Plans for up to 600 homes, a local centre and community facilities on agricultural land at East Leake have moved to an early stage of the planning process.
Pegasus Group has asked Rushcliffe Borough Council to decide whether the proposed development off West Leake Road would require a full Environmental Impact Assessment.
The request has been submitted on behalf of Bloor Homes and relates to approximately 42.5 hectares of land divided by West Leake Road.
The site comprises several agricultural fields separated by hedgerows. It is bounded by the Great Central Railway line to the east and Woodgate Road to the south, with East Leake lying to the east of the land.
The proposal remains at a preliminary stage and a planning application has not yet been submitted. The screening request is not an application for permission to build the development, and the council is not currently being asked to approve the homes.
According to the documents, the scheme is likely to include a maximum of 600 homes, access from West Leake Road, a local centre, community facilities, open space, planting and drainage infrastructure.
Bloor Homes anticipates submitting an outline planning application in due course, with all matters except access reserved for consideration at a later stage.
The developer says that if construction began in 2027, the development could be completed by 2039, based on an estimated rate of 50 homes a year. The documents acknowledge that the precise delivery timetable is difficult to determine.
An Environmental Impact Assessment is used to identify and assess the potentially significant environmental effects of certain developments before a planning decision is made.
The proposed East Leake scheme exceeds thresholds used to determine whether an urban development project should be screened. It would contain more than 150 homes, cover more than five hectares and also exceed the 20-hectare indicative threshold referred to in national planning guidance for previously undeveloped sites.
Exceeding those thresholds does not automatically mean a full Environmental Impact Assessment will be required. Rushcliffe Borough Council must consider the development’s scale, location and potential effects before issuing its screening opinion.
Pegasus Group argues that the proposals would not be likely to produce significant environmental effects and that an Environmental Statement should not be required with a future planning application. That is the applicant’s position and has not yet been determined by the council.
The developer says at least half of the site would remain undeveloped as open space or be used for landscaping, ecological measures and flood-risk mitigation.
Existing public rights of way cross parts of the land. East Leake bridleway BW6 runs from east to west through the site and connects Woodgate Road with Manor Farm and the wider network of routes towards West Leake, Sutton Bonington, Gotham and Kegworth. A section of footpath FP7 also follows the site’s western boundary.
The documents identify potential increases in traffic, emissions and noise. Pegasus Group says technical work undertaken so far indicates that these effects could be mitigated, with further highways, air-quality and noise assessments expected to accompany any outline application.
Part of the site north of West Leake Road is next to East Leake Sewage Treatment Works. The developer says future homes would be separated from land potentially affected by odour, with areas closer to the treatment works instead used for planting, ecological work or flood mitigation.
Most of the site is within Flood Zone 1, which indicates a low probability of river flooding. However, land along the northern boundary, north of West Leake Road, is shown within Flood Zones 2 and 3.
The developer says homes and other vulnerable uses would not be placed within areas at risk of flooding. A flood-risk assessment and drainage strategy would be submitted with any future outline application.
Pegasus Group also says there are no statutory nature conservation sites within one kilometre of the land and no designated or non-designated heritage assets within or close to the site. Any future development would be required to provide a biodiversity net gain of at least 10 per cent.
The site is not allocated for development in either the adopted or emerging development plan, although it has been promoted through work on the Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan.
Part of the land has previously been the subject of an unsuccessful housing proposal. In October 2019, an outline application was submitted for up to 170 homes on land within the eastern section of the current site, with access proposed from Field End Close.
That scheme was later reduced to 101 homes but was refused by Rushcliffe Borough Council in December 2019. The authority said the development was outside the settlement boundary, that a suitable access had not been adequately demonstrated and that it would have a negative effect on the landscape character.
The new proposal is significantly larger and would use West Leake Road for vehicle access rather than Field End Close.
Pegasus Group submitted its screening request on 7 July and said it expected the council to issue its opinion by 28 July under the three-week period set out in the Environmental Impact Assessment regulations.
Once the screening opinion has been issued, it will establish whether a full Environmental Statement must accompany any future outline planning application. It will not determine whether the development itself should receive planning permission.