Plans for brand new village to be built in Derbyshire countryside pushed forward

During a Derbyshire Dales District Council meeting last week (March 24), the next steps of making a new Local Plan – blueprint for future development – were approved.

The council will go out to consultation on those next steps, after councillors went against their own officers to push for one, though further consultations were already set to happen at later stages.

Last week, the council discussed whether to plan for the Government-mandated minimum of 230 new homes per year, totalling 5,290 up until 2040, and 2,120 new jobs.

However, council officers say that the authority should plan for 20 per cent extra homes to give some flexibility over plans which may or may not come forward, or could be delayed.

This would total a minimum of 6,348 homes by 2040.

They also suggest planning for more homes and more job creation from the outset so that the district could potentially gain a more sustainable economy and avoid the Dales becoming stagnant.

The other suggested plans to be considered are:

239 homes per year, 5,497 by 2040, 20 per cent extra totalling 6,596 homes, 2,436 jobs,

275 homes per year, 6,325 by 2040, 20 per cent extra totalling 7,590 homes, 3,718 jobs

302 homes per year, 6,946 by 2040, 20 per cent extra totalling 8,335 homes, 4,675 jobs

For its future planning, the council needs to earmark a slew of sites which are deemed suitable for housing and which have been put forward by developers for homes – the council cannot earmark a site a owner does not want to give.

After a call for sites, 24 sites were put forward, 16 of which were already earmarked under the existing Local Plan and eight were new sites.

The eight potential new sites are:

Leys Farm, Wyaston Road, Ashbourne – 22 homes

East of Luke Lane and South of Mercaston Lane, Brailsford – 20 homes

Land adjacent to Biggin View, Hulland Ward – 18 homes

High Meadow Cottages site, opposite junction with Moss Lane, Hulland Ward – 15 homes

South of Chesterfield Road, Matlock, close to the golf club and methodist church – 64 homes

Matlock Transport site, Northwood Lane, Darley Dale – 12 homes

East of Northwood Recreation Ground, The Avenue, Northwood – 20 homes

West of North Lane, Brailsford – 30 homes

The new sites account for a total of just 201 homes and an alleged shortfall of 1,208 homes, which leaves the council with a need to find many more small sites or a series of larger sites to be able to hit even the minimum target set by Government.

It considered a range of options, which were to:

Stick with the minimum requirements

Reassess sites which the council has rejected

Ask surrounding council and planning areas to take some of its housebuilding shortfall

Carry out a consultation on ‘growth options’

Consider plans for a new village in the Dales

Scrap flexibility for 10 per cent, 15 per cent of 20 per cent additional homes on top of any of the targets

Councillors voted to go with option five and investigate plans for a potential new village in the Dales, but edited the move to include a further consultation round.

A key issue facing the authority, officers said, is brownfield sites which are not currently being developed, due to the economic pressures of the pandemic and costs of building on them. This is space the council would like to see developed first before green spaces.

Alongside this, the district council has to try and squeeze 95 per cent of its housing requirements into half of the land which makes up the Dales. This is because half is in the Peak District National Park, which will only commit to building 20 homes per year.

Council policy officer Mike Hase said: “If we move up to the high levels of growth, the medium levels of growth, we get more of the economically active members of the public coming into the district and we get much more buoyancy and a much more sustainable economy, and I think that’s what the authority needs to be looking at.”

He suggested the public would pick the “lowest common denominator” and pick the option with the least potential housing, and said this may conflict with the council’s ambitions.

That option, with the bare minimum housing, would, he claimed “we don’t grow the economy, the economy stays fairly stagnant, we get an ageing population and we don’t get any particular growth going forward”.

Cllr Steve Wain, also Matlock Mayor, said: “We don’t want to be taking the Derbyshire Dales residents for fools, they can make a considered decision and we are a professional body, and we should be putting forward a consultation that explains the pitfalls and the benefits all the way through.”

Cllr Clare Gamble called the potential approach suggested by Mr Hase was “a slightly backwards way of doing consultation”.

Cllr Peter O’Brien said: “There appears to be, if you like, a fear amongst some officers and members that the public: A, aren’t capable of understanding the complexities of a Local Plan and that they may not agree with the direction of travel.

“I think the first is a little bit insulting of the intelligence of our residents and I think the second is rather arrogant on our behalf that we know best.”

However, Cllr Mark Salt agreed, saying: “They would come back and say, ‘we want the minimum amount of numbers (of houses), I don’t want anybody building houses around here, I’ve had enough’ because that’s what you hear from most people.”

Cllr Sue Burfoot said: “I’ve always been interested in this idea of a new village within our district. Have we tried as hard as we can to find a site and is there anything else we can possibly do to bring that forward?”

Mr Hase said the authority would be trying more proactively than it has in the past to work out options for a potential new village.

Cllr Andrew Shirley said: “In order to achieve the levels of growth we aspire to, we need to be much more proactive in our approach.

“Looking at a new village is a good idea, although I’m always quite sceptical of the idea because I think us saying we want a new village here is great, but not so when you have to get new services to it and you have to convince a number of people to be involved in that delivery so it can be more complex.”

Cllr Richard Bright said: “It is more expensive to build houses here and we have to be mindful that we don’t price the young out.

“I have to include myself in this, I’m 46 and I can’t afford a home in the Derbyshire Dales, I live in rented (accommodation) and I know there are a heck of a lot of people who are in similar situations.

“We have a housing crisis in this country, we have got a lot of crises going on at the moment. We need to get this moving.”

Cllr Matthew Buckler said: “I will be reminding residents that we didn’t have to build 300 houses a year across the Derbyshire Dales with the associated impact on our residents, we are only obliged to build 230.

“It is a decision that we are to do that, knowing that there are consequences for every resident of the Derbyshire Dales.

“I look forward to talking to the residents of Ashbourne, Brailsford, Masson, Stanton and Darley Dale, who will know that their lives are going to be negatively impacted by the option that it is proposed we support today and that they may not see the economic benefits.”