SC1 clause 1

If this goes ahead, Scraptoft will lose its village identity. Roads will be busier, wildlife will be pushed out from the fields the development is built on.
Yes we want a Doctors surgery, but shops, pub and supermarket, I don't think so. Scraptoft is a village not a town. We have the Co op and Tesco for provisions. Most people like traditional older pubs for food and drink, not a modern development without character

The proposed development of the SDA at Scraptoft North will have significant adverse impacts on the village of Scraptoft. The land is designated as a Green Wedge in the Adopted Local Plan and includes land designated as a Local Nature Reserve.

The local support for these designations has recently been confirmed within the Adopted Scraptoft Neighbourhood Plan, 2016, policy S6 and Policy S11. The Neighbourhood Plan is an expression of the needs and wants of the local community, which did not in any way envisage or support the destruction of their Local Nature Reserve or a significant reduction in the area designated as Green Wedge. Had that been the case, then the Neighbourhood Plan would not have included policies suggesting such strong protection being afforded to these areas. The Harborough Local Plan has given no weight to these adopted Neighbourhood Plan policies, which form part of the adopted development plan. Given how recently the Neighbourhood Plan was adopted, it is very disappointing to see two of the policies it contained ignored so readily.

There are risks regarding the deliverability of the SDA within the Local Plan period. The land is currently in use as a golf course, which must be relocated and established prior to a development commencing. There are uncertainties to where the golf course will be relocated to, how this would be funded and how long this process would take.

When planning for the urgent delivery of new homes to meet growth targets, it is a more prudent strategy to place less reliance on large strategic developments and spread development across a wider range of housing sites. This allows for the timely release of more sites to the market and less up-front infrastructure work associated with very large scale strategic development areas. Providing house buyers choice in a variety of locations is crucial to housing delivery and maintaining a stable housing land supply.

There are other more suitable sites nearby, such as the land to the north of Thurnby Brook, where traffic impacts will not impact upon the existing local road network, the green wedges and local wildlife sites can be protected. This land can be delivered for housing within the plan period and will ensure continuity of housing supply over the plan period.

Furthermore, if the plan period is extended to 2036 and further housing allocations are needed to address this additional period and the unmet housing need generated by Leicester City, then housing sites within the Leicester Principle Urban Area are the most sustainable and best located options. The land to the north of Thurnby Brook is available to meet this unmet need.

We who live locally who were born & raised here are sick and fed up with this total destruction of our country side & surrounding FARM LAND. We are already being totally surrounded with new houses 4500 ~@ Barkby Thorpe 320 @ the side of "new Hamilton " a load just built on the edge of Barkby Thorpe plus the already surrounding sprawl of Scraptoft. We were born in the countryside & do NOT wish to live in & amongst a built up noisy mostly foreign immigrants.
Charnwood council are pushing it all on our aria away from them now it seems you are doing the same you have plenty of fields to rip up, we want as ENGLISH people to live in peace as we are used to, Barkby village a farming community is being overrun destroyed overwhelmed with rapidly increasing traffic on old country lanes , there are around 100,000 empty council houses boarded up, repair those.
There aren't the schools the clinics police etc. to cope, the roads around here CANNOT manage with all this extra traffic & pollution. We have the wright to have a good quality of life as we have toiled & paid for it all our lives, STOP this ridiculous non stop building in THIS area. STOP IMIGRATION THEN WE DON'T NEED TO RIP UP OUR COUNTRY SIDE and WE can have a QUALITY of life we were raised to enjoying, we are not (townies) & so stop destroying peoples lives & way of life. THAT ARE INDIGINOUSE TO THIS COUNTRY. ENGLISH FIRST.. like other countries as a well travelled person they put there own FIRST.

Scraptoft... I feel that there has been no thought about the amount of new traffic new housing would bring to Scraptoft. Beeby Road is already a race track with cars & lorries. This Road will not take more traffic. The one way system has already come to a stand still at times near the local shops. Children need to cross this road when going to school. We have wildlife, newts, kites, birds, hedgehogs, fox, badgers, to name a few which would be affected... more open space less petrol & Diesel fumes please.

The traffic impact on Scraptoft will be huge. Many wanting to travel South will use Scraptoft as a rat run, which it already is. Station Lane is already blocked between 7.45am and 9.00am. The proposed principle access would be via Keyham Lane West which just been upgraded with traffic calming plus 20MPH speed limit. Certain parts can't be widened and Tesco roundabout is already nose to tail virtually all day. It would be impossible to upgrade Scraptoft/Station Lane without knocking houses down! The Green Wedge from Hall Road to Hamilton Lane needs to be protected to keep our village status.

