Four General Election candidates oppose proposed massive housing scheme near two Derbyshire villages

Labour-controlled Bolsover District Council is still considering Waystone Ltd’s planning application for the Clowne Garden Village housing scheme for 1,800 properties with 24 hectares of greenfield land for mixed-development and employment with community and commercial facilities between Clowne and Barlborough.

The Clowne Garden Village Action Group campaigners and many residents who fear the plans will lead to overcrowding, pose a strain on highways, services and the area welcomed the Bolsover Constituency’s General Election candidates to their latest meeting on June 30, at Clowne Community Centre.

Conservative Mark Fletcher, Liberal Democrat David Hancock, Reform UK’s Robert Reaney, and the Green Party’s David Kesteven all oppose the plans with concerns about its scale, the loss of Green Belt, increased traffic, insufficient infrastructure and a lack of affordable housing.

Mr Fletcher, Bolsover’s last MP before Parliament was dissolved prior to the General Election on July 4, said: “This is a development that does absolutely nothing for Clowne other than [bring] more traffic and more houses. Our roads are already chock-a-block.”

He added: “This was meant to be 1,500. It is now 1,800 and none of which that the development wants to build, are affordable.”

Mr Fletcher added that 95per cent of the people he has spoken to are against the planning application and he argued that the scheme is not sustainable and it is in the wrong place.

He said it is essential to keep speaking to councillors and council officers because if the scheme goes ahead it will be important to mitigate against potential problems as much as possible.

Mr Fletcher added: “If you have got £400,000 you will get a house but for those at the bottom this won’t help them at all.”

The Green Party’s David Kesteven said: "This Clowne Garden Village is an environmental issue. It’s building rubbish homes on Green Belt land. We need Green Belt land. We don’t need luxury homes.”

Mr Kesteven added that more infrastructure is needed not more roads and more should be done with public transport with rail and bus links.

He said: “Green Belt is protected land and it is valuable land but a lot of landowners want to loosen the regulations. It’s important to keep Green Belt because we will need it to grow food.”

Mr Kesteven claimed the scheme is about ‘developer-led planning’ where developers consider housing problems in terms of making a profit.

He added: “If you put proper regulations in, Waystone would not go near it because they are about extracting money and doing it on our land.”

Mr Kesteven said the system is not designed to supply the housing shortage crisis but it is designed to create profits for developers and he suggested housing schemes should be built in cities and not on Green Belt.

He added there is a need for more houses but house prices will not come down by building expensive properties so people need to sit down and accept we need homes built, but the right kind of homes.

Liberal Democrat David Hancock, who is concerned about the prospect of increased traffic, said: “If you elect people who do not know what they are doing that is when you get problems like you have now.”

Mr Hancock suggested the best thing that could be done would be for the scheme to be removed from the district council’s Local Plan which is unlikely but he said it is possible to try and reduce the number of homes and try and get what is best for residents.

He added that the planning application does not fit the national policy of Green Belt so this is a good area to focus any objections.

Mr Hancock also questioned the argument that helping to create low paid jobs with new warehouses does not fit with the scheme’s plans to build ‘huge houses’ where people on low wages cannot afford to live.

He stressed that none of the candidates at the meeting agreed with the scheme because it needs to be something that is ‘good for the community, good for the people moving here, and good for the people already living here’.

Reform UK’s Robert Reaney claimed Bolsover District Council has shown a lack of cooperation with those concerned about the scheme and he feels the introduction of hotels and warehouses will just be part of a box-ticking exercise to bring about the housing development.

He argued that developers are building four times the number of required homes in a rural constituency for ‘maximum profit and minimum effort’ and that Green Belt and the environment will suffer and roads will suffer.

Mr Reaney said: “The fingerprint on this is cold. It’s about money. There is no heart, no love here. It is an attack on the Green Belt which I don’t agreed with and it could be done so much better.”

He added: “We are in danger of building a ghetto. There is no heart and soul with this project. It’s about money and I cannot back this one.”

Each of the four candidates also expressed concerns that some district councillors sit on the board of the council’s construction company Dragonfly Development Ltd which they feel is a ‘conflict of interest’ should Dragonfly undertake any work for Waystone.

Mr Hancock said: “Politicians should work together more. I do not care if Robert’s politics are different from mine if the concern and the aim is the same. We should work together.”

And Mr Fletcher said: “If you do not want Clowne Garden Village you need to vote for one of us. Make your mark on July 4.”

Mr Reaney told the meeting he will fight ‘for your corner’ if elected and Mr Kesteven stressed that when only a small amount of people contribute to a council Local Plans we have to understand that a democratic responsibility lies with everyone.

Campaigners and residents have raised a number of concerns that the proposed Clowne Garden Village scheme poses a possible impact on highways and existing services, the countryside, wildlife, drainage and flooding with the potential loss of Green Belt land on the earmarked site.

Many have signed a Clowne Garden Village Action Group petition and nearly 1,400 public comments have now been submitted to the council concerning the application for the proposed housing development, north of Clowne including part of the village centre off Hickinwood Lane.

The council has stated that ‘exceptional circumstances’ have been cited to legally allow the removal of Green Belt preservation at the site and that it has to meet housing and affordable housing targets because of nationwide shortages.

Waystone has also claimed there is support for the scheme in terms of the potential for economic growth, facilities and jobs.

Labour candidate Natalie Fleet, for the Bolsover Constituency, did not attend the meeting and has not yet responded to questions asking whether she supports or opposes the scheme.

Bolsover District Council has said that it does not wish to comment any further on the scheme after it has previously addressed concerns.