Derbyshire homes development ‘an accident waiting to happen’

At an Erewash Borough Council on Wednesday, February 2, plans were approved for five homes on a vacant patch of land off Heanor Road, Ilkeston, behind the Co-op petrol station.

The development, from Mumbles 1 Ltd, will see five four-bed detached houses built on the vacant and “somewhat overgrown” patch of land, directly adjoining the petrol station.

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Cllr Paul Shelton said residents of the new homes having to use the same access as the petrol station was “an accident waiting to happen”.

He said: “Whether there are two, five or 20 houses, the idea of people using the garage using the same access to the homes needs some alterations.”

Steve Birkinshaw, the council’s head of planning, said there were issues around access because part of the site was owned by a separate private landowner and that this patch could become a “ransom strip” which they could use to delay the scheme.

Other councillors on the committee felt the impact of traffic from the now approved scheme would be “negligible”.

Cllr Margaret Griffiths said the access was “interesting”, but said: “Building there isn’t an issue, it is a suitable site to build houses on but more work needs to be done on the access.”

Cllr Howard Griffiths said: “How much additional traffic would be generated by this development? It would be minuscule in comparison with the garage.

“It would be totally unreasonable to turn it down, highways would not support us at appeal (Derbyshire County Council highways did not object to the scheme) so it would be patently ludicrous.”

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Cllr John Frudd said: “The amount of traffic generated won’t make a lot of difference.”

A number of residents opposed the scheme, citing the visual impact of the scheme, congestion in an “already busy area” and the density of the project.

However, council planners said the proposed scheme was sustainable and made “efficient” reuse of derelict land.

They wrote: “The proposed development would deliver much needed housing that would support the borough’s housing land supply, and would bring an area of currently vacant and derelict land back in to use.”