County Councillor for Gartree
Water, Water, Everywhere!
The County Council, working with partners through the Local Resilience Forum, responded to a number of impacts caused by Storms Henk, Isha and Jocelyn. We are all now actively participating in recovery work.
A major incident was declared by the LRF on 3 January, but this was stood down once conditions eased. A Recovery Co-ordination Group, (chaired by the County Council), was established. It consists of a number of task specific sub-groups, including Environment and Infrastructure, which is dealing with the clean-up, and Humanitarian Assistance, which is focusing on support for affected residents.
There has been close liaison with the Environment Agency regarding flood locations along the county’s rivers and brooks.
Community groups, charities and volunteers across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland have been thanked for the vital role they played in supporting flood-hit communities.
New figures show that around 650 homes were flooded locally in the wake of Storm Henk. 70 roads closed, over 100 incidents attended by Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, people evacuated, and rest centres set up. It was the biggest flooding seen locally for many years. Highways teams worked around the clock and dealt with well over 200 calls. Numerous patrol teams were sent out around the clock resulting in over 250 jobs being raised.
The Council pushed out messages using social media, their website and media relations. Advising people to sign up for alerts www.gov.uk/sign-up-for-flood-warnings or Tel:03459881188). & to take extra care when travelling and not to move flood signs. The focus is now on supporting recovery.
Support Payments Deadline
The Government has announced payments for communities and businesses affected by flooding due to the storms. The support is being made available through a scheme called the Flood Recovery Framework. Contact your local council to find out more, Most likely Harborough District Council for Kibworth & District Chronicle readers.
The deadline for claims is 24 March 2024.
New Harborough Local Plan
Following the majority decision to agree the Statement of Common Ground on 11 December, HDC has agreed to take some of the housing target that Leicester City are not able to build.
The decision started a Regulation 18 public consultation to begin the development of a new HDC Local Plan. It seeks views on a range of planning issues and potential options for the future development of the district.
The current Local Plan was only approved in 2019 and is valid until 2031. The Kibworth Neighbourhood Plan was revised to ensure it was in line with this Plan and was only made in May 2023. Revising the Local Plan will inevitably lead to the Neighbourhood Plan needing to be reviewed to ensure policies are still conformant.
A key conformance between the current Local Plan and the Kibworth Neighbourhood Plan has been housing numbers and locations. The Kibworths’ Limits to Development Policy has been used several times to refuse developments outside the Limits. There have been a few locations identified, or allocated, within the Limits, for small developments.
Public Consultation
The public consultation on the new Local Plan began on 16 January and finishes on 27 February. Five drop-in events have been organised with the last one at the Kibworth Community Hub between 3.30pm and 7.30pm on 13 February. This is to give residents an opportunity to see several options for locating areas for over 6,000 new houses and about 70 hectares for employment. Please drop-in to find out more.
The online Issues and Options consultation is on the Harborough District Council website: www.harborough.gov.uk/consultation/info/145
Kibworth Ladies Choir
