New homes plan for former education centre

The buildings on the site have not been in use since 2018

More than 30 homes could be built on the site of a former Leicester education centre, new plans show.

The demolition of the Forest Lodge Education Centre in Charnor Road was approved in July last year.

Leicester City Council, which owns the land, now hopes to build 33 homes there, three of which will be bungalows.

The buildings on the site, which have not been used since 2018, were originally built as a nursery, but were more recently used as a training and conference centre.

In 2021, the city council announced it had received funding to build on the site.

The land was also included in the draft of the council’s upcoming local plan – a document which sets out where planning can and cannot take place in the city.

The draft local plan is currently going through the approval process, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

All of the homes would be owned by the city council and would form part of their council housing stock, if the scheme is approved.

The current site access is shared with the neighbouring Forest Lodge Academy School.

It is proposed to separate out this access and increase parking at the school in the process.

This would make the school site “more secure”, planning documents state, with the entrance to the new homes coming via Knowles Road.

A public consultation on the scheme will run until 30 July.

Leicester City Council has set a target decision date of 27 September.

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