Issue 5 - DECEMBER 2011
Government’s New Housing Strategy: Savills’ response Roger Hepher, Head Of Planning & Regeneration At Savills comments On the Government’s new Housing Strategy: “The Government’s measures are welcome. However, there is a notable lack of comment on one of the biggest issues: the reluctance of Ministers to grant permission for housing development in the places people want to live. “On three occasions in the last few weeks (Winchester, Sandbach, St Austell), the Secretary of State has stepped back from granting planning permission for substantial private sector schemes out of deference to local objectors. “Reconciling economic growth with localism was never going to be an easy call, but, if growth really is the Government’s top priority (and if averting the nationwide housing crisis is a close second), we need to see some robustness in Ministerial decision-making.”
Colliery to be brought back to life Land and remediation specialist Merriman Ltd has gained outline planning permission for 124 new homes on a 3.15ha site at the former Annesley Colliery. The colliery yard site, disused for more than a decade, is again set to deliver jobs, and new homes to help meet housing needs in Nottinghamshire. The Midlandsbased firm will now begin levelling the colliery yard to make it suitable for redevelopment. Merriman remediated the northern half of the colliery through 2008 to spring 2010, with this land now being developed by Persimmon Homes. As a feature of this development, Merriman organised the dismantling and careful restoration of the colliery wheels, which it relocated to the forefront of the site to create an eye-catching reminder of the site’s important history. The company has also remediated the colliery’s pit tips, situated to the east of the colliery yard, converting the lagoons into lakes for angling and wildlife, and building Newstead Earth Centre to an eco design using recycled tyres packed with earth to store heat. With outline planning permission in place, the southern section of the colliery, off Hucknall Road, will
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be ready for construction in the second half of 2012. Peter Sutton, Director of Sutton Land Developments Ltd and consultant for Merriman who has managed the project through planning, said: “We’re delighted to have received outline planning permission for residential development from Ashfield District Council. “The site had an existing consent for employment use, but with no prospects of being developed in this way in the current economic climate, we worked hard to achieve a change of use for the site. As a
result, the site will serve the former mining community once again, by providing jobs and homes.” Annesley Colliery closed in December 2000 after 130 years. Since then, Merriman has played an important part in helping the community to create Newstead and Annesley Country Park and Visitors’ Centre, a project by Newstead Enterprise which attracted Big Lottery Funding and was featured in an episode of the BBC’s Village SOS presented by Sarah Beeny. Further details on Merriman’s work in Annesley can be viewed at www.merrimans.com
Two pre-Christmas Auctions
If you RUN a Nottinghamshire builders’ merchant and would like to carry copies of Nottinghamshire Builder Magazine in your trade counter, please let us know and we’ll get some magazines to you. The magazine is attracting a lot of interest in the local trade and in the New Year we’d like to reach some of the building-based companies who are not on our mailing list. Call Mike Wilkinson on 01530 244069 or email details to: info@nottinghamshirebuilder.co.uk See page 9
See page 25