Latest news with #CharnwoodBoroughCouncil
The Sun
16 hours ago
- Business
- The Sun
Mega £450m new town is coming to UK with 4,500 homes, shops, parks & sport pitches – as first glimpse unveiled
A HUGE new town with more than 4,000 homes and schools is being built in the UK. The first glimpse of the new town has been unveiled – showing houses set over 900 acres of land. 1 Thorpebury, in Leicestershire, will include shops, healthcare facilities and sports pitches. Once it is fully developed, the town will also boast land for businesses and other essential services. It is estimated Thorpebury will cost approximately £450 million to complete. Building work on the town is expected to take more than a decade. Known as Thorpebury-in-the-Limes, the housing development will provide a mixture of starter homes. A quarter of the homes will be affordable housing across a mix of types . School parking The plans, submitted to Charnwood Borough Council, include details of a two-storey school building on a 4.5-acre site. The school will have parking spaces for 42 vehicles. There will also be playing fields and sports pitches at the site, and a secondary school on land north of Hamilton and east of Thurmaston. The planning documents submitted by Leicestershire Borough Council stated the demand for additional school places arises because of the development of the new homes. Care facility A specialist care facility for the elderly is also being proposed. There will be extensive high-quality landscaping and 30-acres of green spaces. This will include sports pitches, play areas, parkland and new walking and cycling routes. A temporary community cabin was delivered to the site last month to assist anyone looking for more information on the new town. The development of the new town comes as the UK Government unveiled a £100million plan to battle the housing crisis by training 40,000 builders by 2029. Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, warned the housing crisis was being made worse by a lack of construction workers. Support for first-time buyers There are plenty of support schemes that first-time buyers can access to make it easier to get on the ladder. First home schemes If you live in England, the First Homes scheme allows you to buy a property with up to 50% discounted from its market price. To use the scheme, you must be a first-time buyer and be aged 18 or older. And you'll need to earn less than £80,000 a year before tax or £90,000 if the property is in London. Shared ownership Instead of buying a whole property, you instead buy a portion from as little 10% and pay rent to a landlord on the rest through shared ownership schemes. Only buying a share of the home means the deposit and mortgage payments are much smaller. You can then start to increase your stake in the property when you are able to afford it until you own it outright. Availability of shared ownership homes vary depending on area and you may have to show you have a job or links in the location where you want to buy. You can use the scheme in England if your household earns £80,000 a year or less when you're buying outside of London, or £90,000 a year or less when you're buying in London Family assistance Members of your family can help you by gifting a deposit but even if they are not in the position to do this, there are other options such as joint mortgages with relatives or 100% mortgages with parental security. For example, Barclays ' Family Springboard Mortgage allows buyers to get a home without saving a deposit at all when a family member or friend puts up savings worth 10 per cent of the purchase price. The money is returned to the helper after five years as long as the mortgage payments are kept up. Specialist mortgages More lenders are offering innovative mortgages to help buyers get on the ladder. For example, if you can pull together £5,000 for a deposit, you could qualify for Yorkshire Build Society's specialised mortgage for first-time buyers. Borrowers can get a mortgage on properties up to £500,00 with the deal. Or if you rent a home and have a good track record of paying the bill each month, you could qualify for a specialised deal from Skipton Building Society - and you don't need to save a deposit at all. The Track Record 100% mortgage from the lender is available to renters buying their first property. Lifetime ISA (LISA) You can give your savings a boost through a special ISA designed to help people save for either a first home. The account is tax-free and anyone aged between 18-39 can open one. When saving up to £4,000 a year and the government will then add a 25% bonus on top.
BBC News
a day ago
- General
- BBC News
420-place school plans detailed for new Leicestershire town
A new primary school is among facilities being planned for a town being built in Leicestershire. Thorpebury was given initial planning approval in 2016, with 4,500 houses set to be built across 900 acres of land north of Hamilton and east of new proposals submitted to Charnwood Borough Council (CBC) include the 420-space school, along with shops, healthcare facilities, parks, sports pitches, play areas, and walking and cycle is estimated the £450m project will take more than a decade to complete, but work on the first 584 homes began in 2022. The plans, submitted by Leicestershire County Council, show the two-storey school building on a 4.5 acre site will have a 42-space car park, playing fields and sports to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, planning documents state: "The demand for additional school places arises because of the development of 4,500 new build homes in the area. "It is expected that the new primary school will have a discrete catchment area to serve the new development."
