Woman shocked her house is on plans for 753 new homes
A WOMAN said she was shocked to find her family home was on land earmarked for a massive housing development in a Derbyshire village.
South Derbyshire District Council had included Sue Winter's Aston-on-Trent home on a map of an area it said had potential for 753 new houses.
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potential: The fields in Aston-on-Trent earmarked as a possible site for 753 new houses.
The Government has set the authority, Derby City Council and Amber Valley Borough Council a target of ensuring 36,600 homes are built in their areas by 2026.
The Aston-on-Trent site is one of many selected as having potential for development.
A district council document said the land including Mrs Winter's home was under multiple ownership but that "all parties" were willing to develop the sites.
But Mrs Winter, who owns the freehold of her land, said she only found out about the plans for fields off Valerie Road and Chellaston Lane by chance at a parish council meeting.
She said: "They started talking about the council's housing strategy and someone next to me said 'you want to look at this because one of the sites comes right up to your house'. Then a friend e-mailed me a map and I realised the site actually included our home."
Mrs Winter, who has lived in her home off Chellaston Lane for four years with her husband and two children, said: "I am appalled at how the information in this draft document has been collated.
"When I asked the council they told me they did not need a landowner's permission to include property on the plans."
Mrs Winter said the council had now told her that her home would be removed from the plan.
But she said the suggestion the land had "potential" was alarming because it would swamp the village's roads and schools.
Chris Sellek, a member of campaign group Save Aston Village Environment, agreed the site's size was a concern.
Mr Sellek, of Shardlow Road, said: "It would go against Government policy which is to preserve village life. This would destroy the village by doubling it in size."
A council spokesman said information had been provided to the authority "from an external source" that said all landowners on the site were willing to develop.
He said: "At a public exhibition, Mrs Winter informed us of the error and we immediately began the process of removing the land in her ownership from the assessment."
3 Comments
by Stephen, Derby
Thursday, March 18 2010, 2:31PM
“I would say you couldn't make something like this up but someone already did.........involving Arthur Dent and the Vogons.”
by burtonftw, derby
Thursday, March 18 2010, 1:06PM
“moan moan moan... concrete the lot, the country's a dump anyway.
hypocrites!”
by Taxpayer, Mickleover
Thursday, March 18 2010, 12:11PM
“The publicity for these proposals has been totally inadequate from both Derby City and South Derbyshire and most residents still don't know what is being proposed for the fields next to their houses.
I was at a Council meeting in Mickleover last night where their was criticism of both councils as well as the Telegraph and Radio Derby for failing to give this the attention it deserves. How on earth can we cope with so many more houses without dramatic improvements to the infrastructure.
Everyone was encouraged to write letters of protest - not just 'We don't want it' but with a reasonable agument quoting things like traffic, lack of schools, doctors etc etc.
Because of the strength of feeling Derby City Council are extending the Government imposed deadline of 31st March and so responses can still be sent for a couple of weeks after but you must act soon to oppose these developments.
All of the local councillors in Mickleover oppose these plans that are being pushed through by central government.”