The UK Government has just published its “English Devolution White Paper” which could have a significant impact on Local Government in our area.
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Doubt about Ratcliffe on Soar
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqxwzr11299o
Whilst the power station is outside our area, uncertainty will continue to cause problems.
EMDevCo Update
The East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) i.e. the new Mayoral Authority for Derby, Nottingham, Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire has issued a Press Release about the East Midlands Development Company (EMDevCo).
In summary, EMDevCo has been wound up with its projects passing to the EMCCA. This comes as no great surprise, as with the formation of the new Mayoral Authority in May this year there was no room for two bodies acting strategically for the region. How the original EMDevCo projects proceed, including for Toton & Chetwynd of course, remains to be seen. We hope to find out more in the coming weeks.
Beeston & District Civic Society Talk – Reminder
Members of the Forum Steering Group will be delivering a presentation and Q&A session to the Civic Society this coming Wednesday (13th November) at the Royal British Legion in Beeston entitled Visions for Toton & Chetwynd. Doors open at 6.45pm see here & here for details.
As always please do feel free to ask any questions you may have on this week’s latest bulletin or anything else via the Contact Us page, and we’ll do our best to answer them via the Questions and Answers page.
Beeston & District Civic Society Winter Talks
This is to let you know about the Beeston & District Civic Society Winter Talks programme which is already underway. Click on the image below for more information:-
You will notice that members of the Forum Steering Group will be presenting to the Society on Wednesday 13th November and we will remind you again nearer the time.
Chetwynd Community Energy Project
Last week we told you about the Funding to develop a Business Case for a Community Energy Project and invited you to register for Building a Net Zero Future: Co-Designing Sustainable Neighbourhoods at the Village Hotel on Monday 21st October.
To explain further:The Neighbourhood Plan adopted by Broxtowe Borough Council earlier this year includes a Policy for Community Energy with an aspiration for the area to be Energy Positive. We believe we can start this through a “Rooftop Solar PV project”. The UK Government estimates that the average household in the UK consumes around 3,000kWh of electricity per annum. Modelling households in the area suggests that the average amount of power that could be generated by Solar PV is around 6,000kWh. In other words if half the homes in the area had solar PV, the area would generate as much electricity as it consumes.
The Funding is to generate a Business Case that:
- Verifies these numbers;
- Identifies how much it would cost on a house by house basis;
- Identifies how much it would earn on a house by house basis;
- Identifies how we can generate the funds to take on such an ambitious project
We need your help to develop the Business Case.
Register your interest in attending the Workshop or if you can’t make it but would be interested in contributing/following what happens contact ian.chetwynd.cic@gmail.com.
Chetwynd Community Interest Company
The Chetwynd Forum’s CIC is Awarded Funding to prepare for Local Community Solar Energy Network.
Chetwynd ,Toton and Chilwell CIC.( Chetwynd CIC Ltd )
The Community Interest Company (CIC) started by the Chetwynd Neighbourhood Forum, has been awarded a regional grant to prepare the business case and define technical research for a Community Solar Energy Network which will be owned and run locally for the benefit of the community.
The award prepares the ‘startup phase’ for a business that aims to benefit our area first, but in time could help other East Midlands communities to take a step forward as part of a Solar Energy Community and Net Zero future.
Ian Ward Director of the Chetwynd CIC said, ‘the Neighbourhood Plan sets out our Zero Carbon ambitions and it’s a little ironic, that in the month the UK’s last coal fired power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar closes for good – it’s the community in its shadow that begins the journey to make the most of emerging Solar networks for the benefit of the local community.’
The area already benefits from initiatives taken by individual homeowners however, we know many more new homes will soon be built, and we are determined to reduce the Area’s carbon footprint and devise a business that benefits the community. Whilst reducing the costs of energy for residents, we see this as an investment for future generations. Ian said, ‘It’s a chance to do it ourselves and create somethings special in our area. That makes us determined to be successful’.
Can You help – We are all local volunteers and we are looking for help in several professional fields – Financial / Legal / Technical to help establish the business. Please get in touch. A ‘Building a Net Zero Future’ workshop is being held at the Village Hotel on the 21st Oct 2024 – if you are interested to attend and to find out more, please book your place here : Net Zero Workshop
Broxtowe Cabinet Discussion of the Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan
Following on from last week’s post letting you know that the Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan (GNSP) was to be discussed at the Broxtowe Borough Council’s Cabinet meeting last Tuesday (1st October), please see the video link below to that part of the meeting, in case you missed it. The discussion concludes at around 1 hour and 20 minutes (see the timer at the bottom of the screen). It starts at about 29 minutes into the meeting, which is where this clip begins:-
Cabinet Meeting 01/10/2024 (click on the image above to play the video)
The key points to take from the meeting are:-
1) Cabinet approved unanimously that the GNSP should commence its Regulation 19 (Pre-Submission) consultation. Rushcliffe Borough Council had previously given its consent, and similar approval is awaited later this month from Nottingham City Council & Gedling Borough Council. Assuming all agree, then the statutory 6 week consultation period will in all likelihood start in November (date tbc), and this will be widely publicised;
2) The Leader of the Council (Milan Radulovic) will do his best to object to “piecemeal” applications for the Toton & Chetwynd site, as it needs to be a holistic development to ensure all the community facilities, infrastructure etc. are built in the appropriate locations;
3) A suggestion was made that the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) figure should be increased from the minimum statutory 10% as some other parts of the country are requiring 20% or 30%, i.e. Broxtowe should aim to be more ambitious.
4) It was reiterated by Milan that the green belt land between Toton & Chilwell is under pressure – hence his desire for a “Country Park” to ensure that it is not all built on, and there is sufficient and linked green infrastructure for the area as a whole.
We are still keen to receive your views so that we have a wide range of opinions on which to base the Forum’s response to the forthcoming consultation.
Please provide your comments via the Contact Us page, and we’ll continue to collate them into the current anonymised list available via the link on the website Q&A page.
Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan & Toton Northeast Proposals
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.
Posted in Chetwynd Barracks, Consultation, Green Belt, Neighbourhood Plan, Newsflash, Steering Group, Toton Lane East, Toton Lane West
Tagged Chetwynd Barracks, Chetwynd the Toton and Chilwell Neighbourhood Forum, Consultation, Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan, Green Belt, Neighbourhood Development, Neighbourhood Plan, Steering Group, Strategic Location for Growth, Toton Northeast, Wheatgrass Farm
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