City parks and green spaces still at risk of being developed

BELOVED Leicester parks have not been spared from a reworked plan which looks at where homes and businesses can be built.

- By HANNAH RICHARDSON

Leicester City Council has now published its latest draft of its local plan with many green spaces on the list with regards development potential.

Changes reveal a heightened focus on building on brownfield - previously developed - land, with the updated plan including a new objective to use these sites, as well as derelict buildings, to “deliver a significant part of the [city’s] new housing and employment requirements”.

This includes building in what the council is styling as the “Central Development Area” - space in and around the city centre - where around 6,178 of the required 39,424 properties can be delivered, according to the council.

Most of these will be on brownfield land, it added.

However, this new objective has not saved previously earmarked green spaces from the threat of being concreted over. A number of highly controversial sites - including Beaumont Park and the Western Park Golf Course - remain in the plan.

Residents have long campaigned to remove these areas from the emerging local plan, saying they were a vital escape into nature for residents. The council has argued they need to be included as they “provide significant contributions to the housing need”, despite concerns there were “significant sustainability issues” associated with building on them.