Angry Hucknall residents don't want their roads used for access to proposed housing site
Residents on two Hucknall roads are demanding Ashfield Council throws out plans for their streets to be used as access roads to a proposed new housing development.
The plans are for 135 houses to be built on land off Hayden Lane and, although the build will fall under Gedling Council’s remit, residents say it will be Hucknall’s already creaking infrastructure which will be forced to bear the brunt.
The biggest controversy about the plans, however, is the proposal for access roads to the site to be built from the cul-de-sacs Delia Avenue and Dorothy Avenue – which both fall under Ashfield Council’s umbrella, not Gedling’s.
And residents of both roads are furious about the plans, saying having the access roads at the end of their streets will massively impact their lives and ruin the area.
Your Dispatch reported last year on Hucknall councillors from the Ashfield Independent and Labour parties vowing to oppose the plans, saying Hucknall could not take any more housing.
And now residents of both Delia Avenue and Dorothy Avenue, as well as Hayden Lane, want to bring the plans back to public attention again to make their opposition clear to the council.
More than 70 objections to the plans have already been received to the council’s website, many saying the same thing – that Hucknall’s infrastructure will not be able to cope with the increased numbers of people living in the town and that the cul-de-sacs are unsuitable for using as access roads to the proposed site.
Dawn Brown, a resident of Delia Avenue, said: “This is going to have a massive impact on the area.
“This little area is rural, it’s lovely and the traffic problems this is going to cause will be huge.
“This is also a walking route for many of us and we’re going to lose all that and I just think that’s so wrong.
“I’ve lived here since 1997 and people always seem to have tried to build on the land behind these two roads and it’s always been rejected before but companies keep trying everything they can to push plans like this through.
“This is quiet, tight little corner of Hucknall and these building works are not suitable for round here, these roads are not fit for great monstrous lorries running up and down them, it’s going to be bedlam.”
Coun John Wilmott (Ash Ind), who represents Hucknall North, said: “The planning application that relates to Ashfield is for the access roads – not the 135 houses.
"We have formally objected to the plans for the access road and we have also called it for further scrutiny.”