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Groby & Field Head Spotlight • MID-AUGUST 2020 • Tel: 01530 244069 • Email: info@grobyspotlight.co.uk
HINCKLEY & BOSWORTH BOROUGH COUNCIL NEWS Councillor Martin Cartwright reports
Coronavirus : COVID-19 AS THE country, including Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council residents, slowly return to normal following the pandemic the Borough Council have produced a COVID recovery plan. For more information please visit the web site at www.hinckleybosworth.gov.uk
Outdoor Waste Bins YOU MAY have noticed that for sometime some of the bins around Groby have for been removed. The reason for this was during the pandemic our bin crews were fully stretched struggling to cope with the collections from people’s homes. The Borough Council removed some of the bins from across the Borough including Groby to help ease the situation. As things return to normal the removed bins will be replaced. Apologies for any inconvenience caused. As I said in my last article a great deal of thanks goes to the bin crews for their hard work and effort throughout the pandemic in order to keep our bins emptied.
Hello Homes Section 106 Hello Homes attempted to deprive Groby of £265,511.00 of infrastructure payments on their development at Leicester Road, Groby. Hello Homes’ reasoning for the application to pay nothing whatsoever in the previously agreed S106 agreement, was that now the site tenure had changed, their choice I must point out, from 40% affordable housing provision to 100% affordable housing they could no longer pay any of the S106 money desperately required to support the community, Groby, which would be impacted by their development. You may recall previously in my articles previously in the Spotlight that I called this into the planning committee as ward member because Hello Homes were going from hero, agreeing the contributions requested of them in
the section 106 agreement, a legally binding agreement, to zero in that now the properties were built and agreements in place for residents to move into all the thirty homes, they have now decided that they couldn’t afford to pay anything, whatsoever. £265,511.00 down to Nil, nothing, Zero, £00.00. This is only one part of the story as their application to go from all to none was independently assessed on behalf of the Borough Council. The independent experts, Lambert Smith Hampton, appraised the Hello Homes Viability Assessment and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t acceptable for Hello Homes to go from all to none and that they could afford to pay something equivalent to £210,082.00 of the S106 agreement that was already in place. This very seriously calls into question the viability assessment submitted by Hello Homes in this application in the first place. Lambert Smith Hampton formed the view that the S106 agreement should be reduced by £55,429.00 - still a significant amount of loss to Groby - although the independent report did not say how that £55,429.00 reduction should be levied. So I read the independent report from Lambert Smith Hampton that for clarity was not enclosed in the Committee report to the planning committee members on the night. Their figures, used to complete the assessment in this case were at least 18 months out of date. Significant uplifts in value have taken place during this time and the comparisons of nearby sites were of sites in Anstey and bordering Beaumont Leys. I have absolutely nothing against either of these settlements but you simply will not be able to convince me, I doubt you either, reading this, will draw the conclusion that house prices and rental prices are comparable in Groby to that of Anstey and or neighbouring Beaumont Leys. As said, they also failed to identify where the axe should fall if the reduction was to be agreed by
the Borough Council’s planning committee, should it be health provision, education, libraries, highways public transport, play and open space? Etc. Our Borough Council planning officers agreed that the £55,429.00 reduction in this case was acceptable and on that basis recommended approval to members. Furthermore the officers’ view in the committee report was that the total amount of £55,429.00 should be forfeited in the play and open space provision in its entirety. I disagree, the report stated Marina Park for which incidentally is not the nearest play and open space to the Hello Homes site. That said Marina Park would qualify for the money and desperately needs the full amount allocating to it as the flooding issue needs sorting out at significant cost. The BMX track needs constant maintenance and money spent on it too. The footpaths are in desperate need of repair, the list goes on all of which requires financing. As I reported to the planning committee the reduction if it were to be agreed should be levied equally across all parts of the S106 agreement and not isolated to the play and open space provision as per the Borough Council’s officer opinion. Pressure was applied by officers that this was an either or scenario to get the 100% affordable housing or the extra money for the S106. This is ridiculous along with the comment to members by officers that you can’t get 18 affordable homes built for £55,000.00? In my view it was never ever an ‘either or’ scenario this late in the stage of the development. The developer, Hello Homes has 30 homes built with agreements signed all ready to be moved into; indeed the first residents may have taken occupation by the time you read this article, certainly shortly thereafter. Should Hello Homes go to court I will do my level best to see Hello Homes fail in their attempt not to
Cllr Martin Cartwright Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council – Groby Ward. Executive member for: Licensing, Environmental, Climate Change, Rural Issues & Klondyke Community Hub
Call: 0116 287 4500 Mobile: 07850 707050 E-Mail: hbbc@appliancehome.co.uk Write : Maverick House,10 Pine Tree Avenue, Groby, LE6 0EQ FaceBook: Cllr Martin Cartwright • Twitter: @CllrCartwright • Instagram: cllr.martincartwright
honour an agreement that they themselves signed up to in the first place an agreement that was impacted by them making changes to the tenure whilst being fully aware of the legal agreement that they signed up to. Some of my colleagues just didn’t get it on the planning committee night. Persuaded by officers that it was an ‘either or’ situation that Groby would either get a greater number of affordable homes albeit with a reduction of infrastructure money or less affordable homes and the £55,429.00 instead. The motion to overturn the officers’ recommendation and simply keep to the original agreement signed up to by Hello Homes in the first place was moved by myself and seconded by Cllr Hollick. I only just won the vote on the night by the skin of my teeth. Hello Homes do not have any right of appeal to this decision - all they can do is to refuse to pay the section 106 money ending up in a legal battle in court with the district Council and planning authority. It is my view that this will delay at least some of the homes being occupied whilst the legal arguments take place. I have set out why I believe they will not choose to take this option. I stuck my neck out well and truly on this issue in order to see that agreements were kept and pledges honoured so that Groby received just what it deserved and nothing more. The effect of me doing this is far reaching; instead of the authority being seen by developers in the Borough wide as a ”soft touch” who may give in when a reduction of S106 money is applied for, the reputation will have changed to the Borough Council who will take us on and we may not succeed! I conclude that Hello Homes changed the business model having purchased the site and were fully aware of the money they agreed to pay in the first place in a legal agreement and undertaking.
Neighbourhood Planning GROBY is sadly lacking a Neighbourhood Plan. When many parishes in Hinckley & Bosworth are either a significant way through their Neighbourhood plan process or have adopted plans. Please see the articles from Groby Parish Council and Norman Griffiths on this subject in this edition of the Spotlight.
I always knock on the fridge before I open it. Just in case there’s a salad dressing.
