June 2025 The application to build 135 homes south of Jacqueline Road at Field Head was approved by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council on 2 June. The site has been controvertial for a number of reasons, including increased pressure on an already overloaded road network, and a disputed access which Groby Parish Council believes is over parish owned land.
At an earlier meeting a decision was deferred and Leicestershire County Council(LCC) was asked to review the implications for local highways. Borough Council members, who did not support the application, were disappointed at the response - no change. Without a highways objection from the LCC members reluctantly accepted the view of their planning officers that if the application was refused the decision was almost certain to be overturned on Appeal.
Groby Parish Council have expressed concerns that the applicant is relying on land that falls within their ownership. The Borough Council does not agree and accepts that the Highway Authority(LCC) HA are treated as owning the extent of the highway within which the proposed access works will be delivered without the need for any third party or Parish Council land.
Planning Application ref : 25/00676/OUT
August 2025 Both Groby Parish Council and Markfield Parish Council have met recently to discuss and listen to the concerns of residents about the the planning application by Taylor Wimpey to build 135 homes off Ratby Lane in Field Head, an application received at a time of year when many may be on holiday. There is a limited time to comment and some were critical with regards delays in the way the application had been publicised.
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council (HBBC) believe that everything was done in accordance with the Council’s statement of community involvement for consulting on planning applications. Their records indicate this timeline -
14th July consultation started with letters out to consultees, including Markfield Parish Council.
18th July Groby Parish Council were notified
23rd July letters were sent to residents is to 36 addresses, including all residents of Jacqueline Road that border the site.
23rd July advertised in the Leicester Mercury.
“In all cases of the above, there are 21 days to respond after the letters were received, so for the neighbour letters this is 13th August. Further there will be a site notice erected to the site, with 21 days for comments from publication of this site notice,” added a spokesperson for HBBC.
But some residents might disagree, reporting that they had received notifications but their neighbours were still waiting for theirs. Even Groby Parish Council was concerned about the delay in receiving their notification. The normal public notices which appear on or near the site had still not appeared at the time of writing on 6 August.
The Groby meeting
The meeting at Groby was told that there was more to this than just a housing development on an autonomous piece of land in the Parish – an essential part of the development is a pumping house servicing the sustainable drainage scheme. The planned access to this feature requires the permission of Groby Parish Council, as it crosses Parish land. Ten years ago Taylor Wimpey made an application to build on the same land, but the application failed as Groby Parish Council refused access and will refuse again.
The meeting Chair asked for everyone to act with respect and listen to other contributors to the discussion. The strategy for opposing the development was discussed, and after considering the funding available, and the different views expressed, members were able to reach a consensus which provided not only a budget for professional help in ‘commenting’ on the application to HBBC, but also one for protecting the right of way for agricultural use over Council land from Ratby Lane.
The Markfield meeting
Markfield Parish Council met on 5 August and is concerned because, although not in the parish, the only exit from the site is into the village of Markfield. More houses means, more traffic and congestion, more healthcare needs, more educational requirements, more use of the recreational facilities and the loss of open space. Any additional residents would place further strain on Markfield’s infrastructure, traffic and services, but it is the highways issue is which is of the most concern for a village on the southern end of the A511 (A50) growth corridor.
The meeting was told that traffic volumes had meant road crossing had become more difficult for pedestrians and access to the A50 at peak times from the village continues to worsen. Leicestershire County Council transport studies concluded that the route experiences notable levels of congestion and peak hour delays at several key junctions. Housing and economic growth in the Coalville area would be severely restricted without investment in the A511 corridor. With thousands of new homes between Markfield and the A42, and what seems to the layman as the proliferation of business parks and warehouses, clearly traffic problems could only worsen.
And it must be tempting for some drivers to leave the M1 at junction 22 in the morning rush hour when they find a 70mph motorway is reduced to 15 to 20 mph because of congestion. Plans for the A511/A50 road include improvements to 5 roundabouts, including Field Head, where part time signals would control the A50 approaches to the roundabout. A two-lane exit was proposed on Launde Road.
Without any action the Council estimated that the morning queue length at the roundabout of 68 in 2017 would increase by 300% by 2031. The increase forecast for Launde Road was even worse, rising from 3 to 183.
