Hundreds of homes can now be built in Toton after a government planning inspector pushed the plans through following an appeal.
In total, 420 homes will be built in fields next to the Toton Sidings rail yard, known as the Toton West site, just off Stapleford Lane in Broxtowe.
They will form part of a larger master plan for Toton, Chilwell, and Chetwynd, where up to 4,500 homes are expected to be built by 2040.
Development on the land had been considered as early as 2014 under Broxtowe Borough Council’s plan, before being formally allocated as a proposed development site in October 2019.
Developer Bloor Homes appealed to the Planning Inspectorate after the borough council failed to determine the application within the required time-frame.
The council said the delay was due to calls from Nottinghamshire County Council’s highways team and National Highways for a more detailed assessment of the impact on surrounding roads.
Broxtowe Borough Council confirmed in early July that it recommends approving the development, but residents had raised concerns over “gridlock”, and criticised the fact a total of three developments in Toton were being considered separately despite their cumulative impact on local roads.
In a ruling on November 2, the government’s planning inspector ruled that the development should be granted permission.
Cllr Stephen Jeremiah (Broxtowe Alliance), the chair of planning, said: “The National Planning Inspectorate has now determined that the Toton West scheme is to go ahead.
“We will continue to hold further public meetings, as we have done, and work alongside the Toton and Chilwell Neighbourhood Forum to ensure that concerns of local residents are captured & addressed in the best way possible for the area.”
The site was previously known as “land in the vicinity of the HS2 Station at Toton (Strategic Location for Growth)” before Boris Johnson’s Conservative government scrapped the high-speed rail plans in favour of a station at East Midlands Parkway.
The entire East Midlands leg of the high speed line was then scrapped under Rishi Sunak’s government.
The other sites in the vicinity include Toton East, where Bloor Homes and Peveril Homes are preparing a full planning application for 260 houses and open space to sit next to the Toton tram stop and park and ride.
Just above this site is Toton North, where Bloor Homes hopes to build a further 880 homes, a country park, a local centre, and school provision.
The developer has also submitted an outline planning application to Broxtowe Borough Council for the provision of a link road from the A52 south towards Stapleford Lane.
Concerns have been raised over the impact on local roads, with a large number of homes also planned at Chetwynd Barracks.
Planning inspector Joanna Gilbert said she visited the site twice in August, prior to the inquiry opening.
Significant weight was given to the “substantial range of benefits” of the homes, of which 30 per cent will be affordable, in the context of a national and local housing crisis.
The inspector said a Strategic Highway Assessment and Mitigation Strategy (SHAMS) would help identify all possible problems and their prevention, and the developer has been restricted to the occupation of 300 homes until this has been approved.
A significant number of planning obligations, known as Section 106 contributions, must be met by the developer.
These include £442,613 towards open space improvements and maintenance, £4,179 per house towards the building of a new primary school or the expansion of an existing school, £4,829 per house for secondary education expansion, and other contributions to library services, bus stops and community transport schemes.
The inspector concluded the proposal would therefore make “appropriate provision for infrastructure”.
Ms Gilbert said in her report: “Any harms resulting from the proposal would be very limited and would be in respect of the loss of a small amount of best and most versatile agricultural land and the change of an agricultural landscape to a housing development.
“Given the main parties’ agreed approach to addressing cumulative impacts on the safe operation of the highway network, the proposal would not fail to comply with one of the national decision-making policies which state that development proposals should be refused in specific circumstances.
“As such, no harm would arise in respect of impacts on the highway network. Furthermore, any necessary infrastructure is secured via the legal agreement, resulting in an absence of harm in this regard.”
By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
