Council approves 400 homes near Chesterfield despite concern about schools and GP services

Barratt Homes already had outline permission to build the properties on a triangular shaped area of land off Inkersall Road at Staveley.

Chesterfield Borough Council’s planning committee has now given the company the green light for its detailed designs of the new properties.

Councillors voted unanimously to approve the plans at a meeting on Monday, February 21, after an officer's report said ‘significant work’ had taken place to improve the house designs.

However, there remains plenty of opposition to development in the area.

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One resident in an objection letter: “This area is very close to the Trans Pennine trail and there are a multitude of different birds and wildlife that we fear will be affected and driven away by it.

"This is usually a very peaceful and tranquil area that is bound to be disrupted.”

Concerns were also raised that schools, GP surgeries and dentists would be overwhelmed by 400 new homes.

Inkersall resident Christopher Hill said it was ‘blatantly obvious’ that infrastructure in the area could not cope with further development on this scale.

"An extra 400 houses of the type on the plans could result in a possible 800-plus extra vehicles moving on an already stretched road system,” he said.

"A possible 1,500 new people would require doctors, dentists and schools. All existing facilities nearby are already stretched to the limit.”

The site is close to Poolsbrook Country Park, and bordered by the Trans Pennine Trail, Inkersall Road and Inkersall Green Road.

A planning officer report published ahead of the meeting said: “The site is currently green field land with a central corridor forming a water course which crosses the site in a diagonal east to west.

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"There is a Grade II listed farmhouse located to the far south and a cluster of cottages to the south-east.”

Barratt Homes was given outline planning permission for the site in August 2020.

Council planning officers say ‘significant negotiation’ has taken place since then to ‘improve the layout of the development’, provide green spaces and the ‘creation of a sense of place’.

There will be a mixture of two, three and four-bedroom homes, with seven per cent allocated to be ‘affordable’.