Following on from last week’s post, we have collated the responses received so far and will review them all in due course – they are available to view via the link on the website Q&A page. All comments have been anonymised and are unedited (apart from the odd typo) – do please keep them coming. We will also share them with Milan ahead of our next meeting with him.
We have since been provided with some further information by Broxtowe Borough Council:-
Firstly, The Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan (GNSP)
The Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan is to be considered at the 1st October 2024 meeting of Broxtowe Borough Council’s Cabinet. Authorisation will be sought to commence the Regulation 19 (Pre-Submission) consultation of the GNSP. The agenda and other documents are on the Council’s website here – agenda Item 6.1.
We understand that it is anticipated that the Regulation 19 consultation will commence in November, but the exact date is to be confirmed. We will let you know when we know when that will be.
The GNSP proposes that a 20 hectare area of land to the north-east of the existing Toton site should be removed from the Green Belt and allocated for housing to part fund and provide land for a new road, linking the A52 with Chetwynd Barracks – see Policy 21 ‘Strategic Allocation Toton and Chetwynd Barracks (Broxtowe)’. The diagram below illustrates the extent of this land (shown by ‘hatching’):-
This means that the Chetwynd Barracks and Toton (Strategic Location for Growth) sites have been merged into one ‘combined’ site, and there is now a single policy (Policy 21) within the GNSP which sets the requirements for all parts of this combined site. The draft document proposed for consultation can be viewed here. Figure 21.1 below is from the GNSP showing the character areas:-
N.B. “Toton West” i.e. land to the west of the train line is outside the Forum Area.
Once the GNSP has been adopted (as the Part 1 Local Plan), Policies 3.1 and 3.2 of the Part 2 Local Plan (covering Chetwynd Barracks and the Toton SLG) will be revoked (see Appendix D of the GNSP). At that point, the Development Plan policies for Toton and Chetwynd Barracks would be contained within Policy 21 of the GNSP and the policies of the Neighbourhood Plan. We believe this to be favourable for the Forum Area (what do you think?). The Toton and Chetwynd Barracks Strategic Masterplan SPD is referenced within Policy 21 and will continue to be a material consideration when determining any planning applications for the whole site, but sitting below the Development Plan in the overall hierarchy as now (see this hierarchy diagram we produced last year to explain the relationships as they were then).
The capacity of the area covered by Policy 21 has increased to 4,800 homes from the previous 4,500, with 2,700 to be delivered by 2041 i.e. the numbers have increased, but over a longer timeframe. Although the current Part 2 Local Plan (P2LP) required 1300 homes by 2028, it didn’t say over how long the remaining 3,200 would be delivered by after that date. So rather than potentially 4,500 homes referred to in the P2LP and our Neighbourhood Plan by 2040, there will now be 2,700 by 2041, with the remainder (2,100) delivered by an as yet unspecified date. See Appendix C of the GNSP for Housing Trajectories.
Secondly, Toton Northeast
An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Scoping Report has been prepared by Pegasus Group, on behalf of Bloor Homes Ltd and Peveril Securities Ltd, in respect of land south of the A52. Their EIA Scoping Report seeks to agree the content of an Environmental Statement to support an outline planning application for a ‘residential development of up to 700 homes, link road (means of access only), local centre, country park, education provision (forest school) and associated infrastructure’. The Scoping Report is available on the Council’s website here.
Confusingly this document is entitled Toton North, but actually refers to land within Toton Northeast as per the GNSP descriptor, and beyond!
Appendix A – Site Location Plan illustrates the land which the request applies to – note that this differs from the land the Borough Council is proposing to remove from the Green Belt in the GNSP above. However, it is more or less as we envisaged following our discussion with Milan, although it doesn’t extend into Stapleford across the A52.
Appendix B – Illustrative Masterplan shows what is potentially proposed for Toton Northeast. Confusingly it also shows the previous proposal for Toton East which is unchanged despite the Forum’s comments made back in March to that particular limited “consultation”!
We think that Pegasus are probably treating the two sites as separate projects, but that they are attempting to illustrate on this masterplan where the link road would pass through the sites. To our knowledge the Council haven’t received a planning application for either of the sites as yet.
The EIA Scoping Report has been submitted to the Council for a Scoping Opinion under Regulation 15 of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 (as amended) – case reference number 24/00617/EIA. At this stage we are uncertain as to the timeframe for this, but will attempt to provide a Forum view if we are allowed to do so.
What are your thoughts on all of this now?
Please provide your comments via the Contact Us page, and we’ll continue to collate them into the current anonymised list.
