HS2 legacy 'blight' raises prospect of more homes being built in Ashby, says local councillor
The legacy of HS2 remains a "blight" on North West Leicestershire, throwing plans for new housing development into doubt, councillors have claimed.
Original plans for the High Speed Two (HS2) rail scheme would have seen faster train links between the Midlands and the North.
However, the eastern leg of the project, intended to improve connections to Sheffield and Leeds, was largely ditched in 2021.
The remaining scheme, between the Midlands and Manchester, was then scrapped by then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in October 2023.
More than 18 months later, however, the cancelled project is still causing issues, local councillors have claimed.
They say it is because the Government is continuing to hold on to land previously safeguarded for the scheme – land that members of North West Leicestershire District Council say they need released to be able to progress with plans for new housing in the district.
Speaking at last week's full council meeting, Councillor Mike Ball said HS2 continued to cause a "blight" on the district, creating a "problem" for the authority's emerging Local Plan.
A Local Plan is a document that sets out where house building and other construction projects can take place in an area to meet local housing and employment needs. It also protects communities from speculative developments.
Cllr Ball, a former Ashby de la Zouch Town Councillor, said the council would have to find alternative locations for homes that would otherwise be built on the HS2 land.
He told the meeting: "The Government's continued safeguarding of land for the now defunct eastern leg of HS2 is adding pressure on our emerging Local Plan.
"Some 700 homes with planning permission in Measham and Kegworth remain in limbo, forcing this council to take the unwanted step of allocating a reserve site for yet more housebuilding in Ashby.
"It has also resulted in the longed-for restoration of the Ashby Canal through Measham remaining stalled.
"The success of our emerging Local Plan rests heavily on the establishment of a new large settlement at Isley Woodhouse, which can only proceed with major upgrades to the highway network in the north of the district, but these potential upgrades may well require the use of land currently safeguarded by HS2.
"This council urgently needs a straight answer to a straight question: Why is the eastern leg land still being safeguarded when the western leg land has been released and when, if ever, will it be released?"
Cllr Ball put a motion to the council asking it to write to the Government to ask why the land in question had not yet been released, and to local MPs requesting they make "representations" to ministers to "highlight the blight HS2 continues to cause" the district.
His motion received cross-party support, with councillors voting unanimously to back his recommendations.
Fellow councillor Andrew Woodman branded HS2 "the bane of his life", adding that it had been for "about a decade".
He said: "I thought in October '23, when Rishi Sunak announced the abandonment of phase two, that I would at last not have to think or talk about the project ever again and the Measham developers can at last start on the canal restoration and the waterside development.
"However, here we are 18 months later, and we are still talking about HS2 and the economic blight that it's inflicting on North West Leicestershire. So we need to get this resolved sooner rather than later."
Deputy North West Leicestershire Labour Group Leader, Alison Morley said: "The current safeguarding measures on the old HS2 land at both Measham and Kegworth currently mean that around 700 new homes cannot be included in the local plan.
"With the Meadow Lane site in Coalville being removed from the plan, this means that land at Packington Nook in Ashby for 1,100 homes has now been added to the reserve list for development should the HS2 safeguarding not be released in time.
"I know that our local MP Amanda Hack is already working hard behind the scenes on getting this land released, which is why as a group we were happy to support the motion this evening."
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