Government refuses to intervene over controversially approved plans for houses in Derby’s protected Green Belt

The 'panicked' deer on land between Spondon and Spondon Wood, and concerned residents talking about the issue. By LDR Eddie Bisknell.

By Eddie Bisknell – Local Democracy Reporting Service

The Government has refused to intervene over controversially approved plans for houses in Derby’s protected Green Belt.

In a case which residents and councillors feared would be a “dangerous precedent”, developers submitted and had plans approved for a Green Belt housing site which a Derbyshire council had tentatively earmarked, but not adopted, as part of a future homes plan.

That draft housing plan, for 7,000 homes by 2040, drawn up by Erewash Borough Council, was scrapped in January and the process will now be completely restarted, with no word yet on which sites or policies will stay, change or be replaced.

This followed a stern warning from a Government inspector that the plan would be found “unsound” and that the council should abort it, with councillors following this request and labelling it “deeply flawed”.

During the council’s seven-year process of adopting a new housing plan, Bloor Homes applied for planning permission and had its scheme approved for one of the sites earmarked for adoption into the now-defunct blueprint.

Despite this, the site, for 259 homes between Spondon and Spondon Wood, will continue unabated and will be developed, it has been confirmed.

The council itself earmarked the site for 250 houses.

Residents had been urging central Government, directly through housing secretary Steve Reed, to intervene on the issue.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service approached the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government for a direct response from Mr Reed on the issue, including potential interventions.

After repeated efforts, a spokesperson said that “cases cannot be called in once a decision has been made by the local authority”.

At the time of the scheme’s approval, 550 people had objected to the scheme including the former Mid Derbyshire MP Pauline Latham, Dale Abbey Parish Council and Ockbrook and Borrowash Parish Council, along with a number of Derby city councillors.

Cllr John Wright, a Derby city councillor, had told the February 2025 meeting that the scheme would be “part of Derby” and not help Erewash meet its housing needs, saying: “Once Green Belt is built on it will never be the same again.”

He dubbed the scheme “urban sprawl” and called on the council to “listen to residents” “rather than try to fabricate arguments”.

Cllr Jonathan Smale, a further Derby city councillor, had said the plan “threatens to permanently destroy Green Belt land” in an “opportunistic attempt to override clear protections”.

He said the application was “inappropriate, unsustainable and damaging” and would “set a dangerous precedent for speculative development on Green Belt land” with “consequences which will last for generations”.

James Beverley, on behalf of Bloor Homes, had said the development would provide 10 per cent affordable housing on the site (26 houses) along with giving the council £5.5 million to build further homes elsewhere in the borough; more than £1 million for improvements to the A52 westbound off-slip and the junction of Nottingham Road and Willowcroft Road; £1.6 million for school places; £258,000 for healthcare facilities and £47,000 for bus stops.

Mr Beverley had said: “This site does qualify as greybelt and as such is appropriate development.”

Steve Birkinshaw, the council’s head of planning, said new greybelt policies approved of houses on land which does not significantly contribute to restricting urban sprawl or lead to two towns merging.

He had said the site is “highly self-contained” and was five miles from Ilkeston to the east, saying: “I would struggle to see how this development leads to the merging of Spondon and Ilkeston”.

Here is the timeline of events relating to the site:

• March 2021, the borough council earmarked land between Spondon Wood and Spondon for an unspecified number of homes to replace a scrapped 300-home plot in Lock Lane, Sawley
• April 2021, housing need for site revealed as 200 homes and increased to 240 homes
• April 2022, wire fencing erected around the site, with residents worried for deer herd
• October 2023, Bloor Homes submitted a planning application for 263 homes
• June 2024, Core Strategy hearing discusses plans for 250 homes on the site, with developer waiting on hearing conclusion to proceed
• February 2025, the borough council approved plans for a reduced 259 homes by a vote of seven votes to five
• January 2026, the borough council scraps its draft Core Strategy