Road safety fears put brakes on plans for motoring heaven in heart of Derbyshire’s countryside

The plan, from Caffeine and Machine, was to build a coffee shop, car display area and convert an existing pub at the currently closed Knockerdown Inn site off the B5035 close to Carsington Water.

This was to expand on its larger existing successful site near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, which opened in 2018.

The proposals would provide 41 jobs, contain 150 parking spaces and bring £880,000 worth of value into the area each year, with construction taking six months, the applicants say.

Images displaying what the site could look like include vintage vehicles such as VW Beetles and high performance cars such as Lamborghinis.

However, more than 500 people signed a petition opposing the plan, in excess of 100 residents wrote objecting letters, nine parish councils stood against it, along with the Peak District National Park and Angelique Foster, Derbyshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner.

At a Derbyshire Dales District Council meeting last night (December 13), councillors unanimously rejected the scheme – though for differing reasons.

Councillors agreed that the scheme was not right for the chosen location, particularly due to the vicinity of the popular tourism attraction of Carsington Water and the surrounding tranquil countryside.

However, councillors were split on focussing on the potential risks of road safety linked to the proposals, with some feeling it was a major reason for refusal and others saying it was not a relevant planning issue.

Council leader Garry Purdy said that as an owner of a “fast sports car” himself, he rejected the insinuation that drivers of high performance vehicles visiting the site would do so unsafely.

Residents and parish councillors speaking at the meeting said the area’s roads were known to be unsafe already, and in need of improvement, feeling that this was precisely the wrong place for such a venture.

Cllr Louise Corbett, a member of Carsington and Hopton Parish Council, said the authority was “overwhelmed by the strength of public opposition”.

She said that around 40 jobs were lost when the Knockerdown Inn closed, so the 41 jobs that would be coming back to the site would not be “new”.

Cllr Corbett said: “At the heart of the applicant’s business lies the cult of the machine, a place for car and motorbike enthusiasts to meet, and that is the fundamental problem here.”

She said the scheme was counter to the district council’s aims to become carbon neutral and that it should be using its influence to reduce emissions. Cllr Corbett said bus services to the site ended at 5pm and do not run on Sundays, so most visitors would have to travel by car.

Tim Foxlow, a Bradbourne resident and self-professed “petrol head” said the roads around the site were “unsuitable for the additional volume and type of traffic proposed”.

He claimed there have been 24 serious road accidents and six deaths caused by road accidents close to the site since 2017 – with three serious accidents in the last 10 days.

Mr Foxlow said: “Carsington Water is a valley and noise resonates around the valley, [so this will be] destroying the local amenity and damaging our local nature.

“We live close to some of the best driving roads in the country, as mentioned in lots of magazines and on TV. Lots of us love fast, powerful cars, but on a race track and not on our country roads.”

Cllr Rob Savidge, chairman of Kniveton Parish Council, said: “It is a matter of grave safety concern. The site is located on an unlit road, where the applicant’s own data shows, applicants are breaching the speed limit.

“There is no footpath adjacent to this site, there is no refuge for pedestrians. They are roads on which drivers are prone to drive quickly.” He claimed the site would lead to queuing onto the road outside the venture and roadside parking.

Cllr Janet Rose, ward member for the site, said 1.2 million people visit Carsington Water each year to enjoy the “peaceful countryside”, saying “an application of this type is unsuitable for this location”.

She said: “Hundreds of objections from Derbyshire Dales residents local to this development, together with unanimous opposition from the nine parish councils and the Derbyshire Police and Crime Commission, together with the Peak Park, cannot be ignored.

“This development will bring no benefits to the development whatsoever, only attracting high-performance car enthusiasts – who don’t have to live here – endanger those of us who do. We live here because we love the countryside and tranquillity. Visitors come here because of that.”

Alex Millward, a local resident who is in favour of the scheme, said the applicants will be opening up the pub in the Spring regardless of the planning decision for the rest of the venture. He said residents had been complaining about access to the pub for years and that the scheme represented a good opportunity to resolve that.

Dan Macken, co-founder of Caffeine and Machine, said the scheme would bring “social and economic benefits to an existing pub site and improve the range of hospitality facilities available locally”.

He said the project “will not have a significant urbanising effect” and that the proposed changes would improve overall appearance of the site. Mr Macken said road safety concerns had been “misrepresented and exaggerated”

He said: “Anti-social behaviour is absolutely unacceptable to us. I see the objectors have searched the internet for examples associated with Caffeine and Machine, some of which do go as far back as 2018, before we implemented measures such as number plate recognition, on site marshalling and ticketed entry. There are a small amount of examples over four years [at the Stratford site].”

He said the company could open up at the site tomorrow with a reduced operation, but were committed to going through the planning process to ensure conditions were secured to manage the plot safely and cooperatively.

Joe Baldwin, a council planning officer, said that the project was an example of “intensifying use in an unsustainable location” which would have a “detrimental impact on the countryside Chris Whitmore, the council’s development manager, said the authority had received a letter from Warwickshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner saying there had been issues with the Stratford site initially but that these had been resolved.

A letter from Ms Foster, Derbyshire’s PCC, details her firm objections. She wrote: “I am concerned that if this proposal is granted it is likely to increase the volume and speed of traffic which would be damaging to the landscape of an area that is a peaceful rural area, often enjoyed by many walkers, hikers and cyclists.

“The proposed development in Carsington is expected to see an increase of 50,000 cars per year, which as you must be aware would represent a substantial increase in the volume of traffic.

“The substantial increase in traffic and potential risk of increase in speeding vehicles in the area will have a compounded negative impact on what is already a difficult and potentially dangerous local road network.”

Cllr Richard FitzHerbert said the firm’s ownership were clearly responsible businessmen but felt that the overwhelming objections could not be overcome. Cllr Tom Donnelly said that as a former firefighter he held road safety concerns about the scheme.

Cllr Peter Slack said: “When Carsington Water opened we never expected it to be the business that it is. To have this type of business coming in would be destructive, totally destructive.”

He said visitors to the motoring venture would travel to Matlock Bath, where there are already regular gatherings of bikes and scooters on bank holidays. He said: “There are more accidents waiting to happen. It is wrong for this area, totally totally wrong.”

Cllr Purdy said he opposed the plans due to the lack of sustainability and impact on the environment, not on road safety grounds.

He said: “I think it is wrong of us to touch upon the high performance vehicles because one could argue that they are in the hands of very professional, qualified, good drivers.

“I drive a fast sports car, but I don’t break the speed limits and I think it is disingenuous of us to infer that those high performance cars are going to give trouble.”