Plans for 290 new homes and a new primary school on farmland to the north of Melton

Plans have been unveiled for up to 290 new homes and a primary school to be built on farmland between Scalford Road and Nottingham Road to the north of Melton.
A map showing the proposed redevelopment of farmland to the north of Melton, between Nottingham Road and Scalford Road, to provide up to 290 new homes and a new primary school EMN-190523-112326001A map showing the proposed redevelopment of farmland to the north of Melton, between Nottingham Road and Scalford Road, to provide up to 290 new homes and a new primary school EMN-190523-112326001
A map showing the proposed redevelopment of farmland to the north of Melton, between Nottingham Road and Scalford Road, to provide up to 290 new homes and a new primary school EMN-190523-112326001

Leicestershire County Council has submitted outline proposals for the scheme on a 50-acre site at Sysonby Farm, which the authority owns.

If approved by Melton Council planners, the development would be accessed via the planned Melton Mowbray Distributor Road (MMDR), which could get the final green light by county councillors at a meeting this afternoon (Thursday).

The proposed Sysonby Farm scheme was this week awarded £4.4million in government funding, through Homes England, to pay towards infrastructure costs in a bid to ‘kick-start’ the development with more than 6,000 new homes needing to be built in the borough over the next 20 years through the new Local Plan.

Detailed plans have not yet been finalised but a report with the planning application suggests 15 per cent of the development would involve affordable homes, which equates to 44 properties. It is also intended, according to the report, to build mainly two and three-bedroom homes on the site.

A new primary school with capacity for 210 pupils would be built to accommodate the children who will live there and the developer would make financial contributions to extend the nearby John Ferneley College, and the town’s other secondary school. Long Field Academy, so they can take in the extra students.

Melton councillors refused permission for a previously-submitted outline planning application on part of the the Sysonby Farm site for 325 homes in April 2015 and they also blocked plans for 225 properties on an adjoining site on the same date.

Councillors felt then that the schemes would have had an adverse impact on traffic levels in the town but with the MMDR relief road due to be built by 2022 the county council is confident there would no longer be an issue from the extra vehicles generated by a housing development in this part of town.

The outline plans at Sysonby Farm, which fronts Nottingham Road, will be discussed by Melton borough councillors with no date as yet finalised.