A housing scheme for 180 homes in countryside on the edge of a Derbyshire village has been given the go-ahead by council planners despite concerns about the feared pressure on school places, medical services and roads.
NE Derbyshire District Council’s planning committee approved Rippon Homes Ltd’s planning application at a meeting on September 30 for 180 homes, new access, landscaping and infrastructure on seven hectares of greenfield land near Spindle Drive and Deerlands Road, at Wingerworth.
The site was previously granted outline planning permission for development in 2018 after an appeal but the development was not implemented so the scheme has now been reconsidered with new amendments.
A council officer told the meeting: “Wingerworth still has the facilities, shops, a health centre and buses and services and these are the things that make it sustainable and these things have not changed and those are the items that make it a sustainable site.”
Despite approved planning permission, the council received 155 objections with concerns that there is inadequate infrastructure including schools, medical services and highways to meet the demands of the scheme.
Other fears included traffic safety, congestion, flooding and that it will result in a loss of greenfield land and have an impact on trees and wildlife.
District and Wingerworth Parish Councillor, Neil Baker, also raised concerns about the lack of infrastructure with the scheme in terms of school places and service provisions and the prospect of increased traffic as well as fears for surface water run-off.
Cllr Baker has stated that it makes no sense to keep building houses in Wingerworth without improving the infrastructure, the number of available schools places and other services.
He told the planning committee: “We believe it’s totally unsustainable to keep expecting more and more pupils to be accommodated at existing schools and until The Avenue school is developed, please, stop building new houses.”
Wingerworth Parish Council also objected to the scheme on the grounds that the site is not included in the district council’s Local Plan and they fear it will have an adverse impact on the area’s infrastructure and highways, and if plans for an attenuation pond are not managed this could lead to flooding.
The housing scheme features 12 homes with one-bedroom, 38 with two-bedrooms, 89 three-bedroom homes, and 41 four-bedroom properties along with plans to build a bridge over a brook to access the site.
Resident Mark Pearson told the meeting he believes the proposed access to the site on Spindle Drive is unsafe with a blind bend and that children crossing the road will be a concern due to the combined poor visibility and an increase in traffic which will put them in danger.
Mr Pearson added that hundreds of homes have already been built along the ‘A61 corridor’ in the area and things have changed a great deal since the developers won an appeal in 2018 to build houses in Wingerworth.
Cllr Alex Dale also pointed out that a lot has changed since the developer’s appeal success with more housing developments in the area and he said he was particularly concerned about where children would go if the long-awaited plans for The Avenue school do not go ahead.
He said: “I am particularly concerned about the impact of where these additional school places will go if The Avenue [school] falls through.”
But Derbyshire County Council has requested education contributions from the developer including £134,754.65 for youngsters with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and £830,722.40 to expand Hunloke Primary School or alternatively to go towards a proposed new primary school at The Avenue.
NE Derbyshire District Council’s Environmental Health team, Derbyshire County Council’s highways authority and its flood risk team all raised no objections to the scheme subject to certain conditions such as construction work hours and a contamination land assessment.
Yorkshire Water also raised no objections subject to conditions to protect the local aquatic environment and the Yorkshire Water infrastructure.
The Coal Authority raised no objections but because the site is in an area of high risk from former coal mining, according to the district council, an investigation will be needed before the development begins.
The Environment Agency also made no comments because the development falls in Flood Zone 1 and feels there are no fluvial risks from rivers or streams.
NE Derbyshire District Council’s planning officers have also welcomed the developers new plans for 40per cent of the site’s properties to be affordable housing after the council has identified a need for 30 affordable units and five affordable housing units per year for Wingerworth.
But Cllr Baker said: “I strongly dispute these figures being used as if they were material facts. The figure of 35 [affordable houses] per annum should not be relied upon to make big decisions such as this.”
The council’s planning team acknowledged the site is not included in the authority’s Local Plan but stated that it has been identified by the Planning Inspectorate as a sustainable location and that the Local Plan’s current strategy will not meet the need for affordable housing in Wingerworth.
A council officer also told the meeting that the benefits of the scheme outweigh the limited landscape and heritage harm and as such the application should be approved.
Agent Tom Eyres, representing the applicant, said the scheme will deliver 180 homes including a better mix of affordable housing at a time when there is an acute national housing shortage and that the developer aims to start work within a year with plans for ten per cent biodiversity net gain for the area.
Mr Eyres said: “We have sought to agree a suitable condition with officers which allows a short time frame to commence development if approval is granted.”
The planning committee voted by a majority to approve the planning application with conditions including that the development commences within a year and that a system to dispose of foul water drainage is implemented with measures to protect the public sewage infrastructure.
Other conditions included a contaminated land assessment, a construction management plan and an investigation to establish any risks from former mining.
