Campaigners say services and infrastructure 'can't handle' plans for 61 homes on green fields in Derbyshire

Plans for 61 homes on Red Lane, South Normanton have been submitted to Bolsover District Council.

The joint development by The East Midlands Housing Group and Village Partnerships Ltd includes four two bedroom apartments, 24 four bed homes and 33 five bedroom.

The proposal has been met with opposition local residents who started a campaign and have already collected 29 objections to the scheme.

Samuel Valasek, aged 16, of Red Lane, and the youngest campaigner said: “Our local infrastructure just can’t handle an expansion like the one that's been proposed. Recently, our GP was rated inadequate by the CQC, our schools already claim to be oversubscribed, and the local dentist is not even accepting new clients at the minute.

“Local hospitals are predicting that this development alone will cost at least £50,000 a year extra for their services. It's going to be havoc, and we are already waiting many months for hospital appointments, or GP appointments. That's how bad our local infrastructure is.

“We really want to get our infrastructure to the best standard before we start building houses and expanding the community in South Normanton. We want to get the local residents that already live here to have better services and a better life first.”

He added: “I'm probably one of the youngest residents and we have people all the way up to the age of 96. It's an important issue to everyone on Red Lane.

"We want to get our voices heard by the council and our concerns answered.”

Samuel described Red Lane as ‘historical’ with some of current residents remembering the times when the road consisted of a red shale surface, from which its name originated.

When the residents approached the council in the 1960s in regards to surfacing the lane with tarmac, the council proposed that the residents paid for works themselves and from then on the local authority would maintain the road. The residents agreed and covered the costs.

However, during the 20 twenty years, development of four houses at the top of the road and ten dwellings at the lower part of Red Lane, has brought a lot of traffic, which changed the access lane into a much busier street. Residents say building another 61 houses would make the problem unbearable.

Kerrilee Wilson, a third generation resident of Red Lane said: “Our road is only a small access lane which was originally a farm track, and its purpose was never to serve as an access road for a large housing estate.

“The effect of the extra traffic on increasingly busy roads will be catastrophic. Red Lane feeds into Birchwood Lane which is a primary route for emergency service vehicles travelling to and from the A38. It is the primary alternative to get through to the M1 when there is congestion at nearby junction 28 of the M1 - which happens increasingly all too often.

“There is an absolute gridlock between the hours of 7:30am and 8:45am and again from 4:15 until 5:45pm. There have been several incidents of scares and accidents, some involving children crossing nearby roads, especially at the junction at the top of Birchwood Lane . This would clearly also get worse with increased numbers of vehicles and children.”

Apart from traffic and safety concerns, residents are worried about the increased pollution caused by cars.

Samuel said: “We don't believe that Red Lane is the right place to put this house expansion. The traffic is one of the main issues, but also the houses would be built on a Greenfield site. Why do we need to build 61 new houses on a Derbyshire green site? We should be using the Brownfield sites which can't be used for stuff like agriculture and leisure.”

There have also been some concerns about potential flooding.

Samuel said: “When they built ten houses, they caused flooding on our street and they had to come in and dig up the whole street to put in some drainage. That's how much damage just 10 dwellings caused to our street.”

Chris Jones, Executive Director, Development of EMH, said: “The need for affordable housing in South Normanton is huge and will only increase with the cost of living crisis. This carefully planned scheme of 61 homes will help to address this need by providing local people with a good range and mix of housing for affordable rent and shared ownership, for first time buyers and householders who can’t afford to buy at market sale prices.

“EMH is working with developer, Village Partnership, to provide good quality properties of which 34 will be for affordable rent and 27 for shared ownership. On-site parking is provided and we do not see this impacting on local traffic conditions.

“The scheme is with the local authority for planning approval. As part of that process, we will of course listen to any concerns. Any scheme is always built with existing homes and communities in mind and this one will make a significant difference to the lives of those living and raised in the area who can’t afford to live locally.”