Fosse Highcross Ward Blaby District Councillors Monthly Report - July 2023

It is unfortunate that we are writing this report during industrial action by some of the waste and recycling services which is causing disruption to residents in Blaby District villages. Blaby District Councillors and officers are working to minimise the effect by reorganising waste collection days.

The GMB Union, representing members within waste and recycling services, district cleansing and open spaces will be engaging in industrial action as part of a local pay dispute. 

The union is seeking an additional 15% local pay increase for its members, equating to just under £4,000 per annum, in addition to the national pay offer of £1,925.

Approximately 50 members of the union plan to go on strike over four consecutive Wednesdays, 28 June, 5 July, 12 July and 19 July 2023.

Councillor Activities

During June the following meetings/functions have taken place attended by one or both of your councillors:

• Planning Committee – 1st June
• Sapcote Parish Council – 1st June
• Members ‘Drop-in’ IT Support Session – 6th June
• Member Training Growth & Development – 7th June
• Blaby District Parishes Group Meeting – 7th June
• Sharnford Fete – 11th June
• Meeting with residents of Castlewood Park, Aston Firs – 12th June
• Essentials of Effective Strategic Scrutiny – 14th June
• Sharnford Parish Council Meeting – 15th June
• Meet the BDC Services Event – 20th June
• Blaby District Council Meeting – 20th June
• Fosse Villages Together – 21st June
• EMC Planning Reform 22nd June
• Armed Forces Day, Raising the Flag – 23rd June
• Wigston Parva Parish Meeting – 28th June
• Meeting with Rupert Matthews, Police & Crime Commissioner – 29th June
• Planning Committee – 29th June

During July the following meetings/functions will be attended by one or both of your councillors:

• Blaby District Council Cabinet Executive – 3rd July
• Training – Chairing meetings skills – 3rd July
• Training – Lightbulb & Housing Enablement – 4th July
• Sapcote Parish Council – 6th July
• Meeting with Alberto Costa MP and Planning Inspectorate – 13th July
• Audit & Corporate Governance Committee – 13th July
• Training - Planning Masterclass – 18th July
• Training – Scrutiny Questioning Skills – 20th July
• Sharnford Parish Council – 20th July
• Blaby District Council Meeting – 25th July
• Planning Committee – 27th July

News Releases

• Big Community Switch is back to help residents save on energy bills.
• Follow the Fosse Foxes and win!
• Blaby Toilets are coming! Work to deliver new toilets in Blaby Village has begun.
• Join our Solar Together scheme and save
• Consultation begins on an update to the Fosse Village Neighbourhood Plan.
• Hundreds of vacancies at Job Fair.
• Council support schools to celebrate Clean Air Day.
• GMB Strike Action to Cause Disruption to Bin Collections.
• Council confirms changes to waste collections.
• Ice House tours relaunch for summer season.
• Much needed housing approved

Major Planning Applications decided at Blaby DC Planning Committee

1st June Meeting:

21/0739/OUT – Glen Parva

Outline planning application to demolish existing building and replace with 3 storey building, accommodating 7 apartments with retail space at ground floor – APPROVED

 23/0136/RM – New Lubbesthorpe

Application to build  163 dwellings as part of Phase 2 New Lubbesthorpe development  – APPROVED

 23/0189/OUT – Kirby Muxloe

Outline application for up to 9 serviced plots for self-build and custom house building – REFUSED

29th June Meeting:

21/1386/FUL – Thurlaston

Application to Construct 36.1 hectare Solar park to generate up to 22MW electricity – APPROVED

19/1610/OUT – Kirby Muxloe

Outline application for demolition of existing buildings and erection of up to 885 dwellings, including public open space and land reserved for a primary school - APPROVED

 22/0827/RM – New Lubbesthorpe

Application for the erection of Local Centre 1 to include commercial units, medical centre, and 66 bed residential care home - APPROVED

Updated Fosse Villages Neighbourhood Plan – Public consultation

Regulation 16, The Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 (as amended)

Sapcote Parish Council, as Qualifying Body has submitted the updated Fosse Villages Neighbourhood Plan to Blaby District Council for Examination in accordance with the neighbourhood planning regulations.

During the process of preparing the Fosse Villages Neighbourhood Plan, several Local Green Spaces were deleted by the independent examiner primarily due to a lack of supporting evidence. The evidence has now been reviewed and Local Green Spaces have been restored and added in the parishes of Huncote (extending into Croft), Stoney Stanton and Sharnford. This update to the Fosse Villages Neighbourhood Plan incorporates these new Local Green Spaces at Policy FV5 and the related policy maps. Other than consequential revisions, there are no further modifications to the Neighbourhood Plan.

In accordance with the relevant legislation, Blaby District Council is now conducting a public consultation on the Plan. The submitted Leicester Forest East Neighbourhood Plan and its key supporting documents can be viewed on the Blaby District Council website, and in hard copy during opening times at:

• Huncote Community Library (Rear of Huncote Methodist Church Hall, Forest Road, Huncote, LE9 3BH); and
• Sapcote Library (Church Street, Sapcote, LE9 4FG); and 
• Stoney Stanton Library (St Michaels Court, Stoney Stanton, LE9 4TH).

