Council approves plans for 24 new 'affordable' homes on former park close to Derbyshire town centre

The single-storey, affordable houses will be built on a 1.2-hectare area of land to the east of Market Close at Shirebrook.

Proposals for the site, parts of which used to form a children’s play area, were given the go-ahead at a meeting of Bolsover District Council’s planning committee last week.

A report by planning officers, published ahead of the meeting, said: “The application site is an area of approximately 1.2 hectares of mainly grassed parkland that contains the remnants of now disused play equipment on a hard surfaced area located to its north western corner.

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"It is located on the edge of the town centre, to the south side of Portland Road in Shirebrook.”

A design and access statement from the developers reveals the site was host to a greyhound racing track and a public paddling pool up to the 1970s.

"Prior to this, in the 14th Century, the site was host to a moated manor which later became part of the Ashbourne farm,” documents add.

Access to the site, close to a large Lidl supermarket, will be from Market Close and Portland Road.

The project is part of Bolsover District Council’s ‘Bolsover Homes’ project, which is aimed at building new council houses for affordable rents.

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"The scheme brings back into use the council’s under-utilised land whilst benefiting the district’s economy through training, skills development and local supply chain,” a report by planning officers adds.

"The mix of dwellings is based on discussions with housing officers and the assessed housing need of the area.”

The planning application was sent to committee because, unusually, it will not include any cash from developers towards local services.

The officer’s report says: “It is acknowledged that the policy requirement for recreation and leisure facilities is not being met for financial viability reasons, but nevertheless, the benefits of this proposal, from the delivery of 100 per cent affordable dwellings for which there is a demonstrable need, is considered to outweigh the normal requirements for the contributions that would otherwise be sought from a housing scheme of this scale.”