Re: Scraptoft North 1200 houses on golf course site.
Scraptoft has had many new houses built in recent years already (former Scraptoft campus and Beeby Rd developments and the nearby Hamilton development) which has had a negative impact in terms of increased traffic noise/pollution on the narrow road junction directly outside my house. The proposed new development in terms of number of houses far exceeds this. Any major road widening here would have a massive impact on the rural character of the conservation area that my house is in. I value this greatly and do not want what is left of the historic village of Scraptoft swallowed up by the City and/or a new housing estate.
As well as the traffic noise/pollution I believe this will also decrease the value of my house.

I have lived in my home in Scraptoft since 1957. Over the years I have seen the village grow and develop. Recently over the past 7 years - over 700 houses have been built on what was green land. I feel this proposal is too much. The village will lose it's identity, it will become too big and busy. The roads will be unable to cope with the increase in traffic. The roads that are proposed to be "upgraded" are unsuitable to carry the volume of traffic.

Trying to make comments on the proposed building plot in Scraptoft I think it's disgusting, It's called a nature reserve for a reason.

Can I register my disapproval of the proposed SDA for the Scraptoft area. The Nature reserve should be kept in its entirety and developed for use by the general public - ie: walkways and seating. As regards the golf club then again it would be nice to see that it remains as a green area. Do you not feel that the Scraptoft area including Bushby and Thurnby has seen its fair share of recent housing development? And what of the infrastructure for these new developments - schools, roads, medical facilities, shops and social amenities? The new housing being built on Beeby Road will create hundreds of more cars and how will they get to the A47 other than by Church Lane and the mini roundabout at the the tip of Scraptoft Lane which is already inadequate? Has the impact of the proposed SDA really being thought through? Finally, do you honestly feel that the concerns of the local residents will make a blind bit of difference residents as to whether the proposed plans are accepted or not? Are you not just going through a box ticking exercise so say that local residents have been consulted and regardless of their views the development will go ahead anyway? Sorry to sound rather cynical but in my experience housing development seems to take preference over everything.

I believe this proposal is unsound.

The number of dwellings needs to be reduced at least by 50%

Access from the site onto the primary roads needs to be improved to a standard that could cope with 700 housed that have already been built in the last 7 years and any additional houses to be built on the SDA.

Keyham Lane West has already been widened in one part but there are still pinch points at Humberstone end and the Hamilton Lane end. It is already a bus route which the buses have to drive over the kerb or on the verge if another bus or lorry comes in the from the other direction. This route passes 3 schools and also has speed restrictions and speed calming in place. Vehicles are also parked alongside the route on one side.

Another route that might get used is New Romney Crescent and Nether Hall Road although this junction is also very busy onto Hungerton Boulevard and it passes a school.

Another route would be Scraptoft Lane, although the lane itself has less problems it wouldn't be a preferred choice due to how busy it gets just after it joins Uppingham Road. People wanting to get to South Leicester will have to use Station Road and would have to go through Scraptoft Village which doesn't cope at the present time with the amount of traffic using it now. Station Road backs up from Uppingham Road traffic lights at peak times upto Pulford Road for upto 20 minutes for your turn to get out. This route will also be used for the School run to Gartree and Beauchamp College. If the road from Keyham Lane West to Beeby Road was built it will make Beeby and Barkby a rat run for anybody wanting to go North East. Anyone wanting to go East will make Keyham a rat run. Barkbythorpe could also become congested due to so many people wanting to get to Thurmaston and surrounding areas. These are all country roads and not suitable for heavy traffic.

To make this plan sound you would have to improve Keyham Lane West so there was a minimum of a single lane in each direction without interruption giving current residents adequate parking to the properties and proper traffic light control for school pupils. Also improvement to all junctions that enter Keyham Lane with proper sight easements traffic light control onto the Thurmaston Lane/ Hungerton Boulevard roundabout. Station Road junction must operate more efficiently; with existing traffic and proposed traffic this junction will need widening so there is a minimum of two lanes in all directions approximately 50meters. The number of houses should be restricted to a maximum of 600 split into 2 sites, one site approximately 200 onto Beeby Road and second site approximately 400 houses access from Hamilton Lane.

