This page presents details of the housing and built environment in the East Farndon parish, both in terms of historical activity and the most recent news in relation to potential major housing development impacting the village. It also details the contributions from East Farndon Parish Council to the latest West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) local plan.

Overview and History

Over the 20th century there was a considerable change in the appearance of the village. In medieval times, the majority of houses would have been thatched, with cob or mud walls. Gradually as the use of brick increased in the 18th century, more houses of some status were built, which probably reflects the increasing prosperity among some sections of the population. Some of these larger houses were still being roofed with thatch. Many of the humbler cottages survived through to the 20th century, but by the middle of the century they had all been demolished. The larger houses which had been thatched were re-roofed in tiles or slate. So today East Farndon has no thatched houses and is largely a brick-built village.

Population and Households

The latest population figures (2021) show East Farndon with 319 residents and 131 households (2024). Click here to read more detail on population and households.

Separation from Market Harborough

Historically the River Welland formed the border between Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. Thus the county border was previously further north from the village of East Farndon than it is at present. It is clear from past and recent surveys that there continues to be a strong and vociferous majority of residents of East Farndon who want the village to continue to be separate to Market Harborough. Click here to read more on separation.

Village Confines

Historically, rural villages like East Farndon have often been protected by the designation of village confines adopted in a statutory Local Plan. With village confines in place, development is only permitted inside of the envelope or outside of it in carefully controlled circumstances (for example to provide affordable housing or to meet the needs of the rural community). Although recognising “the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside” is identified as an important principle in the NPPF (para 170 b), neither the current West Northamptonshire Core Strategy nor the Daventry Local Plan identifies village confines for East Farndon. However, as part of the West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) development of a new Local Plan, in June 2024, East Farndon Parish Council responded to submit our drawn Village Confines to ensure that development is focused in more sustainable settlements with a greater range of services and facilities and infrastructure that has capacity for expansion, as well as helping to maintain the special landscape character of the Parish and protecting the countryside for its own sake as an attractive, accessible and non-renewable natural resource. The new WNC Local Plan is still under consultation and details of the Parish Council’s submission can be found below.

WNC New Local Plan Development – Summary at Oct 15th 2024

As part of the West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) development of a new local plan, in June 2024, East Farndon Parish Council (EFPC) responded to submit our drawn Village Confines, 4 nominations for Local Green Spaces and a request to extend the WNC Special Landscape Area within which East Farndon is located. These requests will remain in a pending status until the new WNC local plan is formally accepted and published, this being expected in 2025. In Sept 2024, WNC reported that new housing targets have been set by the new Government. A further 460 houses each year need to be built, which over 17 years is an increase of about 8,000 houses (a 21% increase). This means that WNC have to revise their draft Local Plan and re-consult. The EFPC submissions from June 2024 can be viewed in map form by clicking the links below.

Village Confines Map

Local Green Space Nominations Map

Special Landscape Area Map

Also, most people will know that East Farndon has medieval settlement remains in the village and this is a Historic England Scheduled Monument. This can be viewed in map form by clicking the link below.

Medieval Settlement Remains & Scheduled Monument Map

Major Housing Development – Summary at Oct 15th 2024

The parcels of land in the West Nortamptonshire Council (WNC) spatial options strategy and call for sites documents, identified for potential major housing developments between East Farndon and Market Harborough, remain in the latest / new WNC local plan. The good news is that all of these areas have been marked as not suitable and thefore will not be going ahead into the new housing areas to be developed for this plan. It remains the case that Harborough District Council (HDC) could request these development areas from WNC to include in the new HDC local plan. This is unlikely, but East Farndon Parish Council (EFPC) will continue to monitor closely the development of both the WNC and HDC new local plans.

Major Housing Development – Previous Activity

EFPC met on 9th November 2021. A number of residents attended, and it was unanimously agreed that EFPC would object in the strongest possible manner to the proposals to build 2,000+ houses on land between East Farndon and Market Harborough.

Following the visit by our then local MP, Chris Heaton-Harris, on 14th Jan 2022, he confirmed his 100% support for the EFPC objections to these developments. He made his views known on his official social media and contacted Historic England on our behalf, who sent the following reply. 

“Historic England has provided comments to West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) Spatial Options Consultation, which includes the proposed allocation at East Farndon. Our response expressed concern regarding the potential impact on the scheduled monument and advised that a detailed heritage assessment would be required at an early stage to ensure its significance is preserved, including contributions made by its setting. This would include areas of ridge and furrow that preserve the former medieval open field system and therefore make a positive contribution to the significance of the monument.

Note that the scheduled monument referred to by Historic England, relates to East Farndon medieval settlement remains. You can see the details by clicking this linkhttps://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1017190?section=official-list-entry

The World War II crash site will be protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. It is an offence under section 2 of this act to tamper, damage, move, remove or unearth remains. Further information on this can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/aviation-archaeology. The Parish Council can highlight their concerns regarding unlawful activity with the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) who licence lawful investigation of crash sites and will be able to advise further.”

Councillor Phil King, leader (at that time) of Harborough District Council (HDC), commented on the Facebook of Chris Heaton-Harris as follows, “I am not expecting that these sites, in adjoining West Northants will be required to deliver the anticipated housing needs for the Harborough district, as we review our adopted Harborough Local Plan”

Map of the Proposed Housing Development

Google Maps with overlay showing Major Housing Development Areas

In early October 2021, WNC published a new Spatial Options Consultation document. This contained details of two potential major housing developments on land between East Farndon and Market Harborough. An extract from the WNC document, page 33, is repeated below, together with a map taken from Appendix 4, identifying the land areas being considered for development.

“An area of land situated to the South of Market Harborough has been promoted previously through the call for sites process with a potential capacity of approximately 2,000 dwellings. Whilst the site is well-related to Market Harborough and would enable access for sustainable travel modes it does feature some notable constraints, part of the area is identified as special landscape area and it is relatively close to nearby scheduled monuments. Further historic assets exist in East Farndon and any development would need to protect against coalescence.

Given the relationship of the area with Market Harborough, it is acknowledged that development in this location could help to meet the housing needs of Harborough District. As part of fulfilling requirements related to the duty to cooperate, discussions have taken place with officers at Harborough District Council and at present, given they are in the formative stages of updating their local plan it is not possible to establish at this time whether there is a need for land in this area to come forward. However, mindful that the WNSP covers the period to 2050 it felt appropriate to acknowledge the long-term development potential in this area and the need to maintain constructive dialogue with Harborough District Council moving forward.

Ref 64 (see map above). Up to 2,170 homes on the right-hand side of the road between East Farndon to Market Harborough. This has been recommended to proceed to more detailed assessment with the site available before 2025.

Ref 136 (see maps above). Up to 1,050 homes on the left-hand side of the road between East Farndon to Market Harborough. Note that on the original document, this area was described as, “has not been recommended to proceed to more detailed assessment”. WNC have written to EFPC to say that this was an error, and that this area is also proceeding to a more detailed assessment.

Chris Heaton-Harris Visit 14th Jan 2022

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