The meeting was told that millions of pounds had been contributed by developers through ‘section 106’ infrastructure payments, but still communities are waiting for the improvements to be provided. Markfield’s new County Councillor, also a Markfield resident, was urged to investigate as a matter of urgency. The Council has asked HBBC not to determine the application before the LCC has had “the opportunity to establish whether the residual cumulative impact of development can be mitigated.” They will be able to provide a further response by 26th August 2025.
Should Groby residents object?
The land is in Groby Field Head, but the main impact will be felt by the village of Markfield. But no parish is an island, and who knows, what happens across the border could impact on Groby village. Ratby, for example, has insufficient school places and Martinshaw School has to deal with their overflow who arrive by car up Forest Rise. The A50 at Groby has to cope with traffic originating from Markfield and beyond, and may ultimately also have a trading estate on Anstey Lane adding to our problems.
If Groby Parish owns land which is essential for access in order for the development to take place then it is for Groby to decide whether access is granted.
Should Markfield residents object?
Although the land to be developed at Field Head is in Groby parish, the only exit from the site is to the village of Markfield. Even if the schools and other services can cope with an increase, the traffic implications cannot be avoided. The view of Markfield Parish Council is that this is the main reason for not supporting the application. It could be argued that the roundabout project will not resolve the traffic issues at peak times, it will just spread the misery a little more evenly.
Residents who would like to object to the application need to act as soon as possible.
Comments can be made :
in writing to Development Services at the Hinckley Hub, Rugby Road, Hinckley, Leicestershire LE10 0FR. Make sure to state the application number (25/00676/OUT), site address, your name, address and email address.
online at https://pa.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk. You may have a lot to say and HBBC warns that you will be timed out online after 20 minutes of non-activity and will lose your text. They recommend that if you are submitting a lengthy comment it is better to type it into a word processing document and then copy and paste it into the comment box in the online form.
March 2025 Housebuilders Taylor Wimpey would like to build 130 new homes on land at Field Head to the east of Ratby Lane and south of Jacqueline Road. Although administratively within Groby Parish the development would for practical purposes look to Markfield for services, as the company describes it as being roughly 10 minutes walking distance from Markfield Village Centre, “which offers key services including a school, shops, a GP practice and community facilities.”
The proposal
Approximately 130 new homes, in a mix of types and tenures, with affordable housing provision.
Energy efficient homes, with a range of sustainability features.
New open spaces, including green corridors and equipped play areas.
Biodiversity enhancements, achieving at least a 10% Biodiversity Net Gain.
New walking and cycling routes to improve connections into Markfield and the surrounding area.
The site and the draft Local Plan
They add that the site “is now allocated for development of around 130 homes in the draft Hinckley and Bosworth Local Plan 2020 – 2041.”
A spokesperson for Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council clarified the significance of this statement : “The Taylor Wimpey site was included as a draft allocation in the Regulation 18 draft Local Plan consulted on in summer 2024. This carries limited planning weight at present, however should the proposed allocation remain in future iterations of the Local Plan for consultation (Regulation 19 and then submission to the Government) then the proposed allocation will gain further weight as it goes through the process”
Feedback from the public consultation
As part of its consultation the company held a public exhibition of the proposal at the Field Head Hotel on 3rd March, and provided an opportunity to share thoughts with them by March 10th either in person or by using the online response form at taylorwimpeymarkfield.co.uk. The first two hours enabled councillors to have a preview.
The Field Head event coincided with the monthly meeting of Groby Parish Council, so feedback at the Council meeting was limited. Nevertheless members were disturbed by some of the comments that a borough councillor had heard were circulating.
The first was that no Councillors had attended, but both Groby and Markfield councils were represented, and at least seven councillors and a parish clerk are known to have been at the exhibition. Nichola Willder, Senior Strategic Land & Planning Manager at Taylor Wimpey, said: “We were delighted to welcome local elected representatives from Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, Groby Parish Council, and Markfield Parish Council to an exhibition preview session on Monday 3rd March, ahead of opening the exhibition to members of the public. Both sessions were well-attended.”
