"Challenging” former Derbyshire ironworks site could be turned into 1,000 homes

The proposed scheme was discussed during an inspector-led public hearing this week into Erewash Borough Council’s new core strategy – a blueprint for future development up until 2037.

Government inspector Kelly Ford was told that 1,000 homes were being earmarked for the “south of Stanton” site, currently occupied by the heavy industry Saint Gobain pipe-making business off Lows Lane in Stanton.

The hearing was told that the plans would include a primary school to serve the development, on the outskirts of Ilkeston, along with a “local centre” featuring a number of shops.

It was also heard that Verdant Regeneration – a partnership between Ward Recycling and Trust Utilities – who bought the largest derelict part of the former ironworks, north of Lows Lane, would be buying the site and has already bought part of it.

Verdant is building 2.5 million square feet of warehouse and industrial unit space on the northern site, in a bid to create 4,000 jobs.

Extensive remediation on the northern site is now about to be completed, the hearing was told, having involved digging down two metres into the ground across the 200-acre plot.

Steve Birkinshaw, the borough council’s head of planning, said the cost of remediation on the proposed 1,000-home site will be unknown until works start, making viability hard to predict.

This throws into flux the amount of money the developer could be expected to pay for the school, infrastructure improvements and affordable housing.

However, Mr Birkinshaw said the development of the northern site could provide a valuable insight into what could be expected.

Mr Birkinshaw said he expects 10 per cent affordable housing on the site as a result of the development costs, leading to 100 affordable homes.

He said 1,000 homes was the level of development required to make a housing site in this area, away from all major transport hubs and not currently connected with pavements or cycle routes, to become sustainable.

A new roundabout would be built on land around the junction between Lows Lane and Sowbrook Lane, to cater for the future influx in traffic, which would be funded by the area’s development.

Mr Birkinshaw said the intended “containment” of shops and a school within the site, along with it being next to extensive employment options, should reduce traffic at peak times.

He said this would be essential to turn it from a “new housing estate into a new community”.

Derbyshire County Council said 240 primary school places would be required, leading to a new one-form (one class) entry school.

The Saint Gobain site is to be vacated and its headquarters to be moved to Melton Mowbray, Mr Birkinshaw said, 25 miles away in Leicestershire, which has been the firm’s “long held ambition”.

He expected work to be able to start in 2029, depending on how the plans progress in the next few years.

Tom Dillarstone, on behalf of William Davis Homes, said this was ambitious with negotiations still under way into the sale of the site and with the core strategy yet to be adopted at the halfway point of 2024.

He questioned how attractive the site would be to the main national housebuilders, considering it was “surrounded by industrial and commercial uses”.

Mr Dillarstone questioned the council’s assessment that it was a “high value area”, saying: “I am not sure even Ilkeston itself would be described as a high value area, and not if it is surrounded by commercial uses.”

Jenny McCusker, on behalf of the county council’s education team, said the £4.5 million figure for the primary school is now “on the low side”, saying it would now be “more around £8 million”.

Mr Birkinshaw said: “We know this is a challenging site in terms of viability and deliverability but we have had a site completed opposite Merlin Way (industrial estate) in Quarry Hill.

“We are trying to provide a co-location of jobs and homes and we are not proposing significant expansion of employment elsewhere in the borough.”

He said the value of land in the borough was at its lowest in the north and this progressively increases southwards until it peaks in Sandiacre, which is based on house prices at sale.