Plans for 58 homes filed for Derbyshire village - on site previously protected from development by Government planning inspector
Plans for more than 50 homes have been filed for a Derbyshire village which has become a focal point for numerous expansions.
Wildrose Developments, based in Derby, has submitted plans for 58 homes classed as affordable housing off Old Road in Darley Dale, close to DFS, the A6, and a primary school.
The firm is a new venture, launched in early 2024, by Jonathan Wildgoose, formerly chairman of Wildgoose Construction, which went into administration in 2021 after 125 years of business owing £9 million to subcontractors and suppliers and with 46 people made redundant.
Wildgoose Construction was fully dissolved in August this year.
Of the 58 proposed homes, 16 would be one-bed, 25 would be two-bed, 14 would be three-bed and three would be four-bed. These would include eight flats and four bungalows.
If approved, the new development, to be decided by Derbyshire Dales District Council in the next few months, would sit 200 metres from another plot set to be earmarked for future housing by the authority.
In its upcoming new Local Plan, the district council has listed four potential housing sites totalling 104 homes, including a 25-home extension to St Elphins, across the A6 from the proposed 58-home site.
The proposed site is not among those which could be earmarked for future development.
On the proposed new sites, the developer says: “This on the one hand demonstrates that the council recognise the need to find sites in around Darley Dale to make some inroad into creating a balanced housing land supply across the district, but, at the same time, it suggests the lack of a strategic approach with piecemeal release of small pockets of land with varying levels of sustainability and landscape sensitivity.”
In its application, Wildrose Developments details that three registered housing providers have submitted bids for the 58 affordable properties, comprising Platform, East Midlands Housing and ACIS, who would seek to obtain funding to take on the scheme, if approved.
It says the current lack of homes and adopted earmarked sites are enough for there to be a “presumption in favour” of approving the 58-home scheme, with the new plots including at St Elphins yet to be formally earmarked.
In 2016, the district council rejected plans from Mr Wildgoose’s now dissolved company to build 60 homes on the site – two more than the new plans under the new firm – with a Government planning inspector also rejecting an appeal in 2017.
Those rejections hinged on harm to the openness and character of the area, risk of settlements merging and lack of sustainability.
In its application, the developer says: “Although it is recognised that a planning decision in 2017 protected the application site from development, national planning policy has changed dramatically in the intervening years.
“The need to meet community needs for housing, especially affordable housing, is pressing, and the council has an ageing development plan and 1.36-year housing land supply.
“The scheme is to provide 58 affordable dwellings where a clear need has been identified through dialogue with the council’s housing team.
“The site has the ability to accommodate the proposed development without causing unacceptable landscape and visual harm.”
A senior manager at a neighbouring private children’s home, Surety House, has objected to the plans, saying the noise and activity linked to the scheme would cause “immeasurable discomfort to the children in our care”.