Land deal will be step forward in plans to build 400 homes

WORK to build more than 400 homes at a former Rolls-Royce site in Derby has taken a big step closer to starting, it can be revealed.

Derby City Council leaders have approved the sale of property which will allow housing developer Keepmoat Homes to construct hundreds of new homes on a huge area of vacant land off Nightingale Road.

The Marble Hall site is set for major change after cabinet members of the council approved plans to declare parts of the development site the council owns as “surplus to requirements” and to sell them to support the delivery of more than 400 homes. Work could now start within the next 12 months.

The site has been vacant for around 15 years but its redevelopment is a priority for the council to deliver new homes and make a significant contribution to its Local Plan target. The plan forms a major part of the council’s Osmaston Regeneration Area project, which has a target to deliver 600 new homes by 2028.

Formal planning consent for the scheme was secured in the summer of 2020, and since that time partners have been working to overcome viability challenges associated with “significant remediation” costs for the site.

According to a council document, Keepmoat Homes will “shortly complete the acquisition of the adjoining Main Works Site from RollsRoyce”. But it also requires land in the ownership of the council to complete the housing regeneration scheme. These council-owned sites include “two incidental parcels of land” to the rear of Marble Hall and the vacant former OSCAR community centre on nearby Addison Road. Terms have been negotiated for the sale of council land to Keepmoat for around £150,000.

Documents also reveal that, as a condition of the sale, the council will complete highway improvements at the junction of Osmaston Park Road and Victory Road, comprising reconfiguration of the traffic lights and some resurfacing. This is estimated to cost more than £200,000.

The planning consent requires that 46 affordable homes are provided within the development. And in addition, Keepmoat are working with a housing association towards an additional 47 affordable homes.

In November 2020 – months after planning permission was approved – the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported dangerous chemicals had been found at the Nightingale Road site.

A report into the problems said that in numerous areas “significant exceedances” of harmful metals and chemicals – dubbed hotspots – were found in the ground.

Rolls-Royce moved on to the site in 1907 and stayed there for 100 years.