A project to build hundreds of homes on the edge of Clifton has taken a step forward after developers snapped up land for the £77.5m development. Avant Homes, the house building company which has bought 24-acres of land off Hawksley Gardens, said the vast project was expected to create hundreds of new jobs.
Subject to securing full planning permission, developers said they wanted to build 265 homes. The new estate, to the east of the Crusader Island, off the A453 Remembrance Way, is expected to be made up of one, two, three, four and five-bedroom houses.
Groundworks could start this summer - with the project likely to take six years to finish. The development is set to create more than 820 jobs.
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Avant Homes East Midland's managing director, Tim Brickley, said: “Acquiring this parcel of land in Clifton is a testament to our ambitious growth plans to extend our presence in key locations in Nottinghamshire and the wider East Midlands region. This acquisition is a testament to our commitment to the delivery of much-needed, high-quality homes in Nottinghamshire and we now await the planning decision to move this development forward.”
Up to 20 percent of the new development will form so-called "affordable housing". Subject to planning, the Clifton-based development will be Avant Homes’ fourth development under construction in Nottinghamshire. The area of land proposed for development is sandwiched between Grade I-listed Clifton Hall, in Clifton Village, and an ancient woodland known as Clifton Wood which is also Grade II listed.
The site had been owned by Nottingham City Council and Nottingham Trent University. Outline permission was granted in December 2018 despite widespread objection from residents as well as wildlife organisations, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Woodland Trust.
Outline permission means the development can go-ahead in principle but that a further reserved matters planning application must be submitted, typically to do with the appearance and access arrangements for the development. Two years ago, the city council said it was looking for agents to market the site, prior to the sale of the land.
The housebuilder’s other Nottinghamshire developments are located in Mansfield, Wollaton and Ruddington, with 443 homes expected to be built across the other projects. It comes as another vast development near Clifton, led by separate developers, continues to take shape.
At the Fairham neighbourhood south of Clifton there'll eventually be 3,000 new homes, a primary school and new community and sports facilities on fields off the A453, between Barton in Fabis and the Clifton South tram stop. It's considered "one of the largest housing and employment developments in the East Midlands".