BBC News
31-07-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Upgrades announced for Loughborough car parks
Two car parks in Loughborough are set to be upgraded as part of a £450,000 Borough Council said both lifts in the Beehive Lane multi-storey car park would be replaced, and electric vehicle charging points would be installed at the Southfields Extension car park in Southfield council said it would pay for the lift replacements at the Beehive Lane car park, while the electric vehicle hub would be funded jointly through the business rate pool and by the at both authority-owned car parks are expected to start later this year. The council said the charging hub at Southfields Extension car park would provide electric vehicle charging points for around 10 vehicles at a time, with power provided by a solar canopy which is also set to be installed at the site. According to the council, the project to fund the lift replacements would cost about £250,000, while the installation of the solar canopy and electric chargers would cost about £200,000. Borough councillor Beverley Gray said the lifts at Beehive Lane multi-storey car park were outdated and investment was key to ensure they remained added: "It is important that we continue to invest in our car parks across the borough and these improvements will make a huge difference to visitors to Loughborough town centre."
BBC News
08-07-2025
- BBC News
'The council demolished by garage without permission'
"All I know is I've now got a square where my garage used to be", says Annette Holliday, of Loughborough in building, in Tuckers Row, was one of four to be demolished after a council mistake over land ownership when a fallen tree damaged the led to a report of asbestos debris, the council said, and the building was deemed "structurally unsafe" and a "risk to life" and needed to be Charnwood Borough Council later said it had been "wrongly identified" that the council was the owner of the garages and apologised. Ms Holliday says she has lost thousands of pounds worth of property after the contents of the garages were thrown into a tip and the demolition has devalued her adds that garage owners were not informed about the contractors' visit, leading to the loss of belongings and potentially a devaluation of her unknown third-party contractor had removed the fallen tree in Holliday, 62, said branches were sawn through and damaged the roof of her garage and a believed the council had sent these workers, but the authority denies this. In May, Ms Holliday said she was contacted by a neighbour who said someone was "dismantling" her said they were not informed of the contractors' visit in only item she was able to retrieve was her trike but more than £5,000 worth of her belongings were Holliday said: "This massive skip came, and everyone's belongings went in there. "Then everyone just disappeared, and there was no garage left."She said without a garage, the value of her house had decreased. Ms Holliday added: "I was getting on with other stuff that was going off in my life, and then the next minute everything stopped."They've taken my property, and I've heard nothing."A spokesperson confirmed the council had received the report of asbestos debris being found at the site of four garages off Tuckers Road, Loughborough, on 12 May, and a specialist contractor attended the site on 20 May. They said: "It was determined the garages were structurally unsafe and a risk to life, contained damaged sheet asbestos, and needed to be demolished."Fencing was placed around the garages, and the contractor demolished the garages on 22 May."At the time of demolition, it had been wrongly identified that the council was the owner of the garages."We would like to apologise to the owners of the site for this error and for any inconvenience and distress caused. We would be happy to discuss the situation with them directly."We are now reviewing our processes to ensure a similar situation does not happen again."The spokesperson added that the garages would ultimately have needed to be removed and items such as electrical goods and soft furnishings "may have become contaminated" so needed to be disposed of "as they cannot be safely cleaned"."The contractor was able to retain some items found in one of the garages," they said."We are aware that a nearby tree was cut down by a third party, but the tree was not owned by the council, and it was not on council land."
BBC News
27-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Covid memorial bell in Loughborough to ring for the first time
A bell created as a memorial to people who died in the Covid-19 pandemic will ring for the first time next Hope Bell has been installed in Queen's Park, in Loughborough, as a tribute to those who lost their lives and as a thank you to NHS staff and key of the public have been invited to attend its official unveiling at a ceremony at 10:30 BST on 4 bell was cast at John Taylor and Co - the UK's last major bell foundry, which is based in the town. The bell, part of a 7.5m (24.6ft) tall structure, features four smaller bells supported by four steel pillars to symbolise people coming together to embrace. The £560,000 memorial was commissioned by Charnwood Borough Council and paid for with money from the Loughborough Town Deal, which secured £16.9m from the government's Towns Fund to go towards 11 was installed in Tillotson, the council's lead member for housing, economic development, regeneration and town centres, said: "The Hope Bell will serve as a place of reflection in Charnwood for decades to come, and the official unveiling will be a historic moment."It is important to share this with representatives from organisations across the borough who played such a key role in the community during the pandemic, as well as residents that were directly affected."
