HC Deb 03 November 1980 vol 991 cc489-90W
Mr. Latham

asked the Minister of Transport when he intends to issue a formal direction to the Charnwood borough council regarding two planning applications submitted by that council in respect of vacant land off the A6 road at the Market Place, Mountsorrel; why no progress has been achieved earlier in this matter, in view of the length of time since the planning applications were submitted; and whether he will now expedite this matter, following the announcement by his East Midland regional office some months ago that the possible A6 bypass was no longer an obstacle to determining the applications.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

The Charnwood borough council submitted its planning applications in September 1979. As at that time it appeared that the site might be affected by proposals then being considered for a bypass, it was asked to defer consideration of the applications fur the time being. In about June of this year it was decided that this was no longer so and that the borough council could pursue the proposed development. The access for the development required work to be done on the trunk road and Leicestershire county council, our agents, prepared a junction layout to provide a turning lane from the trunk road into the site. This was approved by the regional controller at Nottingham in August. A copy of the layout should have been sent to the borough council to enable it to incorporate the junction layout in revised pro- posals to the regional controller but because of a misunderstanding this was not done.

I apologise for the delays and the error in the case. The regional controller has now arranged for a copy of the layout to be sent to the borough council. A direction will be issued as soon as revised applications are received.