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'Problems on industrial scale'

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Villagers claim their community is going to be overwhelmed and roads brought to a standstill if plans for a giant industrial park are approved.

Paragon (Coalville) Ltd wants permission to build up to 10 warehouses and industrial units on fields to the east of Ellistown.

A planning application has been submitted to North West Leicestershire District Council for the 90-acre site – occupied by Little Battleflat Farm, owned by co-applicant Jacqueline Lees.

It proposes 1,300,000 sq ft of manufacturing and industrial floorspace, to be accessed from Beveridge Lane, together with a community wood.

Opponents said it would swamp the villages of Ellistown and Battleflat, was unnecessary and would result in traffic gridlock.

Members of Ellistown and Battleflat Action Group handed in 226 letters to the council from people objecting to the development.

Group secretary and parish councillor Penny Wakefield said: "New industrial units are simply not needed, as proved by the fact that so many lie empty in the neighbouring Interlink and Bardon 22 industrial parks.

"We feel it is crazy to build yet more units when there are so many empty ones.

"If this is allowed to go ahead, it will also result in a huge increase in traffic and noise and decrease in air quality.

"A report states that there would be 800 car parking spaces and 300 for HGVs – but existing roads are not suitable for that amount of traffic, in villages already clogged up with traffic and lorries."

Ellistown resident Jim Walne, 30, said: "This giant industrial park will result in the loss of important agricultural land –it may not be top grade but is still useful for food production.

"It will also mean the loss of wildlife habitats, hedgerows and trees, which are much valued by residents."

Coun Wakefield also raised the question of village identity.

"This application is together with the approval of 800 homes to be built nearby and the possibility of a further 3,500 in the coming years," she said.

"Ellistown and neighbouring Hugglescote will become one huge urban sprawl."

Opponents also referred to the recent Ellistown and Battleflat Parish Plan, in which 91 per cent of respondents did not want any more employment land being allocated on green spaces in the area.

In a report supporting its application, Paragon said the development would create jobs and meet the desire of the Government to help reinvigorate British manufacturing.

It said: "This application is made in direct response to occupier demand, rather than as a speculative development.

"The intention is to provide new, quality employment premises which meet a specific demand not currently met by vacant or other available premises within Coalville."

'Problems on industrial scale'


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