New homes could 'devastate' area

Eighty-four people crowded into an upstairs room at Hucknall's Station Hotel for a special meeting to discuss the proposal.

The room was so full, in fact, that some late-comers had to stand outside.

Twenty-two acres of land, south of Papplewick Lane, is earmarked for the new housing in Ashfield District Council's Local Plan Review.

The scheme would also incorporate public open space, a community centre and a new primary school.

A planning brief is now available for perusal at the council offices in Watnall Road, Hucknall and in the town's library.

But one of the residents, Jean Fisher, said people felt it did not contain enough detail for residents to make comments.

"For instance, we are told some of the housing will be three-storey," she said. "But, if so, there is no indication which part of the site this will be built on

"There are also some single little blocks on the planning brief and we have no idea what they represent."

Council leader Coun Ken Creed (Lab), of Hucknall, said four or five public meetings would take place for residents in different parts of the area.

He gave an assurance that people would have ample opportunity to voice their views before the planning committee discussed the brief on Thursday November 27.

But Marion Siddons, of Leadale Avenue, said: "We believe the small meetings would split us up.

"The feeling is that we want to be in it together and we would prefer to have a meeting we can all attend."

Residents fear that three proposed access roads to the new homes will lead to traffic chaos.

One planned for Wigwam Lane is of particular concern. One man said: "We already get a lot of lorries on the lane and it is a very narrow road.

"If a lorry breaks down there, no cars from the new homes would be able to get past it."

Another resident said he was very worried about the overall effect of the plan on residents' quality of life.

He thought any opposition from the public would be "no more effective than rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic".

But Coun Chris Baron (Lab), a Hucknall member of Notts County Council and an ex-Ashfield councillor, said residents could have a lot of influence on how the plan materialised.

He stressed that the Hucknall councillors had strongly opposed plans for any building on the town's Green Belt but had been unsuccessful. "These housing plans have been forced on us," he stressed.

A lot of the residents said they were dismayed by the impending loss of Wigwam Lane Playing Fields, which are to be built on.

But Coun Baron said a condition was being imposed on the developers that the playing fields had to be replaced with something at least as good.

He added that he would fight on behalf of Beardall Street Primary School for two further pitches to be allocated for use by its pupils.