A housing developer wants to build 750 new homes in the countryside just outside Leicester.
Warwick-based L&Q Estates has submitted plans for the massive scheme between the A47/Hinckley Road between Leicester and Hinckley.
The site backs on to Kirby Muxloe golf club and would be around a fifth of the size of a 4,000-plus home scheme currently being built at , a mile or so away.
It is also close to a new Taylor Wimpey development, which went up a couple of years ago just across the A47.
L&Q is a not-for profit organisation which manages more than 100,000 homes across London and the South East.
It says half of its homes are “genuinely affordable to people on average and lower incomes” and it has plans to help build another 100,000 homes.
Documents submitted to Blaby District Council show the Leicestershire scheme would have access from a new roundabout on the main road and stretch around the back of the Old Newtonians and Leicester Forest rugby clubs and the Leicester Ivanhoe Cricket Club and Leicester Forest East Tennis Club.
The site is a mile or so from Kirby Muxloe Castle – a fortified mansion built for Lord Hastings, who was executed by Richard III in 1483.
Warwick-based housing association and developer L&Q Estates said the site would include a new school and could even have a pub – if planning permission is granted.
Two-thirds of the new homes could be up by the end of the decade.
It said houses would range in size up to four bedrooms and 25 per cent of the development – which is called Hastings Fields – would be affordable homes.
There would also be children’s play areas, green spaces, footpaths and a network of new roads.
Richard Edwards, planning director at L&Q Estates said the site had been allocated for housing as part of a Blaby District Council local plan which was adopted last February.
He said: “We have worked closely with Blaby District Council on drawing up this masterplan which would involve creating a one-form entry primary school which may grow in time.
“The scheme includes building 750 homes of which around 500 would be delivered during the period of the local plan which ends in 2029.
“Play and open space is integral to the overall design and would be provided on-site and the site is on an established public transport route with options for bus services to extend into the site.
“There would be a comprehensive package of transport improvements which would include improvements to the junction and link capacity on Hinckley Road, a new junction into the site and traffic calming measures.
“The new walking and cycling routes within Hastings Fields would also connect to the cycle lanes on the A47.
“If we are given planning consent, this scheme would improve education provision in Kirby Muxloe as well as increase the choice of housing in a growing community.”
As part of any planning agreement L&Q Estates would be obliged to make “significant” financial contributions towards increasing capacity in nearby secondary schools and special education as well as other infrastructure such GP services.
The district council said there had already been half a dozen objections to the plans.
One Kirby Muxloe resident told Leicestershire Live there were also plans for a further 137 homes on the edge of the site, which are being proposed by another builder.
The resident, who asked not to be named, said: “People are saying there are already too many houses around here, with 4,250 going up at Lubbesthorpe.
“Along with some smaller developments this would mean another 1,000 coming our way and there is already a lot of traffic on the Hinckley Road and it’s going to get worse.
“I don’t know what the highways authority will say about another island, and I understood they didn’t want any new homes being built directly onto the A47 in this part of Leicestershire.”
