Part of green belt set to be lost for new homes
LAND ON EDGE OF CITY IS SET TO REPLACE COUNTY SITE
A CHUNK of Derby’s green belt is to be earmarked for homes.
For more than a year Erewash Borough Council has been planning where it will allocate sites for housing. These included four large sites in the green belt, having ruled out many other non-viable sites.
Following public consultation, the council is now looking to drop one of these sites, in Sawley, but replace it with a green belt site in Spondon, on land between the city ward and Spondon Wood.
A CHUNK of Derby’s protected green belt is to be earmarked for housing development.
For more than a year Erewash Borough Council has been planning where it will allocate sites for housing and business development and asked the public for their thoughts on the areas for this.
These included four large sites in the green belt, having ruled out many other non-viable sites, one of which borders Oakwood.
Following public consultation, the council is now looking to drop one of these sites, in Sawley, but replace it with a green belt site in Spondon, on a slice of land between the affluent city ward and Spondon Wood.
The Lock Lane site in Sawley is to be axed due to issues with a nearby railway level crossing, which often leaves the area cut off – an issue council officers do not wish to worsen. It would have included up to 300 homes.
Nearly a fifth of the objections to the council’s consultation were solely against the Sawley site, which borders a nature reserve and is home to a golf course.
Meanwhile, a large chunk of the proposed green belt site encircling Cotmanhay Wood is to be dropped after one of the landowners backed out. It had included up to 600 homes.
However, a planned smaller portion of the Cotmanhay site to the east of the wood – will continue, despite heavy objections from local campaigners – who made up nearly four fifths of all responses to the consultation.
A proposed green belt development in Kirk Hallam, with a new relief road, will be extended further to offset the homes to be lost at the Cotmanhay site. It, too, had included 600 homes initially. The changes will be debated at a virtual full council meeting on Thursday.
The council’s four original green belt housing plans had totalled 2,100 potential homes across Sawley, Oakwood, Cotmanhay and Kirk Hallam. This is to meet a Government aim to find slots for 6,680 homes by 2037 – 393 a year.
Council leaders said they had ruled out 11 green belt housing sites while devising their plans, which had totalled 9,600 homes. They also said 99% of the green belt would remain despite planned removals of significant chunks.
Leadership also made clear developers were still free to submit plans for land that they owned, whether the council had earmarked it for housing or not. However, the process of earmarking speeds up the approval process and points developers to where they have a greater chance of success.
Sawley: ‘Significant problems with the level-crossing’
On the proposed plan to drop the Lock Lane site in Sawley from potenfrom tial development, the council said: “Consultation indicated that there are significant problems with the level-crossing at Lock Lane that neither the site promoter nor Network Rail have been able to resolve. These are resulting in stationary trains straddling the crossing, closing the road for 10-20 minutes at a time.
“Lengthy road closures generate driver frustration, which can lead to dangerous behaviour, for example trying to rush across as the barriers are closing.
“Housing development on this site would exacerbate that risk, and is consequently not considered acceptable in terms of railway safety.
“Consequently it is proposed to leave this land in the Green Belt, and not to continue to promote housing development here.”
Spondon: ‘An extension of the Derby conurbation’
On the addition of the site between Spondon and Spondon Wood, for an unspecified number of homes, the council said: “Spondon is part of Derby city, so this proposal is an extension of the Derby conurbation into the Green Belt.
“By definition this is more sustainable than an extension of the town into the Green Belt, or of the villages into the Green Belt, or a new settlement in the Green Belt.
“The presence of Spondon Wood to the north of the site provides a robust Green Belt boundary, and good access appears to be available from the A6096.
“Its development would have a relatively limited impact on the Green Belt.”
Cotmanhay: ‘Reduced scale of the available land’
On the Cotmanhay site, which will be reduced to an unspecified amount from the original 600 homes, the council said: “Consultation identified that the landowner of the north eastern four fields of this site did not wish their land to be developed.
“The landowner of the four fields to the south west of the site is in active discussions with a developer who is resolving many of the technical issues with that site, including its opencast legacy.
“The large number of representations from the local community raised largely generic issues related to greenfield development such as wildlife impact, drainage, traffic and the strain on local services, all of which are reduced by the reduced scale of the available land.”
Kirk Hallam: ‘Opportunity has arisen to extend it further...’
The planned 600 homes south-west of Kirk Hallam would now be significantly extended to an unspecified amount totally an additional few hundred extra homes.
A potential development would now stretch from the A6096 bordering the village round to Sowbrook Lane, encircling the Pioneer Meadows Nature Reserve.
The bypass or relief road would take traffic around the village from Sowbrook Lane to Ladywood Road, paid for by unlocking contributions developers.
Council officers wrote: “Consultation did not identify any substantive issues with this site. However, the opportunity has arisen to extend it further to the south and east.
“This extended site would fill most of the land inside the proposed Kirk Hallam relief road, and greatly increases the delivery prospects of that new road. Because this is a further extension of the town into the Green Belt, this proposal is inherently more sustainable than an extension of the villages into the Green Belt, or a new settlement in the Green Belt.”
Oakwood: ‘No substantive issues with this site’
The already earmarked green belt site at Acorn Way in Oakwood, next to Lees Brook Community School and the Derby County Football Academy, is to proceed despite a strong objection from Tony Sylvester, South Derbyshire District Council’s former head of planning.
Mr Sylvester had suggested that the development had only been included to “make up the numbers” and said there were “inherent risks” and a vast lack of evidence to support its viability.
Despite this, the council has said: “Consultation did not identify any substantive issues with this site.”