Plans for a housing development on a military site will be reassessed, a government inspector has been told. 

On the second day of a public examination of Rutland's new local plan, Government-appointed planning inspector Kate Child said Rutland County Council will look at how sustainable a redevelopment of St George's Barracks between Edith Weston and North Luffenham might be. 

The public would then be given six weeks to respond to the council's findings. 

The Government's local plan examination, scheduled to last for six days at Rutland County Council's officers in Oakham, heard yesterday (Wednesday, September 10) from Ministry of Defence's planning consultant Michael Davies. 

He argued the council had not adequately assessed the MoD's housing plans for the barracks, which could be decommissioned as soon as next year. He said the current MoD plan was for up to 500 homes, but the council's previous consideration – and rejection – was for more than double this figure. 

Mr Davies wants the site included in the new local plan and claimed that if St George's Barracks is not mapped out for development and left empty, it will cost taxpayers to secure. 

The military site's potential development has been a thorn in the side of Rutland County Council.  

In 2022 it scrapped its draft local plan after rejecting a £29.4million Government grant for infrastructure supporting a new 'garden village' of up to 2,215 homes on the site. The faltering local plan process has cost the council more than £2million. 

This week's hearing is about a new local plan, submitted by Rutland County Council to the Government for scrutiny.  

Over six days, ending on Thursday next week, the planning inspector will hear arguments from developers, parish councillors and residents to various aspects of the plan, which includes potential development sites across the county.  

She will then decide if the new local plan is adopted to manage development in the area for the next two decades. 

Representatives from housebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey, David Wilson Homes, Vistry Homes and Pegasus have been making their points, alongside parish councils.  

Today, Lyddington Parish Council's David Vickery questioned how county council planning officers had assessed village development sites and said it had used six-year-old data. 



Rutland Planning Officer Rachel Armstrong (Photo: LDRS)

Rutland's principal planning officer Rachel Armstrong said a desk-based approach was used, and correspondence with the parish councils, to assess the villages and housing allocations. She said they had reconsulted three years ago, in 2022. 

Tim Allen, representing Grafton Spaces, said it was unclear how housing had been allocated in the plan for larger villages and accused the authority of using a too simplistic methodology. 

Some Rutlanders have said Oakham, as the county's largest town, has not been allocated its fair share of homes for the next two decades.  

The inspector has decided that tomorrow's discussions on employment and town centre strategy cannot go ahead, because Rutland County Council has brought new evidence suggesting job growth figures over the plan period will be lower than previously indicated. 

Instead, Friday's meeting will focus on infrastructure.