You can make representations on the plan in writing to Development Strategy Team, Blaby District Council, Council Offices, Desford Road, Narborough, Leicestershire, LE19 2EP or via email to [email protected].  Your comments must be received no later than the end of the day on Friday 28 July 2023.

Please note that comments will be forwarded on to the Neighbourhood Plan Examiner. For more details on how the Council will use your information please view Blaby District Council's Data Protection Privacy Notice.

Blaby District Council will determine whether the updated Neighbourhood Plan should be made (and therefore become part of the Development Plan) following the examination and, if required, public referendum, in due course. If you wish to be notified of this decision, then please state this in your representation.

If you have any questions in relation to this matter, please contact a member of the Development

Strategy Team on the contact details provided above.

HNRFI – Relevant Representation

Blaby District Council submitted their Relevant Representation on 22nd June to the Planning Inspectorate. The Representation outlines the key areas of concern the Council have at this stage in respect of the current submission. It identifies key information considered to be absent or insufficient in content. This will be published on the planning inspector’s website soon.

Next Steps – At our Full Council in July, Councillors will vote on the ‘Written Representation’, due to be submitted in August.

Council support schools to celebrate Clean Air Day

Schoolchildren were encouraged to mark this year’s Clean Air Day with special ‘walk to school’ initiatives promoted by Blaby District Council.

The Council’s Environmental Services Team organised four active travel walks with local schools Greystoke Primary and The Pastures in Narborough, Blaby Stokes Primary and Sharnford Primary.

Together with officers from Active Blaby and members of Leicestershire County Council’s Choose How You Move partnership - including mascot Theo the Fox -the team helped lead hundreds of youngsters on fun morning strolls to school.

 The aim was to raise awareness of the benefits of clean air and how we can all help in cutting pollution by making simple lifestyle choices.

 Councillor Les Phillimore, Blaby District Council’s Portfolio Holder for Housing, Community and Environmental Services, said: “As a Council we are committed to reducing pollution in our District – for the benefit of our residents and the environment, so it was great to see how positively schools reacted to Clean Air Day. There was a great turnout for each of our walks and such an enthusiastic response from both children and their parents.

 As well as the walk to school, each visit included freebie giveaways with flags, portable lights, pin badges, wristbands and pencils and fun resources such as a word search, access to YouTube videos and a design a superhero challenge.

Clean Air Day is the UK’s largest air pollution campaign and as well as the Council backed events the initiative was marked by various schools across Blaby District during the week.

Armed Forces Day Event

Your District Councillors attended the Armed Forces Day event at Blaby District Council on the 23rd of June. This was a great opportunity to support our armed forces, past & present. This was hosted by Chair of Blaby DC Cheryl Cashmore and a commemorative flag was raised outside the Council offices. 

A Place To Grow – Open Day

Cllr Ben Taylor visited our ‘Place To Grow’ site in Enderby. The open day was a chance to showcase the amazing work by volunteers and supporters in making a ‘Place To Grow’ such an important District asset. There was live music, plant and produce sale, arts and crafts, storytelling, tombola, games, and activities, plus food and refreshments.

Chair of Blaby DC Cheryl Cashmore was there to thank the volunteers and celebrate everything that is great about ‘A Place to Grow’.

Planning Award

Blaby DC was awarded ‘Planning Authority of the Year!’ by the East Midlands Branch of the Royal Town Planning Institute. Cllr Ben Taylor as portfolio holder for planning along with the Leader of the Council went down to the awards ceremony on the 22nd of June to support the team.

Overflowing Dog Waste Bins – The Limes, Sapcote

The Limes estate in Sapcote has a management company that operate the ground maintenance, including emptying of dog bins. A couple of bins near the children’s play area have been identified to us by residents as overflowing. We visited the area and confirmed the issues. Because Blaby DC don’t manage/ empty the dog waste bins, we are limited in what we can do; however, we have been in contact with First Port, who manage the site on behalf of the residents and asked for more regular waste collections, or potentially a bigger dog waste bin.

Castlewood Park Visit

Thank you to Castlewood Park residents for inviting us over to investigate a couple of local issues. We have since this visit had meetings with Blaby DC planning officers, we’re pleased to see a resolution. We will both continue to monitor and support residents across our ward with local issues.

Sharnford Fete

We wanted to put on record our thanks for Jack and the fete committee for organising Sharnford Fete. It was a great day ran by lots of volunteers, thank you to all who helped and visited.

Alberto Costa MP, who has opened the Sharnford fete on many occasions, joined residents again this year to open the fete.

Alberto presented the Jubliee Cup to Shes Simpson who accepted it on behalf of Eric & the late Gay Washbrook, who have run the local post office for 35 years and given so much to their community.

A PDF version of this newsletter can be downloaded from the link below.