How L1 fits with the overall spatial strategy

East of Lutterworth fits with the Local Plan's overall spatial strategy, and is the most appropriate location for large scale growth to meet housing and employment needs in the town and the District. Lutterworth benefits from range of services and facilities, which make it suitable for significant development as a Key Centre. It is also located close to significant employment opportunities both within the town itself and nearby Magna Park.

The allocation of East of Lutterworth facilitates the growth of the town in a sustainable way without harming the separate identity of neighbouring settlements. It also provides for a range of benefits and can mitigate potential impacts.

The Consortium has produced a Vision Statement, submitted with these representations which sets out in detail the site characteristics, context, the alignment of the East of Lutterworth SDA with the Local Plan, the benefits of the scheme and a concept masterplan.

The key points from this are summarised below:

Benefits

The delivery of the land to the East of Lutterworth offers many significant benefits, much of which is described in the Policy L1 and the supporting text. In accordance with the plan East of Lutterworth will provide approximately 2750 market and affordable homes and 23 hectares of employment land. In addition range of community facilities are proposed to service the development and the wider area, including primary schools, neighbourhood centre, parks and open spaces and enhanced green infrastructure.

The allocation will also facilitate the provision of a spine road to both serve the development and divert traffic from Lutterworth town centre, which suffers from pollution and congestion and is consequently zoned as an Air Quality Management Area. This will assist substantially in the Council's statutory obligations to undertake measures to reduce harmful particulates. The reduction in traffic will improve the shopping environment in the town centre and provide opportunities to strengthen the retail economy.

Further, significant investment in highway and transport infrastructure will compliment other investment programmes within this corridor.

Mitigating Impacts

Currently, East of Lutterworth is predominantly agricultural fields; however the site does contain some key assets. These include Misterton Marshes, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, which will be protected and enhanced in accordance with national and local planning policies. The Consortium has undertaken technical ecological work in consultation with Natural England and the Environment Agency to agree an appropriate strategy to protect the SSSI, and the first iteration of the Feasibility Study in relation to this is on the Council's Evidence Base webpage. Submitted with these representations is the latest iteration of the Feasibility Study (October 2016), along with correspondence from Natural England confirming that the mitigation scheme is feasible, subject to securing appropriate conditions or obligations at the detailed planning application stage. Elsewhere, the proposed green infrastructure network will be developed to include enhancements to other significant features such as the River Swift and Thornborough Spinney.

Other potential impacts include traffic and transport, which will be mitigated by a network of vehicular and non vehicular routes, and connections to Lutterworth town centre provided to ensure suitable and sustainable access. To this end, the Consortium have engaged extensively with the Local Highways Authority and Highways England in respect of both access and necessary offsite highway works, taking account of predicted traffic forecasts and junction capacity assessments, which can be found in the Draft Strategic Transport Assessment for East Lutterworth (STA) on the Council's evidence base webpage. Consequently a strategy of required highway works and broad timings has already been agreed. The STA Executive Summary and associated appendices submitted with these representations provides the latest update in this respect.

Infrastructure Requirements & Costs

Given the scale of the development, there are significant infrastructure requirements. Policy L1 sets out the key infrastructure required for development with specific triggers. The Consortium supports the identified infrastructure requirements and the Council's estimated costs for their delivery.

The costs for infrastructure provision for the site will principally be met through secured and future capital receipts yielded from the development of the allocation. Other sources of funding will be sought where appropriate and necessary including the Housing Infrastructure Fund, or other sources which may assist with cash flow and/or pump prime the development. However, the Consortium does not consider the other sources of funding essential to deliver the Strategic Development Area.

Addressing key physical constraints

Key physical constraints principally relate to creating access to the site, offsite highways works, and an additional access across the M1 in a later phase of development at the northern end of the allocation.

The first principal accesses will be created at the southern end of the SDA from the A4304, which will enable the development of the employment land to the south and the initial phase of residential development to the north. In addition to this, offsite highway works will address highway capacity at key junctions including the J20 of the M1 and the Frank Whittle roundabout.

From the southern access, the spine road will be phased before linking via a new bridge over the M1 to the A426 to the north of Lutterworth town centre in a later phase of the plan period. It is appropriate that as well as the allocation to the east of the M1, the Council have additional safeguarded land in this area to allow for flexibility in the siting and design of the motorway bridge and access to the A426 to the west. The Consortium will support the Council in the use of its Compulsory Purchase Powers to ensure the certainty of delivery of this link and the proper planning of the area.

Realistically viable and deliverable

The Consortium considers East of Lutterworth to be viable and deliverable. The Consortium is willing to bring forward the land in their control for development and consider that the allocation as proposed will generate a meaningful return. More specifically, Leicestershire County Council has formally resolved to promote this land for development as detailed in the minutes of the Cabinet Meeting held on 9th May 2016 attached to this representation.
The Council's housing trajectory at Appendix G of the Local Plan is considered a reasonable assumption of the delivery for the East of Lutterworth SDA. The Consortium can confirm that early work has started on the preparation of an outline planning application for the entire site. An indicative timetable for this process is attached to this representation. The timetable takes a cautious approach and allows extensive time for the preparation of a collaborative masterplan, environmental impact assessment, determination of the application and agreement of funding obligations.

On this basis, first completions starting in 2022/23 can be expected, with outlets and completions rising through the plan period as parcels of land are opened up for development. The Consortium is committed to seeking opportunities and working with partners to bring forward infrastructure, particularly the spine road, as early as possible in order to accelerate delivery of homes and jobs. Given experience elsewhere and demand within the housing and employment market area, the trajectory is considered achievable.