Derbyshire's rural charm at risk? Council eyes villages in scramble to meet stark housing shortfall

Hundreds of homes could be built around several Derbyshire villages as part of a council’s bid to tackle a stark housing shortfall.

A government inspector has told Erewash Borough Council that it needs to select land that it has not already identified to build 1,800 new homes.

This has increased from an initial 820-home gap identified by inspector Kelly Ford in October and takes the borough’s housing need to around 8,000 homes over the next 12 years.

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The council has seen its annual housing target from the Government increase from 376 to 523 per year and it never hit the previous smaller figure.

In a bid to meet this, land around the borough’s villages – and one town – Borrowash, Breadsall Hilltop, Breaston, Draycott, Sandiacre and West Hallam will be chosen to build a combined total of 1,045 homes.

However, other sites already earmarked by the council are set to be changed, with a proposal to allow 250 homes to be built on land in the Green Belt next to Cotmanhay Wood being dropped.

The council claims it has no other choice than to look at housing sites in the Green Belt to fill the 1,800-home gap in its forward plan – its core strategy – with three years worth of homes to find.

These homes are in addition to the 5,800 it has already found space for up to 2037.

It writes: “The plan had already counted all the justifiable supply from brownfield sites, including planning consents, other identified land without planning consent, and an estimated windfall allowance for small unidentified sites that were anticipated to come forwards. 

“It had made up the shortfall by proposing development in the Green Belt on the edges of Derby and Ilkeston. The additional supply therefore has to be found in further sites in the Green Belt.”

Here are the proposed new sites:

West of Sandiacre, Larch Drive, next to the M1 – 180 homes

North of Breadsall Hilltop, Hungerhill Crescent – 160 homes + other land safeguarded for more housing

West of Borrowash, Derby Road – 280 homes + other land safeguarded for more housing

North of Borrowash, Cole Lane – 60 homes + other land safeguarded for more housing

East of Breaston, Heath Gardens – 50 homes

South West of Draycott, Derby Road – 190 homes + other land safeguarded for more housing

South of West Hallam, Beech Lane – 90 homes + other land safeguarded for more housing

North of West Hallam, High Lane West – 35 homes

Council officials say plans in Sandiacre and Breadsall Hilltop should provide 30 per cent affordable housing and the remaining village plots can provide 40 per cent, as proven by financial viability tests.

Changes to the current plan include the plan for 600 homes in Acorn Way, Oakwood, on the edge of Derby, being reduced slightly to 550 homes but with a significant amount of land around it safeguarded for more housing.

The plan for 1,300 homes to the south of Kirk Hallam is to be reduced to 1,000 with extra land safeguarded for housing.

Plans for 250 homes next to Cotmanhay Wood are to be “deleted” due to “nonsubstantive progress in the four years since it was first proposed by the council, and viability appraisal demonstrates that it is only marginally financially viable”.

This had included the site only preparing to provide 10 per cent affordable housing, next to one of the UK’s most deprived communities.

An “extraordinary” borough council meeting is being held at Long Eaton Town Hall on Thursday, March 27 from 7pm to debate the proposed changes.