Erewash housing plan clash

“Shame, shame, shame” Derbyshire Ccouncil leaders were told, in a nod to TV show Game of Thrones, over plans to earmark dozens of acres of Green Belt land for 1,000 houses.

Eddie Bisknell from the Local Democracy Reporting Service said that an Erewash Borough Council meeting held on 27th March saw councillors debate plans to earmark land for 1,045 homes on new sites in the Green Belt around Borrowash, Breadsall Hilltop, Breaston, Draycott, Sandiacre and West Hallam.

The move comes after the Labour Government increased the borough’s housing target from 376 to 523 per year and after a planning inspector found the council’s plan for housing over the next couple of decades did not contain enough homes.

A six-week public consultation will now start in early April for the proposed eight new sites and further inspector-led inquiry hearings will take place later this year.

Cllr Curtis Howard, the council’s lead member for planning, said the authority would risk having its planning powers seized from it by central Government if it did not bring in a development blueprint in time.

He said that in September last year Government planning inspector Kelly Ford had given the authority six months to come up with enough homes to fill its shortfall – now at 1,800 homes.

The authority’s current local development plan was adopted in 2014 and expired in 2019, leaving Erewash without an up-to-date blueprint and high on the Government’s watchlist.

Cllr Howard said the council was merely trying to fulfil its legal obligations within “numerous constraints beyond our control”.

He said the previous Conservative Government and new Labour administration both found Erewash’s ongoing situation “unacceptable”.

Cllr Wayne Major, Conservative Group leader, said the council was now seeking to build 180 homes on the only green buffer left in Sandiacre and which is accessed through a quiet cul-de-sac.

He said the plans did not take into consideration the impact on schools, road networks and health services.

Cllr Major claimed Labour councillors were “hell-bent on building as many houses as you can” and were not letting the public have their say by extending consultation to 12 weeks.

Cllr Becca Everett, Labour’s deputy council leader, said the Conservatives previously opposed a 12-week consultation on the development plan in 2022, claiming Cllr Major was “just trying to stir the pot”.

Cllr Frank Phillips, Labour, said this was “typical of their hypocrisy”.

Cllr Joel Bryan, Labour said the borough was in an “absolute crisis” with rent for a one-bed flat in Long Eaton costing £850 per month.

He said the solution to lowering rents was the building of more homes, to “give young people back the dream of home ownership”.

Cllr Gordon Thomas said villages would dwindle without incoming new families which would only be possible through home-building.

Cllr Tim Scott, Conservative, said Draycott residents had given the plans for 190 homes off Derby Road to the southwest of the village a “resounding no”.

He dubbed the plans “catastrophic” for the Green Belt and would see the village lose part of its vital floodplain which lessened the impact of flooding which already impacted many homes.

Cllr Scott claimed residents already had to go to Breaston and Borrowash for NHS care and some had to go to Normanton in Derby to see a dentist.

He said the plans were causing “a whole host of problems, anxiety and misery” and that it was “as plain as your nose is on your face that this plan is in the wrong place”.

Cllr Scott quoted the TV show Game of Thrones when he told Labour councillors “shame, shame, shame” for the plans, to which he received applause and cheering from the members of the public in the gallery.

Cllr Carol Hart, Conservative, said the planned site of 90 homes in Beech Lane, West Hallam was “absolutely diabolical” due its location opposite Scargill Primary School.

Steve Birkinshaw, the council’s head of planning, said none of the potentially earmarked sites are in Flood Zone 2. 

He said data from the Environment Agency was being updated and the council had been given this new information, which showed the Draycott site should not be heavily impacted by flooding.

Cllr Steve Bilbie, Conservative, said: “I am in favour of building houses but in the right places. I share the residents’ anger and disbelief that the chosen land has been selected.”

Cllr Ann Mills, Green Party, said: “I don’t think anyone would dispute the need for houses in  Erewash and the number of homes has been imposed on this council. There isn’t much of a choice there.”

She said she had helped residents in Breaston build a “literal dam” out of sandbags to prevent flooding and said the villages’ cemetery staff had to use a pump to drain water while digging graves “to keep water out long enough to give them a decent burial”.

Cllr Jane White, Conservative, said Borrowash could not cope with hundreds of more cars on “already dilapidated roads”.

Cllr Harrison Broadhurst, Labour, said 2,000 people on the 5,000-person long council housing waitlist are children and said he wanted residents to be able to raise their own kids in the borough “as lots of other people in this room have already done”.

The proposed new housing sites are:

• West of Sandiacre, Larch Drive, next to the M1 – 180 homes
• North of Breadsall Hilltop, Hungerhill Crescent – 160 homes + other land safeguarded for more housing
• West of Borrowash, Derby Road – 280 homes + other land safeguarded for more housing
• North of Borrowash, Cole Lane – 60 homes + other land safeguarded for more housing
• East of Breaston, Heath Gardens – 50 homes
• South West of Draycott, Derby Road – 190 homes + other land safeguarded for more housing
• South of West Hallam, Beech Lane – 90 homes + other land safeguarded for more housing
• North of West Hallam, High Lane West – 35 homes