Planners turn down new homes scheme for farmland on edge of north Derbyshire village after objectors raise access and privacy concerns

North East Derbyshire District Council have turned down a bid seeking consent for planning in principal for the erection of homes at Beeholme Farm, Queen Victoria Road, New Tupton. The proposal by Mr M. Brett would involve the demolition of existing agricultural buildings and the erection of up to seven new homes on the brownfield site; six new-builds are shown in drawings submitted with the application.

A letter from Mr and Mrs D. Burton of White House Farm, Queen Victoria Road raised a number of concerns including the access which they share with Beeholme Farm. They stated: “This accessway is the only way to exit or enter our farm onto a public highway, so all our large machinery and associated equipment uses this access constantly throughout the day - and into the night depending on the time of year. We have articulated lorries into the yard collecting/delivering produce and our machinery is in the region of 3m wide (not accounting for manoeuvring space) and up to 4m wide in the case of harvesting equipment, which takes up a large portion of the proposed accessway (estimated at 4.5m) and would present a safety issue for both ourselves and the users of the proposed dwellings. The accessway they have chosen to use is not wide enough for vehicles to safely pass each other and is bound at either side by a neighbouring property and the old stone barn that is part of Beeholme Farm, so widening it would not be a simple option.

“We believe there to be some issues around ownership and rights of way that need to be clarified with the Land Registry before any development should be allowed to be seriously considered.”

Mr and Mrs Burton also drew attention to the potential loss of prviacy. They stated: “The positioning of the proposed dwellings right up to the north north west boundary of the site puts them directly facing our home and within approximately 14m-19m of windows facing into our living areas. We have significant concerns regarding this, especially as we have an extremely vulnerable disabled daughter who does not have the capacity to understand the importance of privacy herself. She also accesses therapy areas on the patio and garden which are even closer to the boundary and would be directly overlooked. It is not clear from the proposed designs what height the dwellings would be, or what windows/viewing points will be built into them, but we feel it unlikely that there will be no windows directly overlooking our home at an unacceptable distance with the currently proposed design.”

Martin White of Queen Victoria Road wrote: “The plans show the proposed houses 2,3 and 4 would look directly into my main bedroom window and be less than the required distance away for privacy (assuming there would be windows on this aspect). To have to have our curtains permanently drawn would not be acceptable.”

The application for planning in principal was refused by the council on an officer’s recommendation for several reasons, namely that the site contains agricultural buildings which appear to be in use for storage, there is no planning history to suggest a change of use from agricultural buildings to any other use, the site is not considered to be vacant, derelict or previously developed land, affordable housing is not proposed for the site.