Nature Reserve

It was agreed with Leicester City Council and Harborough District Council in 1999 it was sound then, it is even more sound now due to recent developments primarily Scraptoft Hall Development it appears to have become a major feeding ground to a number of birds there appears to have a balance of nature. Species seen dear, rabbits, foxes, kites, bats, owls, green woodpeckers, kingfisher, hedge sparrows, thrushes, yellow wag tails, robins, wrens, great-tits, chiff-chaffs, starlings, song thrushes, numerous butterflies. It would be beneficial to wildlife if the nature reserve was extended with a corridor through the existing golf course of around 100 metres wide to the open land north of the developments.
Refer to report by Sue Timms and Karen Headly for Leicestershire and Rutland Environmental Record Centre Leicestershire County Council report dated 18 May 2017.

It is also very important to keep the Green Wedge between Scraptoft and Leicester to maintain our village status identity and not to be swallowed up as suburb of Leicester. Scraptoft has been intensively built in a short space to time it should be more evenly distributed thorough out the districts.

Policy SC1 Scraptoft North Strategic Development Area.
This representation is submitted by Parker Strategic Land Limited who are the promoters of the Scraptoft North SDA. Parker Strategic Land have agreements in place over the whole SDA area and are able to bring the site forward for development quickly to meet the objectives of the Plan. We have worked closely with the existing owners, Scraptoft Golf Club and Leicester City Council, to assess the potential of the site and to ensure that the land can be developed. Plans are in place to relocate the golf club to a new site within the district and within the ownership of Parkers of Leicester Limited, the parent company of Parker Strategic Land, a decision supported by the membership of the golf club.

We are supportive of Policy SC1 and consider the site is a highly sustainable location for new housing growth being located on the edge of the existing urban area, close to local facilities such as the secondary school and district-scale shops at Hamilton District Centre, and can be served easily by extending the existing infrastructure and highways network into the site and by extending bus services, which already provide links to the city centre and to major employment locations nearby.
The site has few major constraints and we consider can be developed as an attractive new neighbourhood. The development can also bring benefits for the village of Scraptoft by reducing and calming through-traffic, as well as providing high quality new and accessible facilities such as public parklands, a new primary school and local centre with shops, potentially a doctor's surgery, community hall and other community facilities.

Our representations relate to the detailed elements of the policy and these are considered below. We also make representations on the proposed new replacement golf course at Houghton on the Hill, and we are making separate representations on the de-designation of the Scraptoft Local Nature Reserve. In summary, our general concern is that the policy is overly-prescriptive and need not be to meet its objectives. The detailed prescription is not necessarily supported or justified by evidence at this stage. We have also recommended that a further element be added to paragraph 3 of the Policy to cover the requirement for a 'Delivery and Phasing Programme' that would obviate the need for (unsubstantiated) specific thresholds within the policy itself.

Policy SC1 - Scraptoft North Strategic Development Area
Policy SC1 proposes to allocate land at Scraptoft North to deliver 1,200 homes during the plan period. In addition to these homes, Section 13 of the Local Plan identifies that Scraptoft, Thurnby and Bushby have already seen growth of over 260 dwellings since 2011 and that there are about 700 committed dwellings not forming part of the SDA.
Effectiveness In order to be considered effective, NPPF Paragraph 182 states Local Plans should be deliverable over the plan period. Based on industry standard delivery rates, Manor Oak Homes consider that the Council is overly ambitious in its expectation that 1,200 homes will be delivered on this site during the plan period. A report last year from Lichfields (http://lichfields.uk/media/1728/start-to-finish.pdf) identifies that the average planning approval period for schemes of 1,000-1,500 dwellings is 4.8 years with an additional 0.9 years from approval to first delivery (i.e. 5.7 years total) and that following the grant of planning permission the average annual build out rate is 105 dwellings per year.
A planning application has yet to be submitted for the Scraptoft SDA and considering the late addition of land to the north of Scraptoft as a potential SDA in the Local Plan's preparation, we consider the very earliest date that a planning application is likely to be submitted for the site would be the planned date of adoption for the Local Plan in October 2018. If an application were submitted in October 2018, the industry average approval time for a scheme of 1,000-1,500 dwellings of 5.7 years would mean development would not get underway until Summer 2024. This would leave 7 years in which to deliver an average of 105 dwellings per year until the end of the plan period. As detailed in the table below, this would see Scraptoft North deliver approximately 750 dwellings during the plan period, well below the 1,200 dwellings upon which the emerging plan is based.
18/19 - APP, 19/20-App, 20/21-App, 21/22 App, 22/23-App, 23/24-App, 24/25-105, 25/26-105, 26/27-105, 27/28-105, 28/29-105, 29/30-105, 30/31-105, Total: 735

This policy is unsound as it is clearly ineffective in that it will fail to deliver the predicted number of homes during the plan period, leaving a shortfall in delivery of circa 450 homes.