The second issue raised was that some residents were told that apparently the Councillors were only interested in the roundabout being sorted out and that "they were quite happy for the development to go ahead." This comment was greeted with dismay. Whilst it is true that Councillors have great concerns over the traffic issues, they raised all sorts of issues regarding the proposal and Nichola Willder added that both sessions “provided a constructive environment for wide ranging discussions with both residents and other local stakeholders on a variety of topics related to our proposal.”
At this stage there has been no opportunity for the two councils to discuss this outline proposal, but the early indications are that the initial reaction is that the environmental impact and pressure on local services are unacceptable. These are issues they will have to consider in due course.
A planning application is sure to come, followed no doubt by an expensive appeal even it is refused by the Borough Council. The developer and the cash strapped councils will be unevenly matched, as at 31 December 2024 Taylor Wimpey had a cash balance of £647,000,000.
Most people agree we need more houses and it’s the housebuilders that need to deliver them. The dilemma is where to put them that meets the need but does not put a strain on services, cause environmental damage, or materially reduce the quality of life for others. Residents of both Groby and Markfield may well decide that this proposal does not pass these tests.
The news that the Taylor Wimpey planning application for 140 houses to the rear of Jacqueline Road, Field Head was unanimously rejected by Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council’s planning committee will be welcomed by both Field Head, Groby and Markfield residents. But experience has shown that housebuilders don't take refusal lightly. They invest heavily in acquiring land for development and have deep pockets with which to finance the legal battles which almost invariably follow.
If they wish to lodge an appeal against the decision the company has more than just petty cash in the bank to fund the expenses. They ended the financial year year with net cash of £223m after returning £308m to shareholders. In the last few weeks the company reported an annual gross profit of £788m, an increase of 26.9%. Gross margins improved to 25.1%. and the result was a profit before tax and exceptional items of £604m, up 34%.
Discussing the results Pete Redfern, Chief Executive said : ”We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of new acquisition opportunities and the quality of those, we’ll continue to chase them but they have to be good, and we get harder and harder in our assessment of what it needs to be. And that’s about its planning pedigree, it’s about the quality of the financial gain we can have for working that strategic site, it’s about the quality of the products and the plots that come from it. “
It will come as no surprise that it is the quality of the financial gain from developing the Jacqueline Road site that is important to the company, after all business is business and that's what they have to take account of. The estimated £1million they may have to pay to mitigate the impact of the development of the site will be no deterrent as this will be built into the selling price of the houses. And if ultimately they overturn the refusal of planning permission and have to pay out what the various agencies have asked for the sums could be significant.
For example, it is estimated that the proposed development would result in the generation of the 34 pupil places which can not be accommodated at nearby schools. A contribution has therefore been requested for £406,426.74. A Secondary School contribution request of £423,307.71 has been made for Markfield South Charnwood High School, and a Post 16 sector contribution request of £89,294.90 has been made for Groby Community College.
It is considered that the development would result in an additional 339 patients to the local health centre. The Markfield surgery is currently at capacity and an increase in GP sessions would be required, so a total of £70,925.58 is requested. There's more including a request of £47,503 from Leicestershire Police.
But the discussion of how much they should pay if they eventually get planning permission is for another day. For the moment, no doubt, the company will be considering the reasons for recommending refusal.
The Planning Officer's conclusion is that the development would significantly exceed the housing requirement for Markfield as set out in the Borough's Core Strategy. The council is currently able to demonstrate a five year supply of housing land, and this is important. Whilst the proposal would bring some social and economic benefits through the supply of housing it is not considered to outweigh the harm to the landscape setting of the village by developing a greenfield site outside of the settlement boundary within the National and Charnwood Forests. This would conflict with the environmental strand of sustainability resulting in harm.
In the final paragraph outlining the reasons for recommending refusal the report is more limited and says that the site lies outside the settlement boundary for Markfield and Field Head and the proposal would lead to an unsustainable landscape impact. It would also cause detriment to the character of the designated National and Charnwood Forests.
With a chronic national shortage of housing there is probably someone, somewhere, assessing the outcome and putting together a case on which to challenge the decision. But on the other side of the argument the local community, with less deep pockets, will have its own plans for ensuring that the refusal is ultimately upheld if it should go to appeal.
