Councillors questioned developers about resident parking after plans for more than 400 homes were approved as part of a massive £250 million development in Mansfield.
Mansfield District Council gave the final go-ahead to the application, submitted by Bellway Homes Limited, at a meeting on Monday, 13 January.
The full project, called the Lindhurst Development, has been in progress since 2017 and will include 1,700 homes, as well as shops, a health centre, a new primary school, a nursery, care homes, offices, and a community park once complete.
The new homes will be built on plot 4 of the site between the A6117 and A617 in Berry Hill as part of the second phase of the project, which has six phases overall.
The developer said 170 of the 484 homes will be classed as affordable housing, either as social rent or low-cost ownership.
All of the houses will feature solar power, according to the developer.
However, councillors raised concerns about the possibility of parking “overspill,” asking developers whether there will be sufficient space for residents in the new development.
Cllr Caroline Ann Ellis (Lab) said: “I’ve got concerns around parking. I know you have the formula, but I have a problem in my area with work vans.
“So not only has everybody got a car each, there’s two cars per household and a work van that needs to be parked somewhere.
“This causes parking on pavements, which means people with disabilities and disability scooters can’t get around.
“As the children in the estate grow up and get cars, we’re going to get more cars.”
The developer said the site will include 161 visitor parking spaces.
Amy Gilliver, Bellway’s senior planning manager, said the developer has acknowledged that there is a possibility of “minimal overspill” of parking in certain scenarios.
However, she said such situations would require “all residents to be at home simultaneously with visitors also present at the same time – a highly unlikely occurrence.”
Speaking about the biodiversity of the development, she added: “The development also features a tree-lined spine road with retained boundary hedges reinforced with additional planting and a preserved oak tree as a central feature of the development.”
Cllr Rich Tempest-Mitchell (Lab) said it was “fantastic” to have new affordable housing in the district but expressed reservations about how long the nearby roads and pavements would be affected, as there had been problems with some other areas of the development.
Speaking about previous developments, he said: “Some people waited two to three years for pavements and roads on their cul-de-sacs. I’m not sure if there are conditions to timings on topping off the roads and pavements.
“I wish there are, because some people were waiting for a long time. I’m concerned to know if residents aren’t treated the way they were and that promises are kept and not ignored for years.”
The huge scheme is also presented as an extension of the existing Berry Hill area.
Councillors on the planning committee gave unanimous approval to the plans.
