Woodyard Homesford tourism lodge plan refused

The application for the Woodyard site off the A6 at Homesford, was once again turned down by the central and northern area planning committee of Derbyshire Dales District Council at a meeting on Tuesday.

The applicant, Melanie Coxon, revised plans for the tourism site after her original application for eight chalets was refused on the grounds that it was too many.

A council report into the latest application stated: “The scale of the development proposed, as detailed in amended drawings received 11th April 2014, would be inherently prominent and encroaching and detrimental to the character and appearance of the countryside in this area of high quality and historic landscape within the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.”

The applicant argued the site would be ideal for tourism lodges because of its close proximity to the Peak District and Derwent Valley, as well as footpaths to Cromford and Whatstandwell.

They said it was in a sustainable location and accessible to a variety of transport modes and has previously been used for business purposes.

The lodges were to be built from natural timber and the applicant was prepared to screen them using existing and planned landscape features such as the planting of hawthorn, hazel, holly, guilder rose and goat willow.

A subsequent planning application for the same site has been submitted to the authority by the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group for a three pitch traveller site.

The current owners of the site, Andrea and Paul Hodgkinson, have previously stated they feel like ‘piggy in the middle’ as the future of the site is debated.

The pair wish to sell the land and move to their dream home in Norway.