More than 75 new homes to be built in Derbyshire village

At a meeting of the authority’s planning committee on Tuesday, councillors approved two sets of housing applications for Tansley.

The two applications, which total 75 homes, are for 49 houses at Tansley House Gardens, pitched by a Stephen Eaton, and 26 properties on Whitelea Lane put forward by William Davis Ltd.

In the most recent census in 2011, Tansley had 545 homes.

Much of the discussion on both applications centered around the designs of the homes themselves.

Councillors debated whether it was appropriate not to have the homes built out of stone or brick, in line with the rest of the village, as opposed to two to three walls of render.

However, the council’s development control manager, Jon Bradbury, said that the authority should not be requesting expensive building material after it had also asked for thousands of pounds from the developers to support schools and healthcare.

Tansley residents and the parish council felt strongly that approving the homes would worsen existing pinch points on the village’s roads and make congestion a nightmare.

They also felt that the village could not support more homes without more facilities such as shops, a GP and more public transport.

Of the 49 homes at Tansley House Gardens, 15 would be affordable housing.

These would be two one-bed homes, four two-bed bungalows and seven two-bed houses.

Meanwhile, of the 26 houses at Whitelea Lane, eight would be affordable homes.

Of these, five would be two-bed homes and three would be three-bed houses.

There were 31 objection letters from residents to the Tansley House Gardens application.

Tansley resident, Diana Dakin, said it was ‘absolutely staggering’ and she felt it was ‘unbelievable’ there was no objection to the proposals from the highways department at Derbyshire County Council.

Coun Sue Burfoot said: “I’ve got major problems with this application.

“I have concerns about sustainability, there are no shops and no doctors in Tansley, and everyone in these developments will have to have a car.

“There will be 100 extra cars coming from this development onto the busy A615.”

Mr Bradbury stated that: “Many of our villages and settlements do not have shops and doctor’s surgeries.

“We cannot ask for things that would be unviable to deliver, we can’t get the Clinical Commissioning Group commitment and schools payment and insist on expensive materials.

“A lot of our villages and settlements require compromise and transition.”

Coun Albert Catt, the authority’s deputy leader, stated: “This development will look good in time.”

Meanwhile, there were 16 objections to the Whitelea Lane application.

The site is currently home to Whitelea Nursery – a garden centre specialising in bamboo, ivy and shrubs – covered with poly tunnels and sheds.

Many of these focused on flood risks on the site, which they claim is an existing issue.

Vicki Raynes, chairman of Tansley Parish Council, said: “We have all seen flood water gushing underneath the boundary gate and we need assurances that residents will not be flooded as a result of this development.”

The developer, following objections from the county council’s flood team, has created plans to cope with a once-in-100 year rainfall - along with other improvements such as a larger pond to collect flood water.

On behalf of the applicants, chartered surveyor James Chatterton, reiterated that there would not be any flooding issues as a result of the application.

Eddie Bisknell , Local Democracy Reporting Service