Derbyshire residents demand full council debate about controversial village homes development

Villagers in Glapwell want to see plans for Park Avenue, and the sale of land to make development possible, placed under the scrutiny of a full Bolsover District Council meeting.

Bolsover MP Mark Fletcher has now joined calls for the debate to take place – and has written to the council urging officials to make it happen.

Mr Fletcher wrote in a letter to campaign group the Park Avenue Avengers that he had urged Grant Galloway, Bolsover District Council’s director of development, to ensure the debate took place in the interests of ‘accountability and transparency’.

Conservative MP Mr Fletcher added: "I have also passed on your invitation to visit the site, so officers can see first-hand the consequences this decision will have on the local community.”

Park Avenue Avengers’ spokesperson Sarah Bister said she welcomed Mr Fletcher’s intervention but was disappointed members of the council’s executive had failed to give their backing to a debate.

“This is a district issue and warrants being heard at full council,” she added.

Members of the group have been protesting about a plan to build 62 homes on land off Park Avenue, in addition to a further 65 properties nearby, since the spring of last year.

They say their amenities will be ‘stretched to breaking point’ and claim the amount of traffic created both during the building work and after will ruin their way of life.

A parcel of land off Park Avenue has been dubbed the ‘last piece in the jigsaw’ for development on the site.

Campaigners have called on Bolsover District Council (BDC) to stop the sale of this piece of land ‘until covenants can be added to the land to keep it as a green, open public space respecting its status as a Bolsover District community asset’.

Businessman Stuart Hill has secured planning permission to build the 62 homes – but access to the site is dependent on sale of the strip of land.

He says the development will be positive for Glapwell.

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