The plan that will map out future housing development in Uppingham is being redrafted after criticism from a planning examiner. 

The refreshed Uppingham Neighbourhood Plan, which allocates the sites around the town that will be developed for housing and in what order up until 2041, has been looked at by an independent examiner, who says the plan needs to pack more housing into some of the developments. 

A total of seven sites had been set out in the plan, totalling 513 homes, which is above the 360 requirement and includes a buffer. The draft plan had worked on 25 homes per hectare, but the independent assessor has said the density should be increased so that there are 30 homes per hectare. 

The town council has been devising the replacement plan for several years and chairman of the council Dave Ainslie said the situation is unfortunate but things are progressing.  

He said: "Where we are is that the independent assessor held an open day to ask questions back in April. Then as a consequence of that he posed some more questions to the town council, which basically revolve around land use and density. 

"He said: 'There's too many sites, you can achieve the number of houses you need on a smaller number of sites, I want you to go away and look at the density.' That then leads itself to environmental questions that need to be looked at because if you change the density, you change the environmental impact." 

The sites allocated are 163 homes on land north of Leicester Road and another 20 on land south of the road – these are already committed to in the existing neighbourhood plan which dates back to 2016. 

Within five years the plan will allocate 110 homes off Leicester Road in front of the cricket club; 40 homes in Land off Ayston Road and 60 homes at Uppingham Gate. Longer term, after five years the plan allocates 60 homes on land off The Beeches and another 60 on land off Goldcrest. (The examiner has suggested these two sites become reserve sites). All of the development is the end of the town closer to Oakham than to Corby.  

The current plans include 513 new homes across 7 sites, which have been criticised for not having enough houses per site. (Photo: LoveUppingham)

The consultant, who had been contracted by the town council to work on the plan, is no longer involved. The authority has now employed a new consultant, Colin Wilkinson, to answer the questions from the assessor and suggest the amendments that may need to be made to satisfy. 

Cllr Ainslie said the final report from the new consultant is almost ready, and then if the town council is happy with it, it will go onto the county council. He said the cost of funding the consultant work came from funds raised by a planning charge on new development and had not come from precept cash. 

The refreshed plan should go out for another six-week consultation and will then go to a town wide referendum, where residents simply decide whether to back the plan or not. 

Cllr Ainslie said the aim was to run the six-week consultation around the same time as the overarching Rutland Local Plan towards the end of the year with a referendum in the spring.