Residents tell Orbit Big Pit not suitable place for houses

A consultation meeting about proposals to build on the Hinckley nature feature, the Big Pit, prompted a huge turnout of Hinckley residents.

Social housing provider Orbit are proposing to build on the site. At yesterday's consultation meeting held at the Ashby Road, Sports Club over a 100 local residents came to express their views. The bulk of residents there were opposed to plans to build on the Big Pit.

Amongst those attending was Lib Dem County Councillor for the area Michael Mullaney Michael said "I'm delighted so many people were motivated to come to the event and make it plain that this the Big Pit is the wrong site to be building houses on. I'm astonished that a social housing provider such as Orbit should even be considering building on this site. Orbit are not some fly-by night company out to make a huge profit from an unsuitable site, they are a social housing company with a strong social ethos, I would hope they would realise that reputationly, building on this site does not help them.

"Residents continue to have real fears about the possible increased risk of flooding if the site is built on, the loss of a rare local nature/water feature in Hinckley and the huge amount of lorry movements along Ashby Road and the associated dust, disruption and possible traffic pressure this is likely to cause.

"The Big Pit Nature feature, behind Ashby Road in Hinckley has for many years been the subject of attempts to build houses on it. However campaigning by local councillors and residents have thwarted previous attempts to build on the site, . It is an extremely controversial place to build on as the plans were kicked out by both Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council and Leicestershire County Council, only then for development on the site to be given permission by a Government Inspector two years ago.

"I would hope Orbit have got the message that this site is too controversial for an organisation with their high reputation to build on and that they will drop the plans and not touch them with a 20 foot barge pole."