'We need EVERYONE to object' - action group plans picket at council offices over proposal for up to 350 new homes on greenfields site near north Derbyshire town
Residents in the Clay Cross area who have formed an action group to oppose plans for a large housing estate on green fields are stepping up their campaign.
Hallam Land Management’s proposal to build up to 350 new homes west of Coupe Lane, Old Tupton has triggered concerns.
Kevin Groom, a resident of Sylvan Drive, just off Coupe Lane, said: “This lovely Peak Fringe Landscape announces the beginning of the White Peak district, and is highly productive farmland. It’s been protected against bricks and tarmac by local planning policy for generations, but it’s now in danger of being mindlessly obliterated by changes to the Settlement Boundary in a new Local Plan.”
Action group Group OTHALD (Old Tupton and Holmgate Against Local Development) is planning to picket North East Derbyshire District Council’s premises before a planning committee meeting on the afternoon of March 17. The group has highlighted increased traffic and flooding in its opposition to the proposal.
Christine West, a resident on Ashover Road, says: “This plan threatens a uniquely difficult area with an additional 1000 cars! There are no significant services to the west of the A61, so almost all those cars will have to go east to join or cross the A61 at one of two already inadequate junctions several times a day, to go to work, to the supermarkets, to the doctors, to school, to the gym, to Sheffield, to Derby or to Nottingham.”
Recent temporary traffic lights, where drivers have been regularly queuing for up to 20 minutes at one of those junctions, the Tupton Tap roundabout, have demonstrated the massive increases in traffic heading for High Street in Clay Cross which is a bottleneck in itself.
“It’s not just a concern for locals”, said Christine. “Everyone who uses the A61 in the vicinity of Clay Cross knows that the traffic has been rapidly approaching gridlock proportions. A new estate on Coupe Lane will be the development that breaks the camel’s back!”
“We need EVERYONE to object!”
Only two narrow country lanes go west from Coupe Lane, for destinations such as Matlock, Buxton, the Peak District and Manchester. Both of these lanes have numerous single-track sections.
Around 170 objections to the proposed housing development have been submitted to the district council up to the present time. Flooding is a key concern in the area and the action group fears that new homes will exacerbate the problem.
Brian Lever, who has lived on the Holmgate section of Coupe Lane for 40 years, said: “Both Holmgate and Old Tupton are lower than Coupe Lane Fields. The Coupe Lane farmland has always helped to absorb heavy rain, but the ancient culverts and dykes are no longer adequate against the weather we’ve come to expect from climate change.
“We’ve learned from media reports across the country that so-called SUDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) that developers add in to protect their new developments often make neighbouring estates like Holmgate and Old Tupton more vulnerable. If storm water can’t be soaked up by the fields, recently experienced flood events will be repeated for us
increasingly frequently and with far worse consequences.”
“But one of the supposed requirements of new builds is that they should not increase flooding problems nearby.”
Previous applications for development on this site have been refused or withdrawn. Brian said: “Local infrastructure of every kind is totally inadequate for further population growth here.”
Opposition to the current plan is growing after the action group organised two well-attended community meetings. Updates and information can be obtained from the group by emailing: [email protected].
North East Derbyshire MP Louise Sandher-Jones held a meeting for residents, in which members of the public asked questions of planning officials and discussed the wider implications. This meeting was also well attended.
Objections and opinions on the proposed development are still being received by the district council. Points of view can be emailed to [email protected] or posted to Adrian Kirkham, Planning Manager, North East Derbyshire District Council, 2013 Mill Lane, Chesterfield, S42 6NG, quoting the application number 25/01034/MOL and including your name and address/postcode.