14 Houses for Garden Grab Scheme
A development of 14 new houses has been proposed to replace a house and extensive gardens at 189 Kilbourne Road, Belper – opposite the Seven Stars pub. A planning application was submitted to Amber Valley Borough Council on 21st December, primarily for site access permission. The proposal is for three 2 bedroom, ten 3 bedroom and one larger house but appears not to include any provision for vehicle parking.
The site includes a large number of trees. The proposed layout includes a new access road:
Natural England have already been invited to comment on the proposals but have declined to do so on the grounds that “the application is not likely to result in significant impacts on statutory designated nature conservation sites or landscapes.”
On the local social networking site, Streetlife, Sophie was sceptical about the density of the proposed houses:
“14? In that tiny garden? No wonder we are getting so much more flooding. I did wonder why they cut down all those trees.”
Richard was worried about increased traffic and the effects of pollution:
“Kilbourne Road is used by children going to and from school and is already an ‘accident waiting to happen’. Increased traffic equals increased risk. Has anyone from AVBC carried out a road survey when schools in the area are turning out? These children will also be exposed to additional pollution. Pollution on Kilbourne Road will obviously intensify with the increase in vehicle movements on an already busy road. Research suggests that tiny bits of particulate matter (PM or soot) from diesel burning cars and lorries can have serious health effects if inhaled into the lungs, especially by those living near heavily travelled roads.”
You can make a comment on the application by going to: http://www.ambervalley.gov.uk/environment-and-planning/planning/development-management/planning-applications/view-a-planning-application.aspx#planListTop and quoting reference: AVA/2015/1209.
A decision is expected to be made on 16th March 2016
By David George
It feels like a lot but on the plan it looks the site backs onto 15 houses of similar sizes. So it’s not that extraordinary, though the gardens look to be half the size.
There also seems to be allocation of two parking spaces per house on the plan plus garages on some so I’m not sure where the comment of “no provision for parking” comes from?
Garden grab is a very loaded term, turning the space taken by 1 large house into multiple residencies in an already built up area feels like a good solution whatever you political bent.
So if I’m understanding the comments in the article correctly people don’t want the land that is effectively a dormant wasteland serving no purpose whatsoever developed so to provide much needed housing stock in the area for first and second time buyers???, surely the people of Belper cannot be such narrow minded selfish nimby’s!!!, I’m sure numerous people will disagree with my backing of the development but before you get all irate please tell me where you would like development to take place so the young families currently in the area can stay in the town and the first time buyers get to live in the town they grew up in.
And to clarify there will not be a new road put in to serve the development of you look closely it’s a private drive in the same location as the existing one with parking provided to the front of the properties, and no I’m not the developer but do work for one of the top three construction companies in the UK and would rather see this type of unused land developed before any other.
My concern here would be the possibility of more parking on the main road. The Amber Valley areas seem to have become massive car parks with parked cars, trailers, motor homes and commercial vehicles dumped on every available piece of tarmac, grass verge and lowered disability kerbs. Double parking is common place making it dangerous to cross roads, pull out of residential drives and very often pedestrians, pushchairs, wheel chairs disabled scooters are having to go on to the road to avoid cars parked on pavements. “Bedlam Hill” can be difficult to negotiate at times, especially in poor weather conditions and so I would hope much discussion and thought will be given to this impact. Also buses and HGVs are reliant on this road so the lanes can be very much reduced. Very often people are moving into properties with several vehicles when they have only the road to park them on, again restricting safe access .
Building on gardens is what is being proposed so I view ‘garden grab’ as attention demanding rather than ‘loaded’.
I am fairly neutral on this but think it important that the proposal gets as wide coverage as possible so that people don’t miss responding to Amber Valley in time whatever their feelings.
The reference to their being no provision for parking is because on the Planning Application all the questions relating to existing or future parking provision are answered with a ‘zero’.
I’ve also noted the trees that have already been felled – are the developers making assumptions?
I very much endorse the comments by Mrs Kerry. The traffic and parking on Kilburn Road confirm its local nickname of ‘Bedlam Hill’. The disruption caused by an extensive building site will make the road a major safety hazard for motor vehicles as well as for pedestrians able or disabled. It’s also a major pedestrian route for pupils going to and from Belper School. How long will we have to wait for a serious accident there, I wonder? The situation will only improve marginally once the development is completed since there will be at least fourteen extra vehicles feeding in and out of the new access road at all times of the day and night. I see little room for parking spaces in the development, unless every dwelling is designed with an integral garage. So the already hazardous parking arrangements on the hill will only deteriorate further and with access required to and from the Glow-Worm factory and the complications caused because Kilburn Road is a bus route, this will probably become the most congested route either in or out of Belper Town.
The land being used is hardly a ‘Garden Grab’ existing properties already on the land have modest gardens already and the areas can be better described as a field and an (old) orchard which both go unused and are prone to overgrowth.
Would you rather they built here or built opposite the road on the proper green belt land? This proposal is quite discreet to other recent proposals.
It’s any wonder property developers take any interest in Belper with the miserable minority that doesn’t want to see the town progress and be rejuvenated in the right places.
There’s an access road heading NE-E which then goes though a junction to a service road also providing driveways for some houses if you look at the plan, these are both new developments.
The existing private drive going W remains, going E is removed and replaced with the above.