The deeply controversial plan to build thousands of homes on Nottinghamshire greenbelt has been scrapped. A plan to build 3,000 homes on green belt land at Whyburn Farm in Hucknall as part of Ashfield District Council's Draft Local Plan will be discarded after nearly a year of backlash from locals.
The proposal had previously sparked a row between the council and Government over who was to blame, with the ruling Ashfield Independents criticising high housing targets and a lack of clarity on the importance of green belt land. The Draft Local Plan, which sets out where 8,226 homes will be built between now and 2038, had been indefinitely paused by the council over the issue of Whyburn Farm.
The council will be moving forward to the next stage of their plan in September, where Whyburn Farm is set to be formally withdrawn from the plan that will be sent in to the Government. Campaigners had mobilised in large numbers to oppose the plan, calling on their council to "listen to the people" and take the area out of the Draft Local Plan.
Leader of Ashfield District Council, Councillor Jason Zadrozny, said: “I am pleased to say that after a lot of deliberation – we are going forward to the next stage of consultation. It will not include the 8,000 houses that the Government wants us to include.
"It’s too many. So we’ve looked at that and the public consultation and we will be protecting the green belt as much as we can. We will be reducing the plan by thousands of houses as we move towards the next consultation. I want to thank the vast majority of residents from places like Hucknall for positively taking the chance to have their say. We have listened to their views and the strong views of Hucknall’s Ashfield Independent Councillors. We will stand up to the Conservative Government.”
Councillor David Shaw, who represents Hucknall West on Nottinghamshire County Council – the area where Whyburn Farm is located, added: “Your local Ashfield Independent Councillors vigorously opposed enforced housing targets time and time again. I am pleased that following our opposition - the Council will now stand up to the Conservative Government. We will not let unachievable housing targets put our valuable green spaces under threat. The Council will now move to formalising this decision at their next Cabinet meeting on September 19.”
Campaigning group Hucknall Against Whyburn Farm Development (HAWFD) have opposed the Draft Local Plan since it was published by Ashfield District Council in September 2021. A statement from the group said: "We have always been clear that we oppose this plan and the disastrous effects it would inflict on Hucknall and the Ashfield District as a whole. Today, the controlling Ashfield Independent Party has announced its intention to withdraw Whyburn Farm from its Draft Local Plan.
"It has also announced that a new Draft Plan will be circulated during September and the statutory stage 2 consultation period resumed. We must be clear that, at this point, Hucknall Against Whyburn Farm Development (HAWFD) welcome the announcement made today, however, the specific proposals of any new Ashfield Independent Draft Local Plan are unclear. These new proposals have not been made available to us or the people of Hucknall.
"Therefore, while a very positive move appears to have been made for our cause, we must await the finer details before we draw any firm conclusions. We have, however, carefully analysed all the information that has been released and it is safe to say despite today’s positive announcement important questions still remain.
"The HAWFD team are working hard to gain clarity on what has happened today and to establish the impact of any new local plan when this is made available to us. For now we will continue doing everything we can to establish the clear facts, protect our greenbelt land and support the people of Hucknall."
Residents have expressed concerns about the lack of a Local Plan, fearing that developers could take the chance to push through planning applications. Council leader Jason Zadrozny added: "That's a fair point but Ashfield hasn't has a Local Plan since 2011, which is why we want to be the first in the queue [for the next Prime Minister]. There has been about a thousand houses where we have refused permission and the Government has granted it, so we do want to protect all those sites, including Whyburn Farm.
"Because Whyburn Farm was a site put forward by developers, there's a very real danger that if we keep it on pause that they'll do something call non-determination [when the Local Planning Authority fails to determine the application within the statutory period] and just say 'we're going directly to Government' and what they've done in the past four or five cases is granting that permission, because we don't have Local Plan.
"There's about 60 district councils across the country who are on pause because the Government keep changing their mind. We're anticipating that because a new Prime Minister will be clearer on it, that they will all start coming forward, so we want to be first so we can protect spaces like that.
"We've listened to the 300 or 400 people who have contacted us during the consultation, which we've been able to use as a weight to bring back to the Government. We've tried really hard to make sure we fight on their behalf - I never want to build on a blade of grass, I do want to create jobs, and new families homes where that can be a positive thing but what the Government have asked us to do is wholly unrealistic."
Councillor Matthew Relf, portfolio holder for regeneration and planning at Ashfield District Council had previously warned missing housing targets could result in planning control being taken away from the local authority. Mr Zadrozny said: "It's a process of negotiation. The next stage is a consultation to the Government where the public feedback goes directly to the Secretary of State.
"What I'm hoping that we are able to do is have a process of negotiation with the Planning Inspectorate. There are consequences, they could say 'no we still want you to build 8,000' or that they still want us to a 15 year plan.
"I'm hoping that we can negotiate the time period and that they're some room for manoeuvre. The consequences are severe, but that's on current guidance, everything that Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are saying is very different."
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