Tansley: Housing estate approved for greenfield land

Derbyshire Dales District Council refused the application for 27 homes at Tansley House Gardens, off Church Street, Tansley, last year, however the decision has now been overturned by the Planning Inspectorate after developer Y Bar Ltd appealed.

Councillor Vicki Raynes, chairman of Tansley Parish Council, said: “It’s been a long struggle. The community have cooperated with Derbyshire Dales District Council in the fact that we have had so many meetings and sites have been identified, but because Derbyshire Dales District Council have not got their numbers right for the Local Plan they have let us all down and now everything’s up for grabs.”

She said the council hadn’t appeared to fight the appeal and questioned why.

Cllr Raynes said the parish council had asked the developer if it would consider giving the bottom half of the field to the parish of Tansley as it abuts the Lumsdale conservation area.

She questioned why Tansley had been chosen for housing above other villages in the Dales.

The Planning Inspectorate decision notice states: “The proposed development would contribute to the community by providing needed residential accommodation and proposes to provide a proportion of affordable housing which would be an additional benefit. The council welcomes the provision of affordable housing on–site and would like to see four bungalows provided even if this meant a smaller number of affordable units overall.”

A district council spokesman said: “The Derbyshire Dales is not alone in losing planning appeals right now - the Planning Inspectorate is overturning local councils’ decisions across the UK in response to national policy that demands a radical solution to meeting the housing needs of the country. The target nationally is to more than double the current rate of house building.

“A planning inquiry into our own draft Local Plan last year left us with no choice but to revisit the Plan to satisfy Government policy, despite the fact that it had been moulded by local people during a lengthy consultation process. So while we totally understand our residents’ desire to protect, as far as possible, green field sites from development, we are in the unenviable position of trying to reconcile the strongly held views of local people with a pro-growth national planning policy framework which demands that more land for housing be identified.

“It should be noted that, despite the lack of an up to date Local Plan, the district council can still resist inappropriate sites for housing development, but national planning policy dictates that in refusing planning permission, any adverse impacts of development must significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits of providing much-needed additional land for housing. In the case of Tansley House Gardens, the Planning Inspectorate has decided the benefits of providing additional housing land outweigh any adverse impacts.”