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MP calls for changes to Leicestershire freeport plans

Getty Images Boris Johnson visiting the freeport in TilburyGetty Images
The freeport scheme was announced when Boris Johnson was prime minister

An MP is calling for plans to build giant distribution warehouses on the edge of a Leicestershire village to be altered.

Andrew Bridgen said the sheds would be better placed near Nottingham rather than farmland at Diseworth.

He said land alongside the A453 near Nottingham had better transport links.

A spokesman for the Levelling Up Department said the site was one of eight across England that had been carefully selected.

'Green lung'

The plans are expected to be submitted by developers shortly.

The farmland, between Diseworth and the Donington services area, was included in the government's East Midlands Freeport Zone.

The site is one tract of land in a zone which stretches across parts of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

The land was earmarked for warehousing by the then chancellor, Rishi Sunak, when the freeport proposal was announced last March.

It will be the only inland freeport in the UK and is being developed with the aim of building new infrastructure to drive regeneration across the East Midlands.

Businesses will be encouraged to invest by being given tax incentives which, it is claimed, will create thousands of jobs.

But Diseworth residents said they objected to the village's "green lung" being built on.

Getty Images Andrew BridgenGetty Images
Andrew Bridgen says the distribution warehouses should be nearer Nottingham

Jim Snee, from the villagers' pressure group Protect Diseworth, said: "Over 15 kilometres [nine miles] of local flora and fauna will be lost to concrete and sheds.

"Development and progress is fine but it has to be appropriate and it has to be proportionate. This is not."

Mr Bridgen, the North West Leicestershire Conservative MP, said: "The land alongside the A453 near Nottingham has access to the tram, there's higher unemployment in the city and people from Derby and Leicester could travel there without having to use a car."

A spokesman for the Levelling Up Department said: "East Midlands Airport is one of eight freeport locations across England, carefully selected through a competitive process.

"We continue to work closely with councils and landowners in developing their plans to bring these hubs for trade and investment to their regions."

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