What is the current local Plan and how did we get there?

  • In 2017 Rutland County Council consulted on a Local Plan that had broad acceptance and plenty of development sites. This plan was based on continuing the successful strategy of development based on 2 market towns and villages.
  • The Ministry of Defence announced the intention to de-commission 70 military sites including St George’s Barracks. Like all landowners, the MoD are bound by the planning system.
  • Rather than defending Rutland against unnecessary housing development, RCC abandoned the 2017 Plan before it was adopted and joined with the MoD to create a new town with 2300 houses on the site. A secret ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ was signed with the MoD.
  • In 2017 Homes England (a Government agency) awarded RCC a Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) grant of £29.4m to fund the development roads, a school and other services. This is still subject to approval by our Councillors.
  • Including SGB in the Local Plan completely changed the nature of the Plan: a major development of 2300 houses at SGB was now included and smaller developments in the towns and villages, originally included in 2017 plan, were removed.
  • RCC decided to have a limited public consultation on the SGB ‘Master Plan’ in 2018. Even though there were over 1500 responses – almost all negative - RCC have made no significant changes. F4R believe a completely new consultation on the radically changed Plan should have happened.