'Some people will be in uproar' - controversial land sale decision on Derby streets to come under review

Councillors have called for controversial public land sales approved by Derby City Council to be overturned, amid major traffic fears.

A showdown meeting is in the pipeline to discuss and scrutinise the Labour-run council’s decision to sell grass verge land off Oregon Way in Chaddesden and public areas of land off Grovebury Drive in Littleover.

Both sales could pave the way for hundreds of new homes to be built on nearby land. But this has led to concerns about increased levels of traffic and adding further pressure to the city’s infrastructure.

Conservative councillors Jerry Pearce, John Wright and Jonathan Smale have formally requested the decision, made earlier this month by cabinet, to be put under serious review.

At February’s cabinet meeting, the city’s Labour leaders approved the sales of the pieces of land. They said the sales will help meet the council’s housing targets and that the development sites in question had been allocated for housing under its Local Plan. The authority said it could receive “significant” capital receipts in return for the land.

But the Conservative councillors are claiming the council’s decision-making principles have been breached in this instance. They have submitted a “call in notice” which has now triggered a further meeting to take place to debate the issue.

The call-in notice claims “due process was not followed” and “councillors and local residents were not consulted”. They also claim the council’s highways department was not consulted prior to the sales being approved.

Labour councillor Sara Bolton told the council’s executive scrutiny board before the decision was reached that she had not been consulted by an officer about a proposal to sell land in her ward off Grovebury Drive. The councillor later received an apology by one of the council’s most senior officers.

The news of a call-in comes just days after former Conservative MP for Derby North, Amanda Solloway, launched an online petition urging the Chaddesden land sale to be reconsidered.

Conservative councillors fear the sale of land at Oregon Way could pave the way for fields next to Acorn Way to be developed into housing when they want it to remain “a green corridor”. In a Facebook post they said: “As your local councillors, alongside our colleagues from Oakwood and Spondon, we are united in ensuring that Acorn Way remains a natural boundary protecting the identity of our three suburbs. We cannot allow housing to encroach right up against it.”

But Labour leaders insisted the selling of land was the right thing to do but recognised the pressures this could put on the city.

Leader of Derby City Council, Nadine Peatfield said at the cabinet meeting: “Our housing targets are impossible to achieve on our own, without our partners on our borders. While we understand completely that this adds pressure onto our services and infrastructure – it is all part of what we have to do in order to meet those targets.

“We have more people than houses and those people need homes. What we need to do is to pass on the pressure to those developers to make sure they are providing extra infrastructure to accommodate these extra houses.”

Shiraz Khan, cabinet member for housing, added: “This was land that was allocated in the local plan in 2017 for houses. I fully expect some people will be in uproar about this development, but it was in the local plan and nobody objected to it.

“The primary concern is hundreds of houses will be built to go towards our housing numbers and for the Grovebury Drive land it opens it up to South Derbyshire for another 500 (homes). The money is welcome for the disposal, but the 600 or 700 houses are even more welcome.”

Members of the council’s executive scrutiny board called for money generated from the sales of land to be spent on improving Chaddesden. But this was declined.

A Derby City Council spokesperson said: “We can confirm that a valid call-in notice has been received. The council’s executive scrutiny board will now convene a meeting where this matter can be heard.

“During the meeting both the signatories to the call-in notice and the relevant cabinet members will have the opportunity to present their case before the executive scrutiny board, who will vote on whether the council’s decision-making principles were breached.

“If the call-in is upheld, the decision will be referred back to the council cabinet to reconsider.”