more extreme) attractiveness issues would in fact arise here. There is a distinct possibility that any problems of both residential and employment viability will compound, possibly in quite a severe way." The Co-op have not publicised this piece of evidence, which means the eco-town simply wouldn't work because their restrictions on car usage would tend to deter families who need larger houses, and tend to be more attractive to single people or young families at the beginning of their careers, or those with no or limited qualifications. This is hardly the outcome that the Co-op or the Government expected, but is a consequence of such draconian car restriction measures.
The task of experts, elected representatives and public alike now is to put pressure on the Co-op for them to prove their restrictive measures will work. If there is a risk of them not working, then the traffic usage becomes like every other local community and will bring the area to a complete standstill.

Details of the Co-op's latest design are on their website (www.ecotownforleicestershire.coop) and can be downloaded and printed, or there will also be paper copies in local libraries. Details of CASCET, the Campaign Against the Stoughton Co-op Eco Town, can be found in Great Glen Parish Office or on the website www.stopthecoopecotown.org At the moment the Co-op are refusing to provide paper copies of their design document on demand to members of the public; this is bad news for the Co-op as it flies in the face of transparency and open-ness. By all means write to Lynda Shillaw, the Managing Director Co-op Estates, on lynda.shillaw@co-operative.coop and ask for your copy.

What happens next?
Once the Government's long-awaited consultation documents (Planning Policy Supplement and Sustainability Appraisal) are made available (still expected late October/early November) then the 12 week period commences. So early in 2009, the DCLG will release the final version of the PPS after the consultation, and it is expected this will also be the time when the final eco-town locations are announced. The previous Housing Minister, Caroline Flint (now replaced by Margaret Beckett), always said there would be upto 10 locations announced, but there have been strong rumours emanating from inside the DCLG that indicate it could be as few as 4 or 5. Pennbury is still a strong contender because the Co-op and the Government Agency, English Partnerships, have undisputed ownership of the land, so they will not have protracted land purchase negotiations unlike some of the other shortlisted locations. However, some of the problems are growing and they seem to be very reliant on support from Leicester City Council. Three of the original locations have been withdrawn, and three of the remaining eco-town locations likely to get chosen, because of council support and no public opposition, are in East Hampshire (Bordon-Whitehill), Cornwall (St Austell) and a newly proposed site near Norwich (Rackheath). CASCET are in touch with all other eco-town campaign groups.

Whatever the outcome, if Pennbury is on that final list, then the Co-op will be free to put forward a planning application for the new town to Harborough District Council to go through the usual planning system. The complexity of the application means this could be a lengthy undertaking, and if refused by the District Council, the developer can still appeal and the application be determined by a Planning Inspector after a Public Inquiry, so expect local authorities to follow Government planning guidance to the letter. This was the situation with the Kibworth 660 home development when the Inspector over-ruled the District Council 's refusal, and the Secretary of State granted planning permission. The whole process takes time, of course, and CASCET are also intending putting in a legal challenge at some stage to delay the matter further. Both LibDem and Conservative frontbenches have confirmed that the Pennbury location would be rejected by them if they should be in Government - provided it has not obtained planning permission. The last date the Government can delay holding the next General Election is the first Thursday in June 2010. We can definitely stop this monstrosity from being given planning permission over the next couple of years, but it needs people power and your support.

Please look out for announcements in the local press and through the CASCET, Great Glen Parish and Harborough District Council websites, for when these documents are available and how you can respond. In particular please attend public meetings or workshops setup by the Government, Co-op, parish, local authority or CASCET to find out more.

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