Despite council objections, a planning inspector has approved building houses on a former RAF site.
Ed Burbidge wants to build five homes there, on a site located on Foxton Road at Chapel Farm. This was a WWII RAF site. He plans to tear down farm buildings and replace them with new houses. Three will have three bedrooms, and two will have four or more bedrooms. Ten parking spots are also planned.
Harborough District Council (HDC) did not like the plan, calling it “unjustified” in the countryside. They worried it would hurt the area’s rural feel and thought it would not fit the surroundings.
Mr. Burbidge appealed the council’s decision, stating that the site has four farm buildings. Two were part of RAF Market Harborough during World War II, while the other two are farm buildings: a grain store and a pole barn.
The airfield closed in 1958, and the land became a farm again. It has been used for farming for sixty years and has other farm buildings and a bungalow. Mr. Burbidge wants to replace ugly structures with homes that match the area.
He said homes would be in the site’s center and south, arranged like a courtyard. HDC said the location was “unsustainable.” The Planning Inspectorate disagreed with them.
The Inspectorate overruled the council’s refusal. They said the plan goes against HDC’s plan. However, the downsides are not too bad and don’t outweigh the good things about it.