Fields, woods, lakes and meadows form the Garendon Estate, a green wedge between the intensively developed urban areas of Loughborough, Shepshed and Hathern. Generations of local people have enjoyed walking and cycling through this area.

You can read a detailed and interesting account of the history of the estate here

It is now under threat. Charnwood Borough Council have proposed the Garendon Estate as the Preferred Option for a major new housing development.

Click here for a map of the proposed development The outline has been sketched from the papers in the consultation document and superimposed on a satellite map of the Estate.

The Borough Council has been asked to respond to the demand from Government for much more land to be designated for housing. Charnwood has been told to find space for 3,500 houses in the north of the Borough.

The Council has produced a "Core Strategy" document which identifies the Garendon Estate green wedge as the preferred option. They dismiss four other potential sites two of which are to the east of the town.

This is the response of the Garendon Park and Countryside Protection group
Director of Development
Charnwood Borough Council
Southfields
Loughborough
LE11 2TN

Dear Sir

Response to Charnwood 2026 Consultation

Please find enclosed our substantial response to the Charnwood 2026 Core Strategy Consultation.

As you will see we have put much time and effort into considering your proposals, reading relevant reports thoroughly and attending CBC exhibitions, workshops and Presentations/Discussions. We also sought guidance from environmental/planning lawyers and include their advice within our submission.

Our soundly based conclusion is that development should take place East of Loughborough rather than West of Loughborough.

Councillor Hilary Fryer, Cabinet Lead Member for Planning and Development, has frequently said that preferred options included in the Consultation Document are not ‘set in stone’ . We certainly hope this is the case and that the final Core Strategy Document will be substantially changed, particularly in terms of direction of growth.

We look forward to continuing to working closely with CBC on this matter in the coming months and would be grateful to be kept up to date with progress. If there is any more information you require from us please don&#t hesitate to make contact.

Yours sincerely
Lynda Needham
Alan Johnson,
Roy Kershaw,
Pat Murphy,
Lynne Atkinson,
Lynn Clarke,
Mike Hamilton,
Michael Shaw,
John.Popley.

On behalf of the Garendon Park & Countryside Protection Group (GPCPG)

Mrs L Needham GPCPG
259 Charnwood Road
Shepshed
LE12 9NW
Tel: 01509 821973 Email: l.needham1@ntlworld.com

Here is the full submission sent to the Council

One argument that the Council has used is that no other site has detailed plans and agreements with landowners. In fact this is no longer true. There are very detailed plans for one of the potential sites to the east of the town, which is not on a green wedge and would link in with a proposed eastern distributor road. It would not impact on reacreational land and would not lead to traffic chaos.

Read all about it here

You may think that the Council have made the wrong decision, and you would have support from the many members of the Garendon Park and Countryside Protection Group, as well as from planning consultants, lawyers and notably from Leicestershire County Council.

A "consultation" exercise is running until December 5th. The Council want our views on their "Core Strategy" Preferred Option.

You can and should write to say that you think the Preferred Option has too many drawbacks. You might like to argue that the option of locating to the east of the town has not been given proper consideration.

Some guidance on writing to the Council

The deadline has now passed for submitting objections and comments to the Council, but late submissions will still be considered.

The leader of the Council has said that the decision will be based on evidence and the Garendon Park Countryside Protection Group have produced a mass of evidence, and this has been submitted to the Borough Council.

The Garendon Park and Countryside Protection Group want this important green wedge to be preserved for future generations to enjoy for walking, cycling and appreciation of the rich wildlife, and because its loss would lead to Hathern, Shepshed and Loughborough merging into one major urban area. We are also amazed that the Council assume that the traffic generated by the 3,500 houses can be dealt with without major new road building. It is estimated that 3500 houses would generate 25000 car journeys a day, and these would inevitably join the existing traffic jams on the A6 and A512. However, read on.

The County Council are responsible for transport policy, and it is on the grounds of transport implications that they find the proposal for the development of the Garendon Estate seriously flawed.

The County Council's reasons can be downloaded here.

Section 4.20 and 4.21, are particular significant, as is Appendix A.

Appendix A is very critical of the alternative transport assessment that was carried out by the MVA consultancy for Charnwood Borough Council.

The County Council feels strongly about this issue.
David Parsons, leader of Leicester County Council issued this press statement on October 1st 2008: "I would rather co-operate with Charnwood Borough Council and if they consider development to the east of Loughborough, we will co-operate with the eastern distributor road. Charnwood is unwilling to do that at present and this is skewing the planning considerations of development around Loughborough. That it is not something I will stand idly by and see."

The County Council's response to the Consultation Document includes;

It is disappointing that the County Council as highway authority was excluded from the transport study underpinning the work to assess the transport element of the alternative options. It is also regrettable that the County Council's transport assessments which informed its advice to EMRA for the Regional Plan was not used as the basis for the further assessments.
The more simplistic approach adopted by the Charnwood study has produced results that underplay current traffic conditions and that bear little or no relation to the outcomes of other traffic modelling work for Loughborough; we question their soundness and robustness. Furthermore, whilst some mitigating measures are suggested, no regard is given to the actual practicalities of delivering improvements to public transport, walking and cycling facilities given prevailing traffic conditions and Loughborough's highly constrained road network. It is not safe to assume that the attractiveness of such modes can be improved significantly given current road network conditions and failure to achieve mode shift to date.
Based on the outcomes of its own extensive modelling of options for SUEs and mitigating measures, the County Council remains of the view that as part of an overall package of transport measures a Loughborough eastern distributor road offers the best prospect of delivering sustainable growth, reducing congestion and improving public transport in the town. To date, no evidence has been produced to change that.

At its meeting on 1st October, the County Council's Cabinet agreed that:

"taking account of the proposed overall increase in housing provision, the Cabinet regrets the decision of Charnwood Borough Council not to include in further consultation on its Local Development Framework Core Strategy preferred options for development to the east of Loughborough, since the inclusion of those options would give greater certainty to the development of a Loughborough Eastern Distributor Road as part of an overall package of transport measures required to deliver sustainable growth, reduce congestion and improve public transport in the town."

You might like to write to say that you agree with the County Council that the preferred option of development on the Garendon Estate would cause traffic chaos, while development to the east of the town could be combined with a distributor road which would relieve congestion throughout the town

The Garendon Group has submitted a formal objection to the proposals put forward in 2006. This has been submitted and was considered by the Examination in Public in the summer of 2007. Download the submission

We are now working on our response to the current proposal.