Melbourne Village Voice October 2015

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PROTESTERS 2 DEVELOPERS 0

Village Voice No 275 October 2015

Melbourne & District

by LUCY STEPHENS

l PROTESTERS celebrate a great result at the South Derbyshire District Council offices.

CHEERS, claps and whoops rang across South Derbyshire’s council chamber after plans for more than 100 extra houses for Melbourne were unanimously thrown out.

BELOW: Members of the Melbourne and King’s Newton Action Group present a petition to Councillors John Harrison and Jim Hewlett during their campaign.

The two separate neighbouring proposals – one for 58 homes and the other for 44 – would have seen the fields along Jawbone Lane extensively built up. In a nail-bitingly tense meeting of the council’s planning committee on October 6, councillors decided that the housing would bring together the villages of King’s Newton and Melbourne too much – where they have historically remained separate – as well as having too much of a negative effect on the King’s Newton conservation area. It was also argued that some of the houses would affect countryside views of Breedon Church, which have been enjoyed from a Melbourne vantage point for centuries. In a very rare turn of events in the current housing climate, committee members actually went against the recommendation of the council’s planning officers in refusing one of the proposals: that of Linden Homes, the developer who wanted to build 58 homes on either side of Jawbone Lane. Aston councillor and committee member Peter Watson was the first to

say he would be going against officers’ advice and rejecting the plans. Councillors took over an hour of painstaking debate in deciding that Linden Homes should not be allowed to build in that area of Melbourne – despite the fact that the developer had reduced its original application from 120 homes down to 58 and had also opted to build bungalows so as not to affect views of the church. It was pointed out in the meeting that even these efforts would count for nothing if home-owners decided to plant trees or high hedges on their properties – which planning officers admitted was outside their control. Historic England – the political arm of English Heritage – had objected to

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Linden’s original plans. While its heritage experts welcomed the reduction in both the number and heights of the homes, they still maintained some reservations as to the harm they would cause in a historic area, but said it was up to the local authority to decide. The other proposal, submitted by Fisher German for 44 homes, had been recommended for refusal by planning officers, and councillors wasted little time in rejecting that too. After the meeting, Melbourne district councillor John Harrison summed up the mood when he said: “We have won an important battle, but we have still to win the war.” Over the past year there has been a concerted protest campaign against

speculative building applications in Melbourne and King’s Newton, with local strength of feeling so high that a petition organised by the Melbourne and King’s Newton Action Group attracted more than 600 signatures. The petition urged South Der-

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Council throws out plans for new housing

byshire’s planning committee to “reject the speculative applications as Melbourne’s roads, parking, drainage, sewage, GP services and schools cannot cope with over 700 houses being built or being considered by developers since 2008. “And so much development in such a short period of time risks destroying the character of our villages for ever.” Around 30 people from Melbourne and King’s Newton turned out to the council chamber in Swadlincote to hear the applications being discussed, many holding up objection placards. After the meeting Melbourne councillor Jim Hewlett, who with his colleague John Harrison urged councillors to reject both proposals, said: "We are very pleased that the planning committee saw the value of our arguments, and we are grateful for all the analysis and contributions from the parish council, the Melbourne and King’s Newton Action Group and the civic society. “It was an all-round community team effort and resulted in the protection of our heritage."

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