Two developers are keen to build on some of Derby's green space

Council chiefs have been urged to block controversial plans to build hundreds of new homes in Derby.

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Developers Keepmoat Homes and Bloor Homes want to build new homes in Spondon – on land off Acorn Way and Locko Road, respectively.

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But the intentions have triggered concerns because the sites identified for both developments are green land which councillors want to protect at all costs.

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The Acorn Way development is earmarked for land considered “green wedge” space.

There are several green wedges in Derby which separate different urban areas of the city.

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The council has long had a policy in place to keep the spaces clear from development.

But that stance has been under pressure recently due to the need to build homes and Derby City Council failing to meet a legally required five-year housing land supply.

Last week a planning application was submitted to the city council for up to 200 homes to be built on the Spondon side of Acorn Way, near Derby Road.

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If approved, the homes could be built on green wedge land, which is used to separate Spondon and neighbouring suburbs Chaddesden and Oakwood.

Plans submitted by Keepmoat Homes state that an access road would be built off Acorn Way, one of the busiest traffic routes between the suburbs.

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The “vibrant” development is likely to consist of a mix of one to four-bed properties. Around 30 per cent of the scheme would be classed as affordable.

The developer says the plans meet national guidelines and offer “the creation of an attractive, vibrant and stimulating environment.”

However, the council’s draft Local Plan – which acts as a blueprint for where new homes can be built in Derby in the next few decades – has the green wedge site protected.

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Following the submission of the plan, Councillor Jonathan Smale has written to planning chiefs calling for the land to remain protected “in full”.

He claims the green wedge preserves “important” long-distance views and landscape character and supports recreational routes and biodiversity.

Councillor Smale writes: “It remains an essential part of the city’s strategic green infrastructure network and I support retaining it in full.”

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Bloor Homes has written to the council outlining its intention to submit plans to build up to 240 homes off Locko Road.

This falls on green belt land – a longer-term strategic agricultural space location compared to green wedge space.

Mr Smale has also written that the green belt north of Locko Road should be protected because it “continues to meet core national purposes”.

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But Bloor Homes states in its initial proposals the land can be classified as “grey belt” – a new term for low-quality green belt land to be developed.

The developer says the housing site will generate investment into local infrastructure such as healthcare and education to alleviate pressure on services.

Last year Derby City Council’s refusal to build on green wedge land at Royal Hill Road was overturned by an inspector following a planning inquiry.

The inspector agreed with Miller Homes’ view that the policy to keep the land away from new homes was “out of date” and the authority had failed to meet a five-year housing land supply – meaning a “titled balance” approach was applied in favour of new homes.

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The InPost parcel locker outside Swadlincote Library was installed in November 2024 without permission on council land

An “ugly” parcel locker installed without permission on council land in a Derbyshire town centre has been criticised.

At a South Derbyshire District Council meeting on Tuesday night (March 10), councillors unanimously approved retrospective plans for an InPost locker outside Swadlincote library.

The locker, which is a parcel collection and returns pod, sits directly outside the entrance to Swadlincote library, facing the bus station, and was installed without permission in November 2024.

Councillors were told that Derbyshire County Council, the owners of the library, had been approached and granted permission for the installation of the locker, but this was incorrectly approved as the locker sits on district council land.

The land is also in the Swadlincote Conservation Area and requires a planning application.

InPost is said to have been unaware that planning permission was required and subsequently submitted an application retrospectively last January – two months after it was installed.

The district council’s conservation officer objected to the retrospective plans and asked that the locker be removed due to the impact on the conservation area which is dominated by 1960s buildings – including the library.

They also raise that the placement of the locker, which is two metres tall, blocks a number of windows in the library itself.

Council planners said the location of the locker was aimed at making use of high footfall from the adjacent bus station and that this is something the authority supports as a “great public benefit” which outweighs potential harm.

They say the plan fits within the council’s town centre regeneration plans, with the bus station itself nearing the end of a long-awaited revamp.

Councillors laughed at the thought of the surrounding 1960s architecture needing protection from the impact of the locker.

