Flood of letters opposed to building homes on ‘vast Habitat for wildlife’
MORE than 1,600 residents have signed a petition objecting to plans to earmark a green belt site at Spondon Wood for housing.
Erewash Borough Council is in the process of earmarking a strip of farmland between the eastern Derby city ward and Spondon Wood, which is home to a large number of deer.
It has not yet specified how many homes it feels could be built on the land but the figure is believed to be 300, due to it being pitched as a replacement for a 300-home site in Lock Lane, Sawley, which has been dropped.
The authority is piecing potential housing sites together in order to meet Government targets to see 6,680 homes built by 2037 – 393 a year.
Spondon resident Helena Cutter started the petition on Change.org opposing the earmarking of the site this week and as of this article’s publication the petition had 1,662 signatures.
It reads: “Erewash Borough Council have proposed plans for a new large housing development on
green belt land across the north boundary of Spondon near the woods.
“This development cannot go ahead for multiple reasons, mainly the detrimental impact on the local area with regards to amenities – shops, doctors, schools etc.
“Spondon will not be able to cope with the extra footfall the estate will contribute to.
“The area will be overcrowded, the village will be congested, crammed as there will be way too many residents in the area.
“The new houses will also cause loss of privacy and overshadow the houses nearby, having a negative impact on residents.
“The land is a vast habitat to a lot of wildlife including fallow deer, hares, pheasants, voles, moles, buzzards, fox, owls etc…the list is endless.
“It will have an adverse impact on the protected trees and woodland in the area. This is not acceptable.
“It cannot be bulldozed and destroyed.”
Hundreds of Spondon residents have commented on the petition to give their reasons for signing.
Clare Wood wrote: “This desecration of wildlife habitats has got to stop. We cannot continue to concrete over our green spaces.
“We’re in a climate emergency. Instead, why don’t you stop people buying the affordable homes purely to rent out. This has become widespread practice and is fuelling the demand for housing. Leave our wildlife habitats alone.”
Christine Selden wrote: “Priority for new builds should be on brownfield sites. The site is unsuitable for development because of the existing strain on local school places and amenities. Also the site is a valuable area for local wildlife.
“Coupled with the proposed development of the A38, green spaces in and around Derby are rapidly reducing at a time when they should be protected and increased to help with the mental and physical effects of Covid on the local population.”
Paul Wilson commented: “Spondon is large for a village. It is already too big for its amenities.
“The location of the proposal hits the very quiet corner of the village and impacts local wildlife.
“There should be no estate added to the village. Better to make a new village further away.”
Robin Smith said: “Spondon already has traffic problems including heavy lorries that Erewash council don’t allow through some of their villages. This development will only add to Spondon congestion, even more so at the Station Road island when the new commercial park on Celanese land is built.”
Kathy Bambridge wrote: “Yet another attempt to use farm land for housing when there are plenty of brownfield sites. Less countryside for wildlife let alone the environmental impact of construction and residential traffic.”
Glynis Hallam said: “Absolutely
disgraceful, why did we only find out yesterday when it was published in the Derby Telegraph. Very underhanded by our local councils. This proposal must not be allowed to go ahead as the impact on Spondon would be immense.”
Chris Chilton wrote: “Absolutely outrageous! I grew up on Deer Park View and loved the surrounding fields that are teeming with wildlife.
“Building these homes will harm the environment and wildlife and will result in hugely increased traffic and footfall in Spondon.
“It will also have no connections at all to other Erewash communities, so new residents will be solely dependent on Spondon – i.e. Derby City Council – services.”
In a borough council meeting on Thursday, Cllr
Carol Hart, the authority’s leader said that Spondon was now “already geared up” to object to the proposed plans and said: “I think the whole of Spondon knows about this site without us even raising a finger (due to an article from the Local Democracy Reporting Service).”
She said the speed at which opposition has gathered against the site shows there is no need for an extensive 12-week consultation but that a shorter six-week long consultation would suffice, which will be held later this year.
Cllr Robert Mee, who represents the West Hallam & Dale Abbey ward, which contains Spondon Wood, said at the meeting: “I am actually as annoyed at this late addition to the core strategy as the people of Spondon are.
“It seems it is a case of ‘let’s try next to Spondon, nicely out of the way of anywhere where Erewash people might be unhappy, yeah it’s on the edge of Derby, but that’s their problem, they might have to cope with more demands on their services, but I’m all right, Jack’.”