Regulation 19 - Proposed Draft Local Plan Submission

The Scraptoft housing proposals should be paused whilst a proper traffic assessment is carried out.

Barkby and Barkby Thorpe parish council wish to comment on Section 5 “Development Sites” of the new Harborough Local Plan on the grounds that it is not “positively prepared”.

The parish council notes that the Scraptoft North proposal for 1200 houses adjacent to Hamilton Lane has been omitted from the Local Plan but in its place has come the Scraptoft East proposal for 950 houses and the Land off Beeby Road proposal for 175 houses.

Whilst mention is made of the need to take account of the Thorpebury development in the adjoining Charnwood Borough it would appear that no traffic assessment has yet been carried out on the impact that these two developments would have on the two country roads that lead to and through Barkby and Barkby Thorpe, namely Beeby Road (Charnwood) and Hamilton Lane. Both roads are little more than country lanes with many twists and turns and are unsuited to the likely volume of traffic wishing to access the A46 and the A607. Moreover, Hamilton Lane is already experiencing a large increase in traffic as the Thorpebury development, which will eventually straddle it, grows inexorably towards its 4,500 homes target.

Whilst there are planned measures to mitigate the traffic impact of Thorpebury on the villages of Barkby and Barkby Thorpe no such measures are mentioned within the Harborough Local Plan for the impact the Scraptoft East and the Beeby Road schemes will have. The Plan does say that a traffic assessment will be needed but the contention of the parish council is that that such an assessment should have been carried out before these two areas for development were included in the Local Plan and that therefore the Plan has not been “positively prepared”.