Leicestershire Parish Councils

Appendix 2
Case Study on Pennbury

General

Considered strategically, Pennbury is one of the better locations on the shortlist because it is capable of integration into the city of Leicester, which, with a population of 290,000, is large enough to provide a high degree of self-containment.

However, the choice of site has not been set by environmental ideals but by the extent of the Co-op’s land ownership, including an air strip whose status as ‘previously developed land’ is a questionable criterion.

Pennbury lies in rolling, moderately beautiful countryside at the edge of High Leicestershire. It is also:--

• 5km from Leicester’s existing railway station though…
• Potentially quite well served by bus to/from the station and city centre.
• Easily connected by bike to surrounding settlements including the city centre which is well within riding distance.
• Poorly served by existing roads

Rail

The potential for bus or tram links to Leicester station are considered below.

The promoters also propose a new rail link on land they own near Great Glen. Since re-signalling of the Midland Mainline is imminent, they maintain that now would be a good time to consider the idea, including a possible freight depot. However:

• At 5km from Pennbury, the new station would be no closer than Leicester.
• The Midland Mainline is short of train paths now and unlikely to be able to accommodate the time penalty incurred by stops at Great Glen.
• Since re-signalling is already being planned, it is almost certainly too late to introduce an early-stage idea for a new freight depot or station.
• A rail freight depot in the Leicester area would be more suitably sited at a point where the M1 or M69 intersect with the Felixtowe-Birmingham line; gauge enhancement of which is currently being negotiated by Network Rail.

If the new railway station is feasible, this raises one obvious question: why not site the eco-town closer to it? This question would need to be assessed independently from the promoters, whose interest is based on specific landholdings.

Buses/Trams

The proposal includes a suggestion for “a high quality and frequent bus link to Leicester city which, in time, could become a tram link.

If re-engineered and bus-gated, Gartree Road could offer fast bus timings between Pennbury and Stoneygate, about half way to the City centre. The remaining trip via London Road would be slower though, overall, the service would still probably be more attractive than from any other peri-Leicester location.

Other bus-links are envisaged including to P&R sites on the A6 and A47 and to Grove and Meridian Parks.

Clearly in itself, Pennbury will not be able to finance a tram system for the city of Leicester, and the funds do not appear to be available from any other sources in the foreseeable future to finance such a system.

Cycling

Safe cycling routes to Oadby, Evington, Houghton-on-the-Hill and Great Glen may readily be built on Co-op land or adjacent highway. Subject to re-engineering, Gartree Road could form part of a good new route to the City Centre besides offering the chance to improve the line of National Cycle Network Route 63.

Roads

Local roads are already congested and many are only country lanes. New links to the A6 and A47 will thus be essential to relieve surrounding settlements. Unless contrived to discourage through traffic, these links would deliver a key phase of the long-disputed Leicester eastern bypass. The promoters are in ongoing discussions with the Highways Agency.

“Closure of key roads in the eco-town to cars at peak periods” is suggested. It is not clear whether this would achieve its aim of reducing car dependency. Discussions are continuing with the developers about the internal design of the scheme, and how these can be brought towards the standards required by the Transport Worksheet.

Conclusion

Although Pennbury is better than most of the other proposed sites, there is a fundamental question-mark over transport infrastructure. If the site forms part of a new eastern bypass for Leicester, additional traffic generated elsewhere would have to be factored in to its carbon footprint, in which case, it is difficult to see how it could be considered as an ‘eco-town’.

The other question relates to public transport. For travel outside Leicester, it is difficult to imagine many people preferring the relatively long bus ride to Leicester station followed by a wait for a train, if the option of travelling by car is available. A genuinely sustainable urban extension to Leicester would require either:

• A new public transport system for the city as a whole (ultra light rail, perhaps?) or
• A different site on one of the existing rail lines, providing the capacity and cost challenges of a new station can be addressed