HBBC Local Plan – Have your say and make your voice heard
HBBC Local Plan – Have your say and make your voice heard
The Borough Council (HBBC) will soon be consulting again on their draft Local Plan (2024 – 2045). Once in place, the plan will become part of the borough’s statutory development framework and set out where new house building, and industrial expansion will take place. The development of the plan must involve public consultation, and the outcome must reflect what local communities want, need and value.
The current draft of the Local Plan that is being consulted on is a long complex document comprising several parts. To further complicate matters, this is a second step in the consultation process at this stage (known as Regulation 18 consultation). A similar consultation took place last year and therefore (and confusingly) only certain parts of the current draft plan are being consulted on.
Following this Regulation 18 consultation stage, a further version of the plan will be produced, considering all the responses received. This revised version will also be subject to consultation (the Regulation 19 consultation). After this, the plan will be finalised and submitted for independent examination. Only if it passes this examination will it be adopted (‘made’). This entire process is likely to take at least two more years.
So, what does it mean for Sheepy Parish? Well, the Local Plan identifies a requirement for 15,603 new homes across the borough during the plan period (to 2045). To help meet this target, the draft plan identifies a development site in Sheepy Magna where they propose that 58 of these homes will be built .
Beyond the parish, but not far away, a new large development (Newton Heath) is being proposed close to Twycross Zoo (2,250 houses to be built within the plan period but rising to potentially 10,000 houses) and 3,000 houses to be built close to Fenny Drayton (Lindley Meadows).
Sheepy Parish has its own a Neighbourhood Plan, last updated in May 2022. This plan also forms part of the statutory development framework and sits alongside the Local Plan and contains legally-binding policies. The current Neighbourhood Plan acknowledges that additional housing may be required in the parish beyond the developments already allocated, such as the Hornsey Rise development at Wellsborough.
However, at the time the Neighbourhood Plan was last revised, the Borough Council had not yet identified the housing requirement for the parish. Therefore, the plan includes a commitment (Sections 5,13 – 5.16) to carry out a further review of the Neighbourhood Plan once the housing need was defined. This commitment — agreed with both the Borough Council and the Plan’s Independent Examiner — was to update the Neighbourhood Plan to identify suitable site(s) and supporting infrastructure to meet the required need. This process would include full community consultation.
By identifying a specific site in in Sheepy Magna at this stage, the draft Local Plan conflicts with the Sheepy Neighbourhood Plan — a plan developed in consultation with our community and reflecting what we collectively want, need, and value.
The Parish Council strongly encourages all residents to respond to the HBBC consultation to ensure your views are heard. We also invite you to get involved in supporting the forthcoming update of the Sheepy Neighbourhood Plan. Keep up to date by looking at the dedicated Parish Council Web page
HINCKLEY AND BOSWORTH BOROUGH COUNCIL LOCAL PLAN 2025 – Sheepy Parish Council
and the Borough Councils website