Housing Survey Form Inside
An important survey of local housing need in Groby is taking place to update the previous survey, but this time it includes not only affordable need but open market home requirements too. This becomes more relevant following the recent Bloors appeal dismissal. Please would each household complete and return the first section of the questionnaire to give a flavour of life in the village. Those who wish or need to change their housing circumstances in the next five years should complete and return the second section of the form. This could include young people who need to set up their own homes; families living in difficult situations; older people who require single storey accommodation – this is not a complete list as people have many different reasons for needing to move. Information received will be treated in the strictest confidence – analysed and retained by the Rural Housing Enabler – not seen by either Groby Parish Council or H&BBC. Please complete and return in the freepost envelope by end February. Additional forms available from the Rural Housing Enabler, Richard. 01530 276546 or email: Richard. wndley@midlandsrh.org.uk No Form Inside? Please contact Groby Spotlight on 01530 244069.
Bloors appeal dismissed Norman Griffiths looks at the Inspector’s decision Those readers with the inclination and tenacity to read all the articles that have appeared in the Spotlight on the subject of planning and development over the last few years will no doubt be pleased to hear some of the comments of A J Davison. He is the Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to determine the appeal by Bloors against the decision of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council to refuse planning permission for a housing development on land next to Groby cemetery. The articles reflected the tortuous journey that both residents, councillors and Borough planning officers took that was designed to provide a blueprint for the future development of the area and the issue, probably considered by residents to be the most important one, of how many new dwellings should be added to Groby, and where should they be built.
The future shape of Groby No doubt many trees were cut down to provide the raw material for the profusion of documents that the process produced and the consultations that followed. Although the journey is not yet complete at the end of the tunnel we see not the light but the final version of the Site Allocations and Generic Development Control Policies Development Plan Document (SAGDCP). This will tell us the future shape of Groby and the
Sheep grazing on the land next to Groby Cemetery rest of the Borough. The SAGDCP Preferred Options Report was duly published and was followed by a public consultation that ended in April 2009. A pre-submission draft is due to be published this August and it is hoped that it will be submitted to the Secretary of State early next year. The Bloors site was earmarked as a preferred option for housing development in the consultation draft, to the horror of most Groby residents. With the Government throwing all the cards relating to planning law in the air,
and the developer pressing to build on this site before the publication of the Council’s final views concerning site allocations, residents were starting to wonder whether the long protracted process, the time and the effort, had been worth it. Mr Davison, the Inspector, had to approach his task without the baggage and emotion that residents carry, but his decision clearly indicates that resident’s expectations that no approval should be given in anticipation that the final site
Continued on page 3
Parish Council election results
Just over 14% of the Groby Ward electors voted in the Parish Council election on February 7th - a turnout comparable to the 2012 election of the Leicestershire Police Commissioner. It is not often that rejected ballot papers could have changed the result of an election, but on this occasion they could have played a critical role if they had been valid. The candidate with most votes, Catherine Thompson, was comfortably ahead with 509 votes. The two other candidates had just one vote separating them, which resulted in the return of Leigh Quilter to the Parish Council with 403 votes. The 9 rejected papers could have increased Leigh’s lead or alternatively given the seat to the third candidate, Barry Jones. Seven of the spoilt papers were unmarked or “wholly void for uncertainty,” one elector voted for all three candidates, and one paper had on it writing or a mark by which the voter could be identified.
NEXT ISSUE OUT: Saturday 16th March - Advert/Articles needed by 2nd March