Report by Local Democracy Reporter – Eddie Bisknell
Officials are set to gift land in an affluent Derbyshire town to a housing developer for free.
At a Derbyshire Dales District Council meeting next week, councillors are set to agree a plan to gift land off Yeld Close, Bakewell, to the Nottingham Community Housing Association – for a price of “nil”.
The half-an-acre slim section of council-owned land off Yeld Close, near to Lady Manners School and Bakewell Junior School, is currently home to agricultural equipment and a paddock.
District council officials say the plan from Nottingham Community Housing Association is to build eight houses on the land, if it is gifted to them.
This would add to the adjoining site to the rear of Yeld Close, currently vacant farmland, which was granted approval to be turned into 42 affordable homes in November, via Mypad, in the face of 33 objections.
The 42 homes approved in November would be restricted to be “affordable housing” in perpetuity and limited to people with a proven local need only, with the housing association to manage the properties.
That decision was approved by the Peak District National Park Authority, which oversees planning decisions in Bakewell, not the Dales district council.
The redevelopment of a farm building complex behind the site, is also part of the wider scheme, accessed via Stoney Close and the Bakewell Junior School entrance.
Plans for eight homes on the council-owned strip of land off Yeld Close have not been filed.
The council says the land would revert back to them if development of eight homes is not started within three years of the transfer date.
It says the transfer for free is an “undervalue transaction” which has not yet been quantified, but that the housing association would pay the authority’s legal and surveyor fees.
The council says the land is currently rented out as grazing land and was obtained via a housing stock transfer in 2002 and parked for eventual affordable housing development.
It said: “The proposed scheme on the land owned by the District Council will help to meet identified local housing need in the town of Bakewell and its adjoining parishes. By town/parish, Bakewell demonstrates the highest housing need figures in the Peak Park as per housing register and recent housing needs survey data.”
The proposed eight homes would be a mix of one, two and three-bed properties with the majority being social rented houses and some being shared ownership.
The 42-home development approved in November includes 34 social rented houses and eight shared ownership properties.
This eight-home addition to that scheme would be merged in and constructed by MyPad.
Their plan is to submit a planning application in September, secure permission by September next year, start on site in November 2027 and complete by November 2028, the council says.
Council officials write: “NCHA have requested that the council’s land be transferred at nil value to assist the viability of the scheme. An independent valuation has been commissioned to determine the value of the district council’s land required for this scheme and hence the value of the undervalue transaction.”
The council says vacant possession is needed to transfer the land, so it will be scrapping the £150 per year grazing licence for the plot to be vacated by Spring next year.
It says the value of the land will be viewed as a financial contribution towards the building of the eight homes.
