Derbyshire greenfield development plan thrown out for having too many houses

The site off Primrose Lane, Killamarsh, had previously been granted permission to build 30 houses and has been allocated such in North East District Council’s newly-adopted Local Plan.

Speaking on behalf of the applicant at the planning committee, Michael Edgar, of DLP Planning, said the previous number of homes had been limited by guidance from the Health and Safety Executive at the time, which has since changed.

An application from the same company, W Redmile and Sons Ltd, was refused in May, and committee member Councillor Mark Foster commented that he was afraid the new application had failed to address the reasons why.

He said: “The first reason, which was it being unacceptable because it departed from the Local Plan and it’s all around the sustainability, which was one of the key things for me.”

Cllr Foster stated there was no ‘exceptional case’ to increase the number of homes from 30 to 50, and referred to the new application, which stated the developer was planning to make ‘more efficient use of the land’, commenting: “Well I’ve got that.

“Yeah we can put another 20 houses on there and it can be more profitable and another 20 families can live in there, absolutely.

“But is it sustainable?”

Councillor Stephen Clough added: “My concern is we have just got the Local Plan and if we start departing from the numbers in the Local Plan where will that end?

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“Do we stick to what we’ve said in the Local Plan or do we just go with the alternative?”

Richard Purcell, Assistant Director of Planning, said: “Killamarsh is one of our foremost sustainable settlements and this is a site that is allocated for residential use within the limits of Killamarsh.

“Every allocated site at the time it’s allocated in the Local Plan is given an indicative number of houses.”

He added that 30 was not necessarily the ‘maximum number’.

The majority of councillors voted to refuse the proposed development on grounds that the number of dwellings increased what was set out in the Local Plan, it lacked sustainability and would adversely affect traffic and the character of the area.