Issue - meetings

To receive questions from members of the public under rule no.10 of the Council Procedure Rules.

There was one question, which was addressed by the Chair of the Committee. The Committee was referred to the question and response in the additional papers. A supplementary question was not asked.

 
Question from Mrs Ruth Oakley
“Firstly, I want to say I am not against housing development in Measham; however it does have to be in the right place and I believe that the proposed development off Leicester Road is not a feasible location.

In general terms it should be noted the high incidence of mining in this area, with many exhausted mineshafts making much of the land unstable, and I know that lenders do not like to lend on properties in close proximity to old mine shafts, which could lead to difficulty selling the properties.

More specifically, the increase in traffic on Leicester Road would cause even more congestion issues due to parked cars that already reduce the flow to a single lane along Leicester Road. This could also cause more of the parked cars to get damaged. I personally know of two cars that were parked on this road getting hit in the last 6 months.

With these existing issues, how can we justify developing in this area, making worse an already difficult situation?”

Response from the Chair of the Local Plan Committee 

“The proposed housing allocation is identified in the adopted Local Plan as a reserve housing site in the event that the site at west of High Street Measham (Measham Waterside) cannot be developed due to the impact of the route of HS2. Therefore, the Council has already accepted the principle of development.

The site is also the subject of an outstanding outline planning application for up to 300 dwellings (18/00498/OUTM). In response to consultation on the application the Coal Authority have advised that whilst the coal mining legacy poses a risk to the proposed development there is “no objection to the proposed development subject to the imposition of a condition or conditions” to secure amongst other matter a scheme of intrusive investigations.

Draft policy En6 of the Local Plan requires that in Coal Authority Development High Risk Areas that applications be accompanied by detailed site investigations and provide appropriate mitigation, which addresses   the concerns above.

In terms of highway matters, the County Council as the Highway Authority have advised that “the residual cumulative impacts of development can be mitigated and are not considered severe in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework 2018 (NPPF), subject to the Conditions and Contributions”.

On the basis of these responses officers consider that there is no reason as to why the site at Ashby Road/Leicester Road Measham should not be allocated for development.”