Summary of Latest Position at 21st Feb 2022

East Farndon Parish Council (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 local MP, Chris Heaton-Harris, on 14th Jan 2022, he confirmed his 100% support for the East Farndon Parish Council (EFPC) objections to these developments. He made his views known on his official social media and contacted Historic England on our behalf, who have 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 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”

In Summary, although the above is good news, the latest situation remains that WNC are not including these development proposals in their strategic plan, but HDC still regard them as a potential option to include in their upcoming strategic plan. The dates for the HDC plan will be communicated as soon as they become available.

EFPC will continue to stay focused and work hard, together with our Ward Councillors and our local MP, Chris Heaton-Harris, to convince both WNC and HDC to scrap these proposals as soon as possible. In addition, EFPC will be writing formally to both WNC and HDC to reinforce the points made by Historic England.

Summary of the Proposed Housing Development

Google Maps with overlay showing Major Housing Development Areas

In early October 2021, West Northamptonshire Council (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.

How Residents Can Give Their Views / Object

Although the WNC Strategic Plan Consultation is now closed in terms of public comment, residents can still give their views directly to WNC, by sending an email to, strategicplan@westnorthants.gov.uk, or by sending a letter to: Strategic PlanWest Northamptonshire Council The Guildhall, St Giles SquareNorthamptonNN1 1DE

You can also send an email to our Brixworth Ward Councillors (that East Farndon is part of), Jonathan Harris, Cecile Irving-Swift, Kevin Parker, or send an email to our Member of Parliament for Daventry, Chris Heaton-Harris

Harborough District Council (HDC) have not yet formally started their new Strategic Plan consultation process. Residents can still give their views directly to HDC by,

Signing the petition raised by Councillor Phil Knowles of HDC by using this link, Cllr Phil Knowles Petition, sending an email to the Leader of HDC, Councillor Phil King, and /or sending an email to the Member of Parliament for Harborough, Oadby & Wigston, Neil O’Brien

You can also get in touch with the East Farndon Parish Clerk or any of the Councillors. Their contact details can be accessed on this website, using this link, https://eastfarndon.org/parish-council/

Historical Record of Actions & Events

January 2022

On 14th January 2022, our local MP, Chris Heaton-Harris, visited East Farndon to meet with EFPC members and to see for himself, the size, scale and locations of the proposed development sites. He has confirmed his 100% support for the EFPC objections to these developments and will do everything he can to support us in preventing these plans from going ahead.

Chris Heaton-Harris Visit 14th Jan 2022
November 2021

East Farndon Parish Council (EFPC) met on 9th November 2021. A number of residents attended, and it was unanimously agreed that EFPC will object in the strongest possible manner to the proposals to build 2,000+ houses on land between East Farndon and Market Harborough. You can see the minutes of this meeting by clicking the link below.

EFPC has written formally to West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) and Harborough District Council (HDC). The objection letters offer a good summary and they can be accessed by clicking the links below. Residents are free to use the text in these letters and we encourage everyone to make their views known and object if they see fit to do so.

On 19th Nov 2021, EFPC received replies from WNC and HDC in response to our formal objection letters shown above. These letters can be accessed by clicking the links below.

October 2021

On 21st October 2021, the first public webinar to present the West Northamptonshire Strategic Plan Options Consultation took place. WNC have placed a recording on their YouTube channel for everyone to view.

The session was presented by Colin Staves, Principal Planner & Project Lead for the Plan. He made an important comment about the land south of Market Harborough,

“The land south of Market Harborough has been considered in the plan as it was put forward via the call for sites process. It is not being considered as a spatial option as part of this WNC plan and consultation. It is highlighted under the neighbouring councils duty to cooperate and the decision on next steps will sit with the Harborough District Council i.e. they need to decide if this is an option to be included in their new strategic plan.”

You can view the session in full by clicking the link below,

WNC YouTube Session – Oct 21st 2021

The comments about the land south of Market Harborough start at 32 minutes & 40 seconds into the video.

On 27th October 2021, Richard Wood, Interim Head of Planning and Climate Change Policy, wrote to EFPC to clarify the position of WNC. This letter can be accessed by clicking the link below,


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