NEW HOMES YOUR VIEWS NEEDED

A second round of public consultation on Erewash Borough Council’s proposed sites for new housing over the next two decades looks set to get the go-ahead. An Extraordinary meeting of the council has been called for Thursday 25th March, when councillors will be asked to vote on a further exercise to get underway to ask the public for their views. A report going to the meeting shows that following last year’s 12-week consultation (extended to July 2020), the council has made some changes to its original preferred options for sites to meet the borough’s housing needs. The original proposals included building new homes on the Green Belt at four local sites – west of Acorn Way in Oakwood; adjacent to Cotmanhay Wood, Ilkeston; a site south-east of Kirk Hallam; and land north of Lock Lane, Sawley. However, it is recommended that Lock Lane is dropped from a new revised list of options for housing growth, with the council’s report saying no solutions have been found to development issues caused by the busy low level freight rail crossing near the site. Councillors will be advised that another proposed Green Belt site would replace Lock Lane in the next round of consultation – a site on the borough’s boundary with Derby City north of Spondon alongside Spondon Wood.

The report also outlines further proposed changes to the earlier preferred sites:

·         An extension to the original development at Kirk Hallam, due to a now reduced area of housing capacity on four fields north of Cotmanhay and west of Cotmanhay Wood. The owner of land east of the Wood, which was also included in the original consultation, has said they do not wish to develop their land for housing.

·         It says extension of the site south west of Kirk Hallam would sit alongside land within the proposed Kirk Hallam Relief Road and help with the go-ahead of that road.

The brownfield Stanton Regeneration Site will remain as a proposal for a 1,000 home community south of Lows Lane. This follows the sale of half of the former Ironworks site to the north of Lows Lane for employment development. Councillor Michael Powell, Erewash Borough Council’s Lead Member for Regeneration and Planning, says: “The reality is that we have to meet the housing needs for the residents of our borough, initially over the next five years, and then the next, nearly two decades. This process is vital in meeting the targets the government has set and we thank everyone for giving us their views so far. We have listened to comments, reviewed them in detail and made changes as we move forward. A second round of consultation, if agreed, would be so important to ensure that we can start to see much-needed house building in our borough.”

A report to the Extraordinary meeting says it is hoped a second consultation would lead to a full proposed Core Strategy by September this year and that initial house building would begin, at the earliest, by 2022/23. All relevant documents, full details of the sites and an on-line form to submit views can be found at www.erewash.gov.uk/localplan  Printed copies can also be requested by calling 0115 907 2244. Responses can be submitted by email to planningpolicy@erewash.gov.uk or by post to: Planning Policy, Long Eaton Town Hall, Derby Road, Long Eaton NG10 1HU. The virtual Extraordinary meeting of the council is on Thursday 25 March at 6pm. Residents can view the meeting at https://youtu.be/aNaxWVy5fOs