Harborough MP, Sir Edward Garnier, today thanked Harborough District Council’s Planning Committee for refusing to accede to the Co-operative Wholesale Society’s application considered at the Committee’s meeting on Tuesday, 17 December to build a crematorium in Great Glen.
Speaking this morning, following last night’s decision, Edward Garnier said: “This refusal has been made on solid planning law grounds and complies with the Council’s published planning strategy. The Council has done exactly the right thing as well as being in tune with the overwhelming opinion of the people of Great Glen and the local area. Dr Kevin Feltham, the County Councillor, and District Councillors Hallam and Spendlove-Mason, the Parish Council and I have all been working together with the residents of the village to ensure this result and we will continue to work together to ensure that if the CWS appeals they lose. There may well be a need for a crematorium south of Leicester but this site is, on planning and other grounds, not the right place. I congratulate all those who took part in the campaign to stop this development but urge them to prepare for further battles ahead.”
County Councillor Dr Kevin Feltham
People power defeat plans for Crematorium next to primary school
After months of campaigning, Great Glen villagers in Leicestershire were jubilant last evening (17 December 2013) when the Harborough District Council planning committee REFUSED a proposed crematorium outside the village, but next to a primary school teaching children aged 3 to 13.
The Co-op had been planning this crematorium to meet the need for such a facility south of Leicester for months, and had held exhibitions during the summer in Great Glen Village Hall attended by hundreds of villagers. The parish council also carried out a survey of residents to gauge the views of the community which lies south of Oadby in Leicestershire, before objecting..
Dr Kevin Feltham, County Councillor for the area including Great Glen said “I am delighted that the flawed plans have been thrown out. Trying to shoe-horn an incinerator, or crematorium, next to Stoneygate School was always a bad idea but the planners had recommended approval on the grounds that they had come down on the side of the facility when weighing the need for it against at least two planning policies that would have been contravened.
“To have 25 people commenting on the plans in front of a packed room with over 120 people, many standing, sitting on the floor or peering through doorways, was a clear demonstration of a community fighting to save the rural character of their village. Over 280 people had written comments on the plans in the weeks leading up to last nights decision, and showed the depth of feelings against the plans.
“I feel very proud to represent the village together with MP, Sir Edward Garnier, district councillors Hallam and Spendlove-Mason and the parish council, who all weighed in to oppose these plans.
“Now we have to wait to see if the Co-op will appeal the decision, but it gives time for Harborough and adjacent Blaby District Councils to collaborate and look strategically at the need for such a facility, and to identify options that are better located; leaving it up to developers hasn’t worked so far.”