February 2016
The changes that the Coalition Government made to the planning system were designed to streamline the whole process and sweep away over 1000 pages of planning guidance and replace it with 65 pages. Despite all this, at a local level producing a plan for the future within the Hinckley and Bosworth area seems to have taken a huge effort in human resources. The documentation and the process for approval is daunting, and the Borough Council has recently announced the latest stage and the latest consultation.
It's the Site Allocations and Development Management Policies Development Plan Document – Main Modifications Consultation, which runs until Friday, 18 March 2016. Readers who want to see what it's all about can read more at www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk/siteallocations. The consultation is to allow everyone to consider the modifications proposed by the Inspector who examined the Borough Plan and to read additional modifications proposed by the council but on which it is not inviting comments.
There's a lot to read but tucked away in the documentation is a potential windfall for the opponents of the Taylor Wimpey planning application at Jacqueline Road, Field Head.
A new sustainability appraisal supplement(SAS) re-assesses sites in settlements where the housing requirement has already been met, and that includes the Taylor Wimpey site. In simple terms it appears to conclude that no greenfield site around Markfield can be considered sustainable at the moment and none should be allocated without further investigation through the local plan review. To approve the Taylor Wimpey application and grant planning permission would therefore seem to be contrary to the Council's declared policies.
Cllr Peter Batty, Chairman of the Parish Council, who raised this with the legal team that will represent the parish said “In a nutshell, we believe that the Borough Council are left with no alternative but to refuse this application or potentially leave themselves wide open for a Judicial Review that they would almost certainly lose. Equally, we believe that this will whip the carpet out from under Taylor Wimpey’s feet for any appeal at least until the SAS is completed (at least a year) which in any case could slam the door on this site if it supports the position stated in the Main Modifications proposals.”
October 2015 Field Head residents concerned about the planning application by Taylor Wimpey for 140 houses on land south of Jacqueline Drive at Field Head may be encouraged by the decision in a recent planning appeal in another parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council area.
The site of the proposed housing which was the subject of the Appeal is on land south of Bullfurlong Lane in Burbage. Originally the proposal was for 32 houses but this was later reduced to 14. The main issues in this appeal were the effect of the proposed development on the character and appearance of the area, whether the proposal would be a sustainable development, and the extent of the housing land supply in the Borough.
Andrew Milne, the Inspector, thought that the proposed development would urbanise the site and result in the loss of this area of countryside to development and said “I therefore conclude that the proposed development would cause demonstrable harm to the character and appearance of the countryside and the landscape setting of Burbage.” In addition he didn't think it would be a sustainable development as the social and economic benefits of the scheme would not overcome the significant harm that would be caused by the loss of countryside and the poor accessibility to and from the site for pedestrians.
Local Planning Authorities should have sufficient deliverable sites to provide five years of housing against their housing requirements, and the good news is that at last the position of the Council is that as of April 2015 it has a 5.69 year supply. Even if there is not such a supply the Inspector thought the Appeal should fail, as the contribution of the fourteen dwellings proposed towards addressing this issue would not outweigh the harm to the character and appearance of the area and the fact that the proposal would not be a sustainable development.
There are elements of the decision, including the five year housing supply, which may be helpful in stopping the Taylor Wimpey development, one which residents feel is clearly unwelcome. Groby and Markfield Parish Councils are working together in responding to the planning application and plan to share the cost of legal representation between the two parish councils in the same way that Ratby and Groby co-operated over the Bloors Homes application next to Groby cemetery.
The developer has shown on the plans submitted that access to the site is over land which is owned by Groby Parish Council. The Chairman told members that if this is the only access available then the Parish Council has control over whether or not the development takes place or not. The terms of the current agricultural access will need clarification as the developer has indicated that they would use this as access to the pumping station for the Sustainable Urban Drainage Scheme(SUDS) for the site.
The National Forest has expressed disappointment that the application fails to acknowledge the requirement to incorporate 1.08ha of National Forest woodland planting and landscaping. If the application is approved they want a landscaping condition imposed.