Cllr Mick Mulgrew said: “It is another retrospective application. It is not on. It has now been there a long time and I don’t like it but I have no objections.”

Meanwhile, Cllr Amy Wheelton said: “I don’t know what these are but I would like to think they can be made less ugly.”

Cllr Kalila Storey said: “I do use these very often for my Vinted parcels so I see the benefit.”

Cllr Alan Jones said: “Whilst I appreciate the concern from the conservation officer, I think it is a benefit to local residents and once the bus station car park is back open there will be somewhere to park nearby.

“We are told that the county council approved the installation, so the county council has given permission to put it up on district council land, which is unacceptable behaviour.”

Cllr Andy Kirke said: “They are ugly and they are popping up everywhere. There are three in Etwall within a couple of hundred metres, so I wish there was more thought about where they are installed, this one could have been in a less obtrusive site, but it is already there now.”

The Rams are now down to one fit senior goalkeeper after Josh Vickers had to limp off in last night's defeat to Millwall and headed straight down the tunnel

John Eustace thinks Josh Vickers may have torn his groin as Derby County face the prospect of being reduced to one fit senior goalkeeper.

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Vickers had to be replaced in the final few minutes of the 1-0 defeat to Millwall last night to be replaced by third-choice stopper Richard O'Donnell.

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The former Lincoln City goalkeeper seemed to signal to the bench that he had suffered some damage as he made his way back down the tunnel.

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O'Donnell now remains Derby's only fit senior goalkeeper with Jacob Widell Zetterstrom still no closer to a return from a virus that has kept him sidelined since the draw with West Brom.

It is likely that one of the academy goalkeepers will be elevated to the bench to provide cover with Jack Thompson set to be the most likely contender.

Derby now have eight players on the sidelines, but Eustace is confident that whoever takes the shirt, will be ready for the run-in.

"Josh limped off, and I think he may have torn his groin, unfortunately," he said.

"It is what it is. Richard O'Donnell came on, and he's performed very well for us throughout the season.

"It's an opportunity for him if Josh has to miss a few weeks.

"The injuries haven't been kind to us this season, but that is the Championship.

"We don't moan about it, and every player that has performed up until now has been really solid.

"It's always about the squad, and we have a lot of injuries, of course, but you can see by the way we competed that it was excellent.

"Whoever puts on that shirt will be ready and prepared and won't let anybody down."

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Amber Valley Borough Council has been working on a new housing blueprint for years

An area of Derbyshire has finally sealed a housing blueprint after 15 years without one, earmarking 7,700 homes and key changes on affordable housing.

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Amber Valley Borough Council has been working on cementing a legally mandated housing blueprint for more than a decade without one.

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During that time, the council has been named and shamed and been handed significant warnings over its lack of an adopted plan, with the last one fading out of date in 2011.

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Now the council has sealed its new Local Plan, which outlines areas where it has earmarked housing land for a total of 7,656 homes to be built by 2040.

On top of this would sit 193 acres of new business and employment space – enough to cover nearly 100 football pitches.

The single largest housing site – rebadged an “area for future growth” – in the adopted plan is that of 2,000 homes off Brun Lane to form a western extension to the Derby suburb of Mackworth, bridging the city towards Kirk Langley.

This would include a primary school, secondary school and shops and services.

At the Local Plan public hearings in late 2024, Government inspectors – who have now signed off on the overall document – were told that the landowners of the fields in question off Brun Lane had no intention of giving up their land for a 2,000-home estate.

The borough council’s representative, Matthew Bowers, said the authority was willing to compulsory purchase – seize the land – as a “last resort”.

Amber Valley’s now adopted Local Plan says a masterplan for the site will be agreed and will include a new “strategic highway link to the west of Derby”.

It says it does not rely heavily upon this site to meet its targets and does not envisage homes coming forward there until the back end of the 2040 plan, with an aim to have 1,320 homes built there by that point.

Meanwhile, the council has also earmarked a 300-home and approaching half of its overall employment land (74 acres) at land known as Cinderhill, surrounding the former toxic tar pits north of Denby Bottles and east of Belper, bordering the A38.

