Derby: work starts at Drewry Lane car park as council builds homes near Lidl

Tractors are on site and fencing has been installed at the city’s former Drewry Lane car park, which is owned by Derby City Council.

Last year the authority closed the car park for good to allow new council homes to be built.

It came after Derby Homes – the council’s social housing company – was granted planning permission to build 16 new homes at the site off Mercian Way, a busy route to and from the city centre.

However in an update on the project, the council now says this is part of a wider plan to deliver more than 50 new homes across four different sites.

The new homes will be a mixture of apartments and houses and will be built just yards away from a Lidl supermarket, which opened to the public in 2022. The homes will be managed by Derby Homes once built.

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The council said the city centre car park was rarely being used by motorists and that was the case even before the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

A cabinet report into the site’s redevelopment read: “The loss of revenue from Drewry Lane would have a minimal impact on the parking services budget, and may be offset by removing the need for site inspections, cleansing and lighting.”

A Derby City Council spokesperson said: “The homes currently being created on the site of the former Drewry Lane car park are part of a project made up of four different sites that are being constructed in succession. The aim of the project is to explore whether efficiencies can be delivered by managing the sites as one project, using one developer and reducing any overlap. In total 57 new homes will be created across the four sites.

“Unfortunately, the design and planning process for the site took longer than expected resulting in delays to the original timescales. Our development partner is nearing completion on one site, with another two sites due to complete later this year. The Drewry Lane site is on track to be completed in Spring 2026.”

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A planning decision notice by the council published last year said: “Given the city has a significant housing need, when considered in the tilted balance policy context, the benefits arising from the delivery of new, high quality, affordable housing, the retention of trees and provision of enhancements to biodiversity within the site, would deliver considerable benefits, which must be weighed in the planning balance.

“The impacts on residential amenity, visual amenity, retained trees and the local highway network are considered to be acceptable, with the agreed amendments to the development and subject to conditions. The proposed housing development is therefore, on balance, considered to be acceptable in this city centre location.”