Current Issues

This page is where the Parish Council imparts news of its own, but also invites residents to express their own views, opinions, ideas and comments on other items appearing on this page.
In particular, it will track progress against the 3 Year Plan as displayed on the "Aspirations" page. It will also feature the Hathern Parish Council news page from the Hathern Herald.
Submissions are invited by letters or e-mails to the Parish Clerk, whose details are given on the "Contact Us" page. Requests to withold names and address will be respected, but that information must be supplied in all instances.

As a rule of thumb, news content will generally relate to matters of development, planning and security, as opposed to social matters, which can be aired in the other pages of the Hathern Herald.

Developments:

The Parish Council has drawn up plans for the Pasture Lane/Recreation Ground Area including a boundary wall and revised entry arrangements, together with other improvements to this much used facility. The cost will be in the region of £21,000 and the majority of the work has been completed..
The new bench for the Jubilee tree has been installed above a level cobble-covered base , and the bole of the tree tidied up.
Hedging has beenplanted opposite the Parish cemetery to complete the development now becoming know as "Nell's Walk".
Discussions have been held with a local contractor to have the grassed areas in the village mown more frequently and to a better standard than the Local Authority has been achieving, and they will be heavily subsidising the cost of this operation. The effects should be clearly visible from this Spring onwards. Certain areas have been designated as "prestige areas", and these will be subjected to rolling, treatment with selective weed killer and edging. An example is the Round Bank at the top of Wide Street where the Hathern Village sign was erected.

Planning:

An insert containing a set of proposals for development within the village was circulated with the May 2007 Hathern Herald, and it included space for residents to air their views and offer any contributions to the ideas proposed by the Parish Council.

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The Peartree Lane development has been a great disappointment to any who observed the planning stages. Moves are afoot to develop Garendon Park, which could threaten Hathern from the West, and the Parish Council is keeping a close watch on that front also.
All 860 or so households in the village have by now received an envelope from Hathern Parish Council. In each envelope are two letters: the first is to you the resident and it entreats you to defend the village from being engulfed by extra housing, and suffocated by extra traffic and its concommitants. The second letter is to Charnwood's Director of Development who gave a presentation to approximately 150 residents in the village hall (note that Birstall only had 12 attendees at their presentation). It sets out reasoned objections to the proposals and requests you the resident to sign it, date it, put your address on it and get it to the Director by Friday 31st March 2006.

The following letter is the formal response by Hathern Parish Council to Charnwood's Preferred Option for 2021:

The Director of Development
Charnwood Borough Council
Southfields
Loughborough
LE12 2TN

Dear Sir
Re. Charnwood 2021

Please accept this letter as the formal response from Hathern Parish Council to “Charnwood 2021 – Planning for our Next Generation”

The Council objects to the proposed residential/commercial development on the open countryside of the Garendon Estate between Shepshed, Hathern and Loughborough (ie West of Loughborough) – as outlined in paragraphs 4.45-4.51 of the Core Strategy Preferred Options document (subsequently referred to as the Document). The Council is convinced that such a substantial new development will have a significant negative impact on the existing settlement of Hathern and its community.

The proposed link road between the A6 at Hathern and the A512 to service the development will destroy the last piece of green space (a single field) between Hathern and the urban sprawl of Loughborough and is a direct contravention of the Council’s own policy of retaining separate identities for settlements such as Hathern. The use of the term “Green Wedge” in the context of this particular space is misleading; a major road through such a wedge will compromise the main functions of a Green Wedge that are stated on page 57 of the Document ie protecting open areas of land, preserving landscape and wildlife links, and preventing settlement coalescence.

Together with the ongoing development at Pear Tree Lane and the planned industrial complex at Dishley Grange this new housing and commercial development will massively increase traffic through Hathern. The proposed new link road will put considerable pressure on the section of the A6 through Hathern - drawing traffic to and from both the new development and the proposed Science Park at the A512 end of the link road. Hathern will become the traffic black spot of Charnwood with increased congestion and pollution, and more accidents and deaths. The planned Kegworth bypass will rapidly funnel more traffic onto the single carriageway A6 through Hathern. This will adversely and substantially affect the quality of life of those living on the Loughborough Rd and make access to and exit from other parts of the village via the A6 difficult and dangerous. All residents will suffer from the raised levels of atmospheric pollutants. A full evaluation of the likely traffic impact of the proposed development - including environmental and safety implications - must be undertaken before any decisions are made. The option of an A6 relief road to the west of Hathern should be considered as an integral part of any strategic development such as that proposed in the Core Strategy.

It is evident that, as part of the work that has gone into the Core Strategy, no attempt has been made to determine the likely impact of development options on existing road infrastructures nor to develop infrastructure strategies to properly service the proposed developments. How can it be possible to objectively examine the development options without an understanding of some of the most likely significant impacts associated with those options or of remedies to reduce those impacts ? We challenge the Director of Development to fully articulate those impacts and remedies to Charnwood residents before any further promotion or adoption of the “Preferred Policy Option” is undertaken. It is vital that residents get a clear picture of what each option will mean to their communities before putting such choices in front of them. It would be irresponsible of Charnwood Borough Council to move forward without taking such action. As it is the Document is incomplete and, whilst majoring on the Preferred Option, is unbalanced in its treatment of all the options under consideration.

Finally, as you are aware, the residents of Hathern did not receive their summary documents explaining the consultation process and laying out the options, until after March 8th. Hathern is the community most significantly affected by the proposed residential development on the Garendon Estate and villagers turned out in force to demonstrate their opposition to the proposals at the hastily arranged Road Show on March 21st. Clearly the necessary six week consultation period for Hathern residents has been compromised by Charnwood Borough Council. Given this we consider that the consultation process has not been conducted fairly and has not given proper opportunity for all residents to consider proposals thoroughly. We insist that the consultation period be extended to allow residents to be properly appraised of the implications of the proposed strategy and to respond there after.

Hathern Parish Council

30.3.06

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Security:

After a great deal of straight-talking by the chairman of the Parish Council, the local Beat Bobbies PCs Wilton and Martindale, accompanied sometimes by one or more Police Community Support Officers, have been attending Parish Council meetings to report on local misdemeanours and to hear feedback and requests from those in attendance. It is hoped that this will settle into a regular pattern, but it would lend more credibility if more members of the public were to come along and make themselves heard.

Mailbox:

The Parish Council reserves the right to edit or not publish material submitted to the mailbox. E-mails should be sent to: M.spencer43@ntlworld.com