Harworth and Pegasus Group had plans for 300 homes and 74 acres of business space on that site recommended for approval in the summer of 2024, but that was deferred by councillors, with the application still pending with the council.

Approval of that plan would see the highly contaminated toxic tar pits left as they are and not remediated and regenerated.

The developers had said the scheme represents a £455 million investment in the area during construction and will create 1,500 new jobs on site.

They say that the project will include 60 affordable homes (20 per cent).

Previous plans for 3,000 homes on the site had included a new junction off the A38 and the most recent scrapped scheme in 2019 had included 1,200 homes and 12 acres of employment space.

It had previously been stated by the developers that the construction of homes would help pay for the remediation of the tar pits, which would otherwise be too expensive.

The Environment Agency has said it is “disappointed” that the tar pit remediation has been dropped in this scheme.

There are 13 further housing sites earmarked alongside Brun Lane and Cinderhill, ranging from 10 homes to 180.

These are:

Smaller “economic growth sites” have been earmarked at Charity Road, Riddings (two acres); Cotes Park Lane East, Somercotes (30 acres); Hockley Way, Somercotes (three acres); Lily Street Farm, Swanwick (26 acres); and Shipley Lakeside – the former American Adventure site (three acres).

Meanwhile, the new plan outlines key changes to how affordable housing will be distributed and funded by developers around the borough.

Each ward in Amber Valley has been assigned a development land “value”, either high, medium or low, based on the profit developers can stand to make from building in each area.

If an area has a higher development land value, it will be required to provide a higher proportion of affordable housing.

High-value sites will have to provide 40 per cent affordable housing, medium-value 30 per cent, low-value 20 per cent and small brownfield sites in the low-value zone of between 10-19 properties will need to provide 10 per cent.

Alfreton, Heanor and Ripley – three of the borough’s four towns and those with the largest deprivation issues and highest public transportation links – have all been placed in the low value category, while Belper is in the medium banding.

This will see Alfreton, Heanor and Ripley get fewer affordable homes than had previously been required by the council – 30 per cent.

Belper is joined by Duffield, Denby, Holbrook and Kilburn in the medium band.

The only high-value development areas are the significantly rural wards on the western side of the borough, ranging from Crich to Idridgehay, to Mugginton, Kirk Langley, Mackworth, Kedleston and Quarndon on the outskirts of Derby.

Ironville, Riddings, Somercotes, Swanwick, Aldercar, Langley Mill, Horsley, Mapperley, Shipley, Smalley and Codnor are all in the low-value banding.

The council has also earmarked a replacement non-Green Belt plot for a currently unauthorised Traveller site in High Holborn Road, Codnor, with a capacity for two pitches.

The sun was shining...but the cold was taking its toll on the hoard of southern politicians and journalists

When regional and national media were told of a Reform UK event at a rural petrol station in the middle of nowhere, many of us were wondering what on earth Nigel Farage and his team had planned.

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At New Haven Services, nestled on the A515 halfway between Ashbourne and Buxton, you'll rarely find anything other than HGV drivers and farmers, as well as the occasional regular motorist getting from A to B.

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But on Tuesday (March 10), London came to town - or in this case, the laybys surrounding the petrol station, which had been transformed into a Reform UK shrine overnight.

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The party''s leader, Nigel Farage, and Robert Jenrick, Reform's shadow chancellor, used a make-shift stage in front of the petrol station to announce plans to reverse the government's planned 5p rise in fuel duty, and also urged the government to scrap the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and the Carbon Capture Usage and Storage spending.

They say this will save around £12.1 billion by the end of this parliament, money which would be spent by Ed Miliband's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, adding that it looks to end the Electric Car Grant, something which the party says would save a further £1.5 billion.

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Press were told to arrive at 9.30am prompt for a 10am start, where they were met with a media gazebo and a garage which seemed to be running as usual - but there was one big difference.

All the signage around the petrol station had been stripped - or rather covered - and replaced with Reform UK branding.

Everything was pointing towards some form of PR stunt - and a stepladder by the fuel price sign, as well of the piles of numbers on the floor nearby, hinted that it'd be a fuel-related announcement.

