A Labour motion to have Meadow Lane reinstated into the local plan was defeated at last week's meeting of North West Leicestershire District Council's Local Plan Committee.

Had it gone through, 400 homes could have been built in that area.

The motion was referred by last month's Full Council but was opposed by Cllr Michael Wyatt who had already spoken out against it.

In the end, it was defeated by just one vote, five four and six against.

At the meeting, Cllr Wyatt once again raised concerns about the matter being brought before councillors.

He said: "We all know why this motion is here. It's got absolutely nothing to do with the housing allocation. 

"It's just pure political theatre from the Labour members who cannot stand the democratic vote which was taken to exclude Meadow Lane from the local plan. 

"Members already know the reasons behind the exclusion, destruction of the environment and its wildlife, flooding, only recently highlighted on the environment agency's website, risk of flooding, increased traffic congestion, pressure on local services and the local community, which I would remind members should always come first. 

Cllr Michael Wyatt at the Meadow Lane site after the motion was defeated. Photo supplied by Michael Wyatt

"I urge members to reject Labour's motion and continue to support the original decision made last year to exclude Meadow Lane from the local plan."

However, Labour councillors also stated their case - forecasting that outside inspectors may yet insist the land is built on.

But in the meantime, they added that Broomleys Farm and Packington Nook would have to take on extra housing.

Cllr Dave Bigby said: "I don't have any inside information, but it does appear, from all I've heard recently that the Government does intend to keep the Birmingham to Nottingham HS2 corridor safeguarded for some time, probably at least two years. 

"Therefore, I think we need to work on the assumption that the three safeguarded sites in Measham and Kegworth will have to be left out of the local plan, and unless an alternative is found, Packington Nook will have become an allocated site. 

"So I've been doing some number crunching. If we continue down the current path set out on the agenda, the distribution of allocations will become wildly distorted. 

Labour councillor Dave Bigby

"The required number of houses will be increased by 677 to 8,152 and with Packington Nook, the number allocated to the key service centres will be will increase by 1,100 to 2,001 giving them 29 per cent of the total district requirement. 

"This would mean Ashby increasing in size by nearly 50 per cent over the plan period, which cannot be sustainable, whereas Coalville will be taking four per cent below its distribution of 35 per cent.

"If we put Meadow Lane back into the plan, which is what we are proposing, then we will be really having a fair distribution aligning very closely to adoption. 

"I'm sure that the good people of Ashby would far prefer to accommodate an extra 160-house site than the enormous 1,100-house Packington Nook site, plus even more employed land that they are now being threatened with. 

"So by putting Meadow Lane back in, we have the opportunity to come up with a much fairer allocation across the whole district. 

"Everybody realises that Meadow Lane has been proposed by the officers as one of the best sites in the area, and if we don't put it back in now, it will get that put back in when it comes to examination.

"And then we end up with an extra 400 houses which we don't have to do."

Cllr John Legrys added: "I prefer to be in the position of being able to control the situation, rather than having somebody outside making a decision for us. 

"The issue is that the report published in August said that it was one of the most sustainable sites in the district. 

"Coalville is taking less housing growth than the other communities in our district. 

"Why can't the HS two plan be used for growth? It can't. They are likely to remain in legislation for at least another two years."

Cllr Ray Morris said: "Cllr Bigby has referred to HS2, but there is no statement whatsoever unless our officers know otherwise about whether it's continuing to be safeguarded or not, and therefore everything he said is all pure speculation at this stage, and we have to deal with what's on the table.

"Meadow Lane is good agricultural land and Holly Hayes Wood is part of ancient woodland."

Cllr Peter Moult - who proposed the motion - said: "The Highways authority's only concerns are two public rights of way which would need to be considered at the planning stage. 

"It has a flood risk assessment level of one - so a low probability of flooding. Our own officers scored it very highly in the sustainability appraisal that informs the selection process. 

Cllr Peter Moult

"So why would it be removed? I can perhaps enlighten members of the public and members of this committee alike that after the last elections, the ward member contacted me to offer his party's support to our group as the largest party - so that we could form an administration. 

"Our group declined the offer within the ward member's requests was that the site at Meadow Lane must not be in the local plan. 

"We are all aware that the council is now in the administration from an alliance of Conservative and Liberal Democrat group. I will leave to you to make up your own minds about any pacts that may have been agreed.

"For clarification, the removal of Meadow Lane from the new local plan has resulted in land at Broomleys Farm being in direct replacement within the new local plan, an outcome that was known to the member at the time of its removal.

"The consequence of the removal of parcels of land from the new local plan is that numbers will be need to made up from other areas within our district. 

"The developer would likely appeal the decision not to include the site in the new local plan. The grounds of removal are at best, very weak, a fact which is acknowledged by our officers, the consequences are that the new local plan would more than likely be rejected by the inspector at examination. 

"I cannot emphasise strongly enough what the consequences of not having a Local Plan would be. It would leave this council open to speculative planning applications throughout the district."

Cllr Simon Lambeth, who submitted the original motion to full council, added: "The motion that I submitted was actually done to de politicise the decision that had previously been made. 

"And in fact, the basis of my proposal was was the intention was to actually introduce an element of probity. 

"If it were appealed, we could well be in a position where we would actually be oversubscribed, because we could well be instructed to actually include this site - effectively, this would mean that we would end up with a higher, higher allocation than we actually require."