Villagers and councillors are steeling themselves for the arrival of a planning application seeking permission to build up to 580 new homes on Green Belt land in north Derbyshire.

A proposal to develop fields on Whittington Road, New Whittington first emerged in an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening request opinion to Chesterfield Borough Council in May this year. In June the council ruled that the proposal did not constitute EIA development and therefore an Environmental Statement was not required.

Councillors at both borough and county councils understand that a planning application is due to be submitted in the early part of September. A public meeting for residents has been arranged for this Friday, September 4, at 6.30pm in Barrow Hill Memorial Hall to seek the views of villagers and advise them on how to register their opinions with the borough’s planning authority.

Cllr Cliff, who is county councillor for Staveley North and Whittington, arranged an initial public meeting in New Whittington in August when he said the majority of residents were against the potential development. He said: “People are not worried about the devaluation of houses, it's where are the doctors and where are the dentists? New Whittington has only got one dentist, Barrow Hill has got none. Barrow HIll and New Whittington haven't got a doctor's surgery - Old Whittington and Staveley have. Another housing development is going to put more strain on very limited resources.

Cllrs Dawn Taylor and Mark Cliff at the entrance to the site where up to 580 new homes could be built on arable land off Whittington Road, New Whittington.

placeholder image — Cllrs Dawn Taylor and Mark Cliff at the entrance to the site where up to 580 new homes could be built on arable land off Whittington Road, New Whittington.

"If you’ve got people buying new houses thinking they're moving into a brand new working community and find they've got no infrastructure, no facilities, no services to cope with that, they are bound to feel very disappointed."

Cllr Dawn Taylor, who represents Staveley North on the borough council and is county councillor for Staveley, is also sharing her experience and advice at the public forums. She said: “Mark called me in because I’ve been dealing with the other developments that are going on around here, putting in objections and arranging meetings.

"The proposed development is going to affect Barrow Hill as well as Whittington which is where I come in as I'm councillor for Barrow Hill.

"People want to be a village, they don't want any more housing around here. All the schools are at capacity.

"How are the roads going to cope? If the development goes ahead at Whittington, lorries are going to come through Inkersall, Hollingwood, Barrow Hill to Whittington from the motorway. The increased traffic and the pressure on the roads is going to be immense.”

Flooding is already an issue on Whittington Road. There is an existing culvert drain between the proposed development site and allotments. Cllr Taylor is concerned that the sewerage system will be unable to cope with a potential 580 additional homes. She said: “Because the fields are on a hill, the rain from the development will go into a valley where houses are already built.

"It’s not just about the infrastructure,” said Cllr Taylor. “We’re going to lose fields that have crops in, we’re going to lose wildlife. We’ve been told that there are bats and owls on the land – where are they going to go?”

Cllr Cliff said: "Everybody understands that we need to build the housing stock up but it needs to be done properly and responsibly, with the feelings of existing residents and the feelings of incoming residents into these communities taken into account so you can have a well-supported community with services and infrastructure in place.”

Whittington Road is part of Staveley Town Council’s area and that authority would be a consultee should a planning application be submitted. Cllr Paul Mann, who represents Hollingwood on the town council, said: “The community independents have tabled a motion to be put on the September full council meeting that Staveley Town Council should automatically oppose all major housing development, which is proposed to be built on green belt or farm land. And that Staveley Town Council should only consider any major application that is proposed to be built on the existing brown field, and only once all road infrastructure has been updated and improved to withstand any more major developments.”

Harworth Group, the land and property regeneration company, has been approached for a comment about whether a planning application for the site will be submitted this month.