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But preceding the announcement was the stunt itself, which saw Reform UK subsidise 25p per litre of fuel for customers on Monday morning.

Diesel dropped from 168p to 143p, while petrol was dropped from 146p to 121p - with the party paying the difference.

But before the theatrics, leader of the Reform-led Derbyshire County Council, Councillor Alan Graves, arrived in a less-than-subtle fashion.

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He pulled into the forecourt behind the wheel of a 2024 Bentley Continental GT, an electric hybrid, sporting the light blue colours of Reform, emerging from the driver's seat to a few handshakes and smiles from his colleagues - all of whom seemed in fine spirits under Derbyshire's sun.

Photographers made the most of a photo opportunity as Cllr Graves posed with a nozzle by his car, but it's unclear whether the queue of cars behind him was ordinary motorists trying to refuel or if they were happy to wait and were part of the stunt.

A short time after this, we were told 'The Boss' was running a bit late, so a few Reform staff members handed out a few pastries and pasties to the chilly crowd - some of whom may have been slightly unnerved by the loud trucks and unfavourable smells of rural Derbyshire.

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When Mr Farage did eventually emerge from the back seat of a rather fancy Mercedes 4x4, he took a beeline for the stage, which came in the shape of a small scaffolding beneath the petrol prices.

He and Mr Jenrick spoke for around seven minutes, complimenting each other and offering a playful tone throughout, interrupted by the occasional wave to passing trucks blaring their horns.

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Speaking on the government's plans to raise fuel duty by 5p, Mr Farage said: "Part of the problem is that these taxes are put on by politicians who don't fill up their own cars, or who ride bicycles in North London - a total lack of understanding.

"How are we going to pay for not increasing taxes? We're going to get rid of lunatic green levies. In particular, I'm thinking about heat pump subsidies."

He went on to explain that millions were spent on fitting heat pumps to houses with wooden constructs in Jaywick, in his Clacton constituency, which he says did not work.

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"The same will apply to any levies, any subsidies going towards EVs," he added.

They added that the Electric Car Grant, which subsidises those buying electric cars, will cost on average £300m a year between 2025/26 and 2029/30 - £1.5 billion in total - and that out of the 40 cars eligible, only one (Nissan Leaf) is made in the UK.

They also announced that the "tens of billions" of taxpayers' money spent on Carbon Capture Storage - a technology which catches CO2 from industrial sites and transports it to be stored underground - would be scrapped.

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While the Reform UK leader was behind schedule and had to rush off after the speech, DerbyshireLive spoke with Robert Jenrick about how plans to save on Net Zero spending would affect Derbyshire and the wider region, particularly areas that could host future solar farms.

"Well, firstly, there's no better place to be doing this than a rural county like Derbyshire because, whether it's parents driving long distances to take their kids to school, or carers going house to house, people are driving long distances," Mr Jenrick said.

"There is a view by a lot of politicians in Westminster that you can get public transport to work, to college, you can get the bus, get the train. Well, those of us who live in rural areas know it is not as simple as that.

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"People on low incomes rely on their cars. Reform is a party for working people, so by cutting fuel duty we'll make it just that little bit easier to get by, do your business and get to work.

"In regard to solar farms, I'm very worried about the spread of giant solar farms, which are ruining the countryside.

"They are Chinese-made and manufactured equipment that is spoiling beautiful places like Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.

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"We said we're going to have a tough policy on it, removing the subsidies, bearing down on it, so these giant solar farms are a thing of the past."

After the morning of organised chaos, we spoke to the owner of the petrol station, Jim Hollingworth, who's been at the helm of New Haven Services for around 15 years.

He only found out about the stunt on Sunday after a friend of Robert Jenrick got in touch.

"A friend of Robert rang me and said they were looking for an independent petrol station just to do a bit of a rally, they asked if I'd be interested and I said yes," Mr Hollingworth said.

"Lo and behold, they're all here today. It's a bit of a different day today, I didn't know what to expect.

"They started working on the petrol station at around 8pm last night and finished at 3am this morning, so it's been full overnight job."