The county council says it has received an influx of complaints about plans by North West Leicestershire District Council and Kegworth Parish Council to revamp Kegworth village around its market place.
Councillor Trevor Pendleton, county council cabinet member for highways and transport, has today issued the following statement:
We’ve received complaints after we put in an experimental traffic regulation order on Market Place at the request of the parish council, which involves limited waiting times and runs until May 2021.
“I’m very supportive of improvements to the village centre, but, in the new proposals for the Market Place, there is very little provision for parking and I know that is one of the primary concerns among residents. It’s very clear there are many people in the village who don’t support the plans.
“Without adequate parking for businesses, there can be no thriving centre. It’s also why the ‘no parking’ restrictions were removed from Derby Road to create an additional 25 spaces.
“We do understand people’s concerns, but, to be absolutely clear, this is a matter for North West Leicestershire District Council and Kegworth Parish Council. They need to consider the legitimate concerns of residents.
“The Market Place is also on private land, so there’s not a role for us as a highways authority in determining what is planned. Our role has been to implement the traffic order on behalf of the parish council.
“We’ll continue to assess the feedback on the order and then go back to the parish council with our formal response, which hasn’t been possible to provide earlier due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Person:Trevor Pendleton, cabinet member for highways and transportLast week, the district council was due to give residents the opportunity to have their say on the plans, but the engagement exercise has now been delayed until the New Year, due to the latest lockdown restrictions.
Background:
Earlier this year, North West Leicestershire District Council and Kegworth Parish Council successfully bid for £500,000 of funding from the Business Rates Pool via the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP). It will be matched by £450,000 from the district council and £50,000 from the parish council.
The parish council is now working closely with the district council to deliver an improvement scheme, which is expected to include a redesign of the public space to make the village less dominated by traffic now the Kegworth bypass is open.
In response to the parish council design and, at their request, the county council has been trialling new parking measures - involving limited waiting times - on Market Place through an experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO) which runs until May 2021.
However, the county council says they have received numerous objections around the parking restrictions.
The council says that, within the first six months of the traffic order being introduced, over 50 objections were received as well as a petition